Johns And Waters In Triple Crown Form at The PPA Onyx Austin Open

The Professional Pickleball Association’s busy spring continued with a the second of a back-to-back event pair of events. After last weekend’s Florida trip, the pros all flew to the Mecca of Pickleball in central Texas to compete at the Onyx Austin Showdown, held at The Hills Country Club Elevation Athletic Club facility in the western residential suburbs of the capital city.

The talk ahead of the tournament was about paddle compliance, yet again, as some new issues related to paddle testing arose. The situation was not helped by the sports top player issuing a statement on social media that seemed to imply certain brands were not playing by the rules purposely. This added pressure added to the backdrop of the Austin competition.

Let’s Recap the action.

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Men’s Pro Singles Recap:

The top two seeds (Johns and Staksrud) both advanced to the title match without dropping a game. Nearly every other top seed was upset early, and the pro Men’s singles draws continue to be unpredictable week after week.

Qualifier and 25th seeded Jaume Martinez Vich took out two top-10 seeds in Hartland Jones and Yates Johnson to make the quarters. Last week’s surprise finalist Collin Shick lost in the first round to #12 Christian Alshon, who then tore through the top bracket, defeating both the #4 and #5 seeds (Hunter Johnson and Jay Devilliers) to make the semifinals. Despite losing to Johns in the semis, Alshon took the bronze medal match to secure his first ever medal in professional Pickleball.

The upsets continued in the bottom half, as #26 Wyatt Stone advanced to the quarters by topping two top-10 seeds in Grant Bond and Rafa Hewitt. 14th seeded Gabriel Joseph upset 3rd seeded Tyson McGuffin, who is still slow to return from his January foot injury. #27 Brandon Lane took out Dylan Frazier in the first round. But the semi-finalist to outlast all these players turned out to be #11 Connor Garnett. The depth on tour is increasing.

In the Gold medal match, Ben Johns cruised to his 6th singles title in his last 9 events competed, with a dominant 8,2 win over #2 Staksrud.

Gold: Ben Johns. Silver: Federico Staksrud. Bronze: Christian Alshon.

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Women’s Pro Singles Recap:

Lea Jansen’s decision to take a break from Pro Singles at this event despite winning a medal in each of the season’s first five events gave an opportunity for a break-up of the same results we’ve been seeing in this event so far this season. #11 Allyce Jones stepped up, getting a walkover against the 6th seed then taking out #3 Irina Tereschenko to make the semis. Though she fell to #2 Catherine Parenteau, winner of two events running, Jones salvaged a Bronze for her first singles medal on tour.

From the top-half of the draw, it was business as usual for the top seeds, as #1 Anna Leigh Waters cruised into yet another Gold Medal match. She topped #4 Salome Devidze in the semis, and for the first time since early February Devidze couldn’t salvage a Bronze medal match win.

In the Gold medal match, Parenteau went toe-to-toe with the #1 Waters for the better part of an hour, splitting the first two games 12-10 and 9-11, before Anna Leigh found another gear and cruised to an 11-1 tiebreaker win. Waters continues her reign of dominance in Pro singles: since November 2021, Waters has won 19 of the 24 singles titles competed.

Gold: Anna Leigh Waters. Silver: Catherine Parenteau. Bronze: Allyce Jones

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Mixed Pro Doubles Recap

The #12 seeds of Dylan Frazier & Lea Jansen went on a run in Austin, taking out the #4 and #5 seeds to advance to the semis. Unfortunately, they ran into the Johns/Waters Mixed buzz-saw, as the #1 seeds and 15-time winners together Johns and Waters cruised into the final 3,3.

From the bottom half, after some partner drama, Riley Newman has picked back up his sister Lindsay, with whom he had plenty of success over the past couple of seasons. They have some rust to shake off, going tiebreaker in their first two rounds as #3 seeds before losing to the brother-sister Johnson team in the quarters. Newman’s former mixed partner Anna Bright has settled in with her new on- and off-the-court partner James Ignatowich, and they topped the #2 seeds Wright & Kovalova and then team Johnson to move into the final. Jorja and JW took the bronze over the upstart Frazier/Jansen team.

