Anna Leigh Waters Continues Her Reign Atop The Pickleball World At The PPA Atlanta Open

The Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) returned to one of its original venues this past weekend, with a massive pro draw and more than 1,400 players descending into North Atlanta’s Peachtree Corners Life Time fitness club to host the 2023 Acrytech Atlanta Open. The Peachtree Life Time club hosted one of the very first PPA events, way back in September 2020, and has been a regular host ever since. The tour and its players fought through multiple rain delays to entertain the crowd all weekend with top-level pickleball. This tournament is one of the PPA’s grand slams of the year, counting for double points, and the draw sizes showed it, with 62 men’s singles players attempting to qualify to join the 24 who got byes into the 32s, meaning an 86 person draw. Let’s Recap the action.

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Men’s Pro Doubles Recap

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In the end, it came down to #1 versus #2 for the gold. But the journey to get to that point was anything but straightforward. The #1 seeded Johns brothers Collin & Ben Johns were pushed in their quarter final matchup by the #9 seeds Erik Lange & Darrien Young, losing one game 11-2 and having to dig deep to advance to the semis. There, they met the 4th seeded (but 3rd ranked) team of JW Johnson & Dylan Frazier, who have been playing the Johns brothers close for months. The crowd got a tight, tactical 7,8 Johns brothers win to help them advance to the gold medal match.

Meanwhile, chaos reigned in the lower half. Team trash talk #10 Travis Rettenmaier & Julian Arnold advanced to the quarters, where they played perhaps the most entertaining match of the day against The #2 seeds Matt Wright & Riley Newman, no strangers to chirping on court either. The #2 seeds eked out a 9,8 win, but not without multiple calls of Andiamo! from Arnold and legendary hands battles between these budding rivals. In the semis, they met the surprise team of #14 Connor Garrett & the youngster Gabriel Tardio; Garrett has had a coming out party this weekend, with incredible play, consistent shot-making and really opened some eyes. After a lengthy break in no part due to a rain delay, Wright & Newman booked their place in the Sunday final with a dominant semis win.

In the gold medal match, the energized crowd was hoping for a competitive match, and they got what they wanted. All three games were close, hands-battle heavy battles featuring the best of modern-day power pickleball that ended up with the Johns brothers coming out on top. Final score: 7,7,7

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Gold: Johns & Johns. Silver: Wright & Newman. Bronze: JW Johnson & Dylan Frazier.

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Women’s Pro Doubles Recap

The top half of the pro doubles draw went mostly to form in Atlanta, as #1 Anna Leigh Waters (teamed this week with Anna Bright), advanced into the finals with a solid win over #4 Catherine Parenteau & Parris Todd 6,4. However, they were pressured early, losing a game 11-1 in the quarters to the upstart #8 team of Lauren Stratman & Meghan Sheehan-Dizon. Parenteau & Todd rebounded from the loss to claim the Bronze medal early Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, upsets were the norm from the bottom half, where the semifinal was competed between the #7 and #11 seeds. The 11th seeds were the all-sister team of Maggie & Mary Brascia upset the #6 and #3 seeds to advance to the semis. There they fell to the #7 seeds Jorja Johnson & Vivienne David, who had already taken out the #2 seeded team of Callie Smith & Lucy Kovalova to guarantee a shot at a medal. Johnson & David secured their spot in the gold medal match with a fantastic come-from-behind win that kept the crowd on the edge of their seats (4),0,12.

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In the gold medal match, Waters took her 4th doubles title with Bright on the new year and her 20th Women’s Pro doubles title, cruising past the upstart Johnson & David team in three games.

Gold: Waters & Bright. Silver: Johnson & David. Bronze: Parenteau & Todd.

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Mixed Pro Doubles Recap

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The massive Mixed pro doubles draw featured a number of 20-something seeds getting upset wins early on, as the PPA tour continues to shake out its seeding amongst those who did not play full time last year but who merit improved rankings. #28 Sarah Ansboury and Darrian Young shocked the 5th seeded team of Thomas Wilson and Vivienne David in the round of 32; these were bronze medalists just a couple months ago. #20 Jade Kawamoto and Zane Navratil took out the #4 seeds Lucy Kovalova & Matt Wright to get into the quarters. The #19 seeds Mary Brascia and Federico Staksrud shocked the #3 seeded team of Anna Bright & James Ignatowich (gold medalists in April).

