Johns And Waters Triple Amid The Drama at The Professional Pickleball Tour Kansas City Open

Hot on the heels of the Utah event, the Carvana Professional Pickleball Tour caravanned its way east to land at the Elite Tennis & Wellness center in Overland Park, on the Kansas side of the border in the southern suburbs of Kansas City, for the 2023 Vulcan Kansas City Open, presented by Chicken n Pickle. This golden ticket qualifier features nearly 1,100 players, a full-strength pro draw, and thanks to a massive heat wave perhaps the hottest conditions that the tour has ever faced. The tournament will kick off with high temperatures expected north of 100 degrees, with 45-50% relative humidity. That combination conspires to make it “feel like” 110 degrees or higher, which may really factor into the level of play, especially deeper into the draws.

Click here for the tournament home page at pickleballbrackets.com.

The bigger news of the weekend was the MLP-PPA skirmish, which seemed to indicate the dissolvement of the agreement the two organizations put in place in November of 2022, which happened throughout the weekend and had dozens of players fielding competing solicitation phone calls before committing to one or the other tour. We covered that earlier this weekend, and a number of pros indicated the drama and “exploding offers” impacted their play all weekend, leading to some surprising results.

With that as a backdrop, let’s Recap the action.

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Men’s Pro Singles Recap

The draws in Men’s pro singles continue to be stacked, as 54 players attempted to qualify for 8 spots. Some who have gone on big runs lately did qualify (Ryan Eveloff and Christopher Haworth), while other more familiar names fell without getting into the main draw (Naveen Beasley, Stefan Auvergne, and Grant Bond).

Once the main draw started, we saw a couple of shocking upsets in the opening round. #4 Jay Devilliers continues his struggles in singles, losing to #29 Aanik Lohani in a breaker. Meanwhile, #5 J.W. Johnson, bronze medalist in California three weeks ago, went out 12-10 to #28 Matthew Barlow. This opened up the draw massively in the upper quarter for a double digit seed to advance into the semis. The player to take advantage was #12 Julian Arnold, who had a come-from-behind win over the precocious #13 Hayden Patriquin to secure his spot in the semis.

Otherwise, the Kansas City draw went relatively chalk. #1 Ben Johns was back in action and cruised into the final, vanquishing some of the Johnny-come-lately players along the way (Quang Duong in the 16s, Jaume Martinez Vich in the quarters, both by the same score line 4 and 4). Johns returned to the final with a straightforward win over #12 Arnold in the semis.

The bottom half of the draw went according to seed to the semis, where last week’s triple crown winning #3 Tyson McGuffin continued his fine run of form, topping #2 Federico Staksrud to make the gold medal match. Staksrud salvaged the weekend with a bronze medal win over Arnold, coming back from a game down to win.

In the final, Johns topped last week’s triple crown winner McGuffin without much fanfare 2,9.

Gold: Ben Johns. Silver: Tyson McGuffin. Bronze: Federico Staksrud.

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Women’s Pro Singles Recap

The return of #1 Anna Leigh Waters spelled trouble for the top half of the draw, and she did not disappoint. After shaking off some rust in the quarters, losing the first game to #8 Lina Padegimaite, she rebounded to advance in the semis, where she topped #5 Lauren Stratman to secure another gold medal match appearance.

Last week’s triple crown winner #2 Catherine Parenteau ground out a couple of close matches, beating #7 Judit Castillo in the quarters and then #11 Jorja Johnson in two close semifinals games to ensure a 1 vs 2 matchup in the gold medal match. #11 Jorja Johnson topped #5 Stratman in the bronze medal match, finishing off a great singles performance where she had wins over #6 Yana Newell and #3 Mary Brascia. It is just a matter of time before the teenager is in the top four on tour.

In the final, Waters secured her 29th PPA singles title by vanquishing last week’s triple crown winning Parenteau 6,9. It is the 12th time that these two frequent doubles partners have met in the gold medal match, with ALW taking 11 of them.

Gold: Anna Leigh Waters. Silver: Catherine Parenteau. Bronze: Jorja Johnson.

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Mixed Pro Doubles Recap

By the time the Mixed competition started on Friday, the PPA/MLP news had broken, and we saw some crazy upsets. Last week’s triple crown winners #3 Parenteau & McGuffin fell meekly to the #30 seeds Gabriel Tardio & Milan Rane 6,9, spurring a massive run by the pair to the semis. Along the way, they toppled two more pairs of PPA veterans before falling to #2 Riley Newman & Jesse Irvine in the semis.