In the Gold medal match, Team GOAT took another gold medal together. Ignatowich took a Mixed gold earlier this season with Parenteau, but going up against Johns & Waters is another story. The underdogs took one game, but the #1 seeds won in four.

Gold: Waters & Johns. Silver: Bright & Ignatowich. Bronze: Johnson & Johnson

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Men’s Pro Doubles Recap

The Men’s Pro doubles draw went very much to form, with just one minor upset to the quarters (the #9 over the #8 seed). That is, with the exception of the #20th seeds Brendan Long and John Cincola, who upset the 13th, 4th, and 5th seeds to make the semi-final round and put themselves in position to claim a first ever PPA medal. Unfortunately their run ended at the 3rd place match, as JW Johnson and Dylan Frazier defeated the 20th seeds and took their third medal of 2023.

From the bottom half, #2 Matt Wright & Riley Newman, winners of four medals in five events thus far in 2023, continued to show why they’re the 2nd best team in pro Men’s pickleball by grinding out tough wins over the dangerous #7 team of McGuffin & Ignatowich, and then holding serve against #3 Frazier & Johnson after dropping the first game.

In the gold medal match, two teams that are quite familiar with each other squared off yet again. Eight of the last 10 Men’s Pro doubles finals have featured these two teams, and for the seventh time in those eight meetings the Johns brothers came out victorious. With the doubles victory, Ben Johns secured the triple crown for the weekend, and his fourth triple of the short new year.

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

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Women’s Pro Doubles Recap

A pattern seems to be emerging with #1 Anna Leigh Waters and her Women’s doubles partner selection. Ever since her mom’s knee injury, Waters has flipped between Anna Bright and Catherine Parenteau at each event. Starting in Orlando in early December, Waters has won 5 straight Women’s Pro doubles titles, each with either Parenteau or Bright on her right side. This week, it is Bright’s turn, and the pair cruised into the Gold medal match, never surrendering more than 6 points in a game. Parenteau & Jorja Johnson, the 4th seeds, were their semifinals victims, but salvaged a bronze medal in the 3rd place match for the event.

From the bottom half, upsets abounded, and the team that took out #2 Smith & Kovalova in the quarters and then the #6 team Tereschenko & Wright in the semis was the surprise finalists, #7 seeds Vivienne David & Meghan Sheehan-Dizon. Sheehan-Dizon has not seen a podium since October 2022, while David has ground out medals consistently for some months now.

In the gold medal match, Waters teamed with Bright to win her 7th straight appearance in a Women’s Pro doubles final, taking the title in dominant fashion over the upstart David & Sheehan-Dizon team. The win capped off another triple crown for the precocious #1 player on tour and has pundits wondering how long this reign may last.

Gold: Waters & Bright. Silver: David & Sheehan-Dizon. Bronze: Parenteau & Johnson.

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Senior Pro Competition Quick Recap

· Men’s Senior Pro Singles: The Senior Pro singles competition was cancelled after Nashville based competitor Thanh Vo collapsed and died just after his first-round match. Fellow senior pro Tim Ringgold posted a quick update about what happened on his Facebook page after the events unfolded. Our thoughts go out to the Vo family; he was just 54.

· Men’s Senior Pro Doubles: Mark Milner & Paul Salmela, who both took Senior pro singles medals in Minnesota, combined as the #12 seed to run to the gold.

· Women’s Senior Pro Doubles: Jenny Marcos & Yannet Briste took the senior pro women’s doubles division as the #1 seed.

· Mixed Senior Pro Doubles: Seyhan Hunter & Dave Johnson earned their fourth senior mixed Pro gold medal of 2023.

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Next up in the Pro Pickleball World? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, it is MLP time! The pros fly back to Daytona Beach, where the PPA tour was just two weeks ago, for the second event of the 2023 MLP season.