Doubles Dominance From Association Of Pickleball Professionals Top Pros Jardim And Todd In Cincinnati

The Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP) was back in action, hot on the heels of its last event two weeks ago in Sacramento. This week the tour traveled to rainy Cincinnati for the 2023 Vlasic Classic. Vlasic of course is the leading pickle brand in the US, and the company announced this natural sounding partnership with the tour back in February. I suppose it was just a matter of time before a pickle company got into the pickleball sponsorship game.

The weather in Ohio over the weekend wreaked havoc on the draws, but the players bounced between the planned outdoor courts at Sawyer Point (which is one of the most unique pickleball parks you’ll see, featuring a slew of brand new courts configured in a curved configuration) and Aces Pickleball’s indoor facility to ensure the tournament kept on schedule.

Let’s recap the weekend’s action.

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Men’s Pro Singles Recap

A relatively smaller pro singles draw resulted in a mostly straightforward quarter finals round, with seven of the top eight seeds advancing. The exception was #23 Roscoe Bellamy, a UCLA tennis player recently graduated, who topped the #10 Grant Bond and #7 Frank Anthony Davis to crash the quarters in his APP debut. He fell to #2 Yates Johnson, but not before taking a game off of the previous APP pro singles titlist.

From the top of the draw, #1 Hunter Johnson continues his dominant run in 2023 on the APP, cruising into the final to guarantee his fifth gold medal match in as many tournaments so far this year. He topped #4 Jack Foster in the winner’s bracket semis and then the surprising #6 William Sobek in the winner’s bracket final. Sobek lost a tiebreaker to Yates Johnson to secure Bronze, his first ever professional medal in any division.

In the final, we got another in a series of meetings between the two Johnson brothers on the APP tour this season, and the third straight-up meeting for the Pro singles gold. Yates made up for his Thursday loss to Hunter by downing him three straight to secure his second consecutive APP singles gold Medal.

Gold: Yates Johnson. Silver: Hunter Johnson. Bronze: William Sobek.

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Women’s Pro Singles Recap:

#1 Salome Devidze won her seventh APP Women’s Pro Singles title without dropping a game against a thinned draw that did not include her biggest rival in Parris Todd. #3 Jenna Hessert overcame #2 Alix Troung in the winner’s bracket and then #4 Amanda Hendry to secure the silver. Both Hessert and Hendry earned their first ever pro medals.

Gold: Salome Devidze. Silver: Jenna Hessert. Bronze: Amanda Hendry.

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Mixed Pro Doubles Recap:

Andrei Daescu earned his third straight APP Mixed Pro doubles title on the trot, teaming with new partner Alix Troung to advance out of the loser’s bracket and grind out a come-from behind win over the #4 seeds Susanne Barr & Rob Nunnery. Both the top seeds surprisingly fell early, as teams headlined by both Johnson brothers fell short of the gold medal match. The #1 seeds Parris Todd & Hunter Johnson salvaged the bronze medal on the weekend by advancing to the consolation bracket final before falling to Truong & Daescu. This is Alix Truong’s first ever professional gold medal.

Gold: Truong & Daescu. Silver: Barr & Nunnery. Bronze: Todd & Johnson.

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Men’s Pro Doubles Recap

#1 seeds Andrei Daescu & Rob Nunnery blitzed their way to a gold medal in Men’s Pro Doubles, the fifth straight for Daescu and with a third different partner. In the final, they topped #3 seeds John Cincola & Brendon Long for the second time on the weekend; they had also advanced to the winner’s bracket final.

The surprise medalists were #15 seeds Jason McNulty & Andre Mick, who shocked the #2 seeded Johnson brothers in the early rounds and then battled their way to the consolation bracket final, winning the Bronze medal for the weekend and both securing their first ever professional medals.

Gold: Daescu & Nunnery. Silver: Cincola & Long. Bronze: McNulty & Mick.

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Women’s Pro Doubles Recap

As Parris Todd noted on her social media, she and Simone Jardim made it five-for-five in 2023, winning their fifth consecutive Women’s Pro Doubles gold medal together on the APP. They were forced to work for it, needing tiebreakers to top the #2 seeded team of Susannah Barr & Megan Fudge in both the winner’s bracket final and in the gold medal match. Bronze medalists #3 seeds Alix Truong & Milan Rane topped the #4 and #5 seeds in the back draw to earn bronze and complete the 1-2-3 seeded podium.

Gold: Todd & Jardim. Silver: Barr & Fudge. Bronze: Truong & Rane.

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Senior Pro Competition Quick Recap

· Men’s Senior Pro Singles: The APP’s #1 ranked senior male player from 2022 Rick Witsken survived a winner-take-all final game versus #2 David George to claim his first APP singles gold medal since June 2021.

· Men’s Senior Pro Doubles: Altaf Merchant, who has been dominating the Senior Doubles circuit in 2023, teamed with Witsken to blow through the draw and earn gold.

· Women’s Senior Pro Singles: Sheri Courtier won her first ever APP medal by taking the Women’s Senior Pro singles draw.

· Women’s Senior Pro Doubles: Beth Bellamy, the APP’s #1 ranked senior female player in 2022, teamed up with Anna Shirley to take the gold medal in the rain-impacted senior pro doubles draw.

· Mixed Senior Pro Doubles: Witsken teamed up with fellow #1 ranked senior pro Bellamy to take the Mixed pro draw and secure Witsken the triple crown for the weekend.

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Next up on the APP Tour? The big one; the New York City Open in Flushing Meadows over Memorial Day weekend.

Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, the PPA
PPA
is in Atlanta this coming weekend. This will be special for yours truly, as I’ll be traveling down to Atlanta to cover the event in person and get some cool content ideas for this space in the coming months.