Holding firm in the face of upsets was #1 Waters & Johns, who cruised into the final in their first tournament together since Mid-March. They dominated #12 Callie Smith & Dylan Frazier in the semis 2,2 to earn a gold medal shot. In the final they’ll meet the #6 seeds Parris Todd & Riley Newman, who took out the 2nd seeded team of Catherine Parenteau & Tyson McGuffin to earn a gold medal shot. Parenteau & Tyson salvaged the bronze by taking a tight 2-game win over Smith & Frazier.

In the gold medal match, Todd & Newman certainly made a match of it, blitzing the

Gold: Waters & Johns. Silver: Todd & Newman. Bronze: Smith & Frazier.

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Men’s Pro Singles Recap

PPA Atlanta kicked off with a slew of upsets in the Men’s Pro draw, when none of the top four seeds even advanced into the winner’s bracket semis. A rare loss for #1 Ben Johns in the singles bracket opened up the top side of the Men’s pro draw; he was upset in the quarters by #8 Christian Alshon, but he couldn’t continue his run and lost to JW Johnson in the semis.

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The bottom half of the draw saw two double-digit seeds in #11 Connor Garnett and #15 Jake Kusmider taking out the #3 and #2 seeded players in McGuffin and Staksrud respectively to advance to the semis. There, Garnett took control and took out Kusmider to earn a spot in the gold medal match and guarantee his first career PPA pro singles medal. Kusmider dominated Alshon in the bronze medal match to earn his first PPA pro singles medal and move one step further than he did two weeks ago in Charlotte.

In the gold medal match, Johnson ground out an 11-9 third game win over Garnett, getting his first PPA pro singles gold since last September. Garnett finishes off an impressive weekend, raising eyebrows for his improved play.

Gold: JW Johnson. Silver: Connor Garnett. Bronze: Jake Kusmider.

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Women’s Pro Singles Recap:

The Women’s pro singles draw saw its usual cast of characters playing late into Thursday, with seven of the top eight seeds advancing into the quarters. Rain played havoc with the schedules, and the singles semis were delayed well into the double’s component of the event. but #1 Anna Leigh Waters displayed a particular dominance by crushing #4 Catherine Parenteau 1,0 to advance to the gold medal match from the top half of the draw.

From the bottom half, #6 Mary Brascia got two of the biggest wins in her career, topping both the #2 and #3 seeds (Lea Jansen and Salome Devidze) in two successive rounds to guarantee her first career PPA medal in pro singles and advance to the final.

In the gold medal match, Waters continued her dominance over the tour, beating Brascia 5,4 to secure the title. This was the final pro match of the event, and with it Waters secured her 12th PPA pro triple crown.

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Gold: Anna Leigh Waters. Silver: Mary Brascia. Bronze: Parenteau & Jansen co-winners.

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Senior Pro Competition Quick Recap

· Men’s Senior Pro Singles: Atlanta native and #29 seed Neil Simon shocked the draw and cruised to a title in Singles. Simon was a US National team member in the early 1990s before playing college tennis at Tulane.

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· Men’s Senior Pro Doubles: #2 Altaf Merchant & Jamie Oncins won a spirited match on center court against #1 Dave Weinbach & John Sperling to take the Senior pro doubles title.

· Women’s Senior Pro Doubles: #1 Angela Simon (whose husband blew through the singles draw earlier in the weekend) teamed with Helen Wilhem to take the Women’s senior pro doubles title.

· Mixed Senior Pro Doubles: #3 Julie Johnson & Mircea Morariu took time out of their coaching schedule to take the Mixed Senior pro title, topping the 1st and 2nd seeds along the way.

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Next up on the PPA Tour? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, the team hits the road to Rockwell, in the Dallas Metroplex, for the Selkirk Open the first weekend of June.

Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? This coming weekend is the APP’s signature New York City Open, held at the USTA tennis center in Queens.