The top half of the draw also saw a huge upset in the round of 32, as #28 Bobbi Oshiro & Brendon Long took out the #5 JW & Jorja Johnson sibling team and continued their run into the quarters. There, they lost to #12 Travis Rettenmaier & Jade Kawamoto 6,3. Rettenmaier & Kawamoto could not do much damage to the immovable force that is the #1 Johns & Waters duo, but did salvage the bronze medal by topping the Tardio & Rane team in the 3rd place match.

In the gold medal match, the hope for a great #1 vs #2 seed dissolved in dominance, as Johns & Waters absolutely crushed Newman & Irvine 1,1,2 in a match that didn’t even last 30 minutes. It’s the second time they’ve met in the gold medal match this season, but this weekend’s result was dominant. Johns & Waters win Mixed for the 23rd time together.

Gold: Johns & Waters. Silver: Newman & Irvine. Bronze: Kawamoto & Rettenmaier

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Men’s Pro Doubles Recap

The crazy upsets seen in Mixed on Friday did not carry over into Saturday on the Men’s side, as the top teams advanced relatively unscathed into the quarters. Thanks to Collin Johns’ injury strain, his brother Ben had to find a new partner for the KC event. Johns was able to pair up with his regular partner Matt Wright from 2020-2021 and play it back one more time. The pair dusted off some rust in the round of 16, losing game one to Ben Newell & Daniel de la Rosa before advancing, and then made a run to the final without dropping a game. They topped #12 Zane Navratil & Christian Alshon in the semis, who made a nice run by topping two top 5 seeds along the way

Last week’s star McGuffin teamed with James Ignatowich again, and out of the #6 seed advanced to the semis, topping a frustrated #3 Riley Newman & Julian Arnold pairing along the way. Their effort to go back-to-back ended at the hands of #2 JW Johnson & Dylan Frazier in the semis, but the pair salvaged the podium in what had to be a very boisterous bronze medal match against Zane & Alshon.

In the final, Johns & Wright played the expected tactical dink-fest against Johnson & Frazier, and won in four. This is their first gold medal together since November 2021. More importantly, the win secured the Triple Crown for Johns on the weekend. It is his 18th PPA triple and his 22nd professionally.

Gold: Johns & Wright. Silver: Johnson & Frazier. Bronze: McGuffin & Ignatowich.

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Women’s Pro Doubles Recap

Five of the top eight seeds in the women’s pro doubles draw were upset in the round of 16, leading to multiple double digit seeds making deep runs. #12 Jade Kawamoto & Andrea Koop advanced into the semis before falling to the #1 seeded team of Waters & Parenteau, and then took the bronze medal match to make it a two-medal weekend for the lefty Hawaiian.

From the bottom half, #2 Anna Bright teamed with Megan Dizon and ground out wins all day Saturday to advance to the gold medal match. They topped #6 Jackie Kawamoto & Irina Tereschenko in the semis to secure a gold medal appearance.

In the final, the two top seeds split games at 11-7 each, then the dominance of ALW took over, powering Waters & Parenteau to the title. With the title, Waters secures her 17th PPA triple crown (10 this year alone), in what continues to be an amazing feat of dominance.

Gold: Waters & Parenteau. Silver: Bright & Dizon. Bronze: Kawamoto & Koop

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Champions (Senior) Pro Competition Quick Recap

Fixture congestion plagued the senior draws all around this weekend; there was a PPA, APP and a SPT event this weekend, meaning seniors were split three ways.

• Men’s Champions Pro Singles: Mike Wolf took the singles title over David Buerkle.
• Men’s Champions Pro Doubles: Altaf Merchant & Dave Weinbach teamed up for the first time since Beer City to take gold.
• Women’s Champions Pro Doubles: Cristie Sharpsteen teamed with the matriarch of the Johnson clan, Julie Johnson, to claim gold.
• Mixed Champions Pro Doubles: Cristie Sharpsteen & Andy Vos took the 6-team Mixed Senior Open competition, giving Sharpsteen the double on the weekend.

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The Pro Pickleball Medal Tracker has now been updated with these results; check out this link online for a complete pro medal history for all tours and all pro events.

We’ll recap this past weekend’s APP event tomorrow, then have a special interest story later in the week, unrelated to pro tour drama I promise.

Next up for PPA tour? Two weeks from now in Cincinnati. What remains to be seen is what kind of no-show fallout occurs from the drama on the weekend. Let’s hope everyone honors their contracts and plays on.

Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, the APP is in action again next weekend, heading to Chicago for the Chicago Open