McGuffin Roars Back From Injury Issues To Get A Dominant Double At Pro Pickleball Association Red Rock Open

The Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) tour returned to the small town of St. George, Utah for the third consecutive April for the 2023 Selkirk Red Rock Open. This tournament featured a rarely-used Wednesday to Saturday schedule to get the players out of town in time for Easter Sunday. St. George and the host facility Little Valley is in the very south west corner of the state, closer to Las Vegas than it is to any familiar Utah city, but is a tour favorite.

For the second time this season, both #1 players Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters took the weekend off, which opened the door for new talent to shine through and claim Gold medals. Let’s Recap the action and see how the tour faired without its two dominant stars.

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Men’s Pro Singles Recap:

Three double-digit seeds worked their way into the quarter finals, led by #23 Zane Navratil. Navratil ousted #10 Patriquin and then #7 Hewitt to earn a shot at #2 Jay Devilliers. Also earning their way into the quarters was #12 Travis Rettenmaier, who trounced #5 Davis in the round of 16, and #19 Brandon Lane, who took advantage of a last-minute withdrawal of the #3 seed to earn his spot in the quarters.

#8 Connor Garnett got a career win over #1 seeded Federico Staksrud, but fell to #4 Tyson McGuffin for a shot at the gold medal. Meanwhile, #6 Pablo Tellez earned his first ever gold medal match on tour with a come-from-behind win over Devilliers in the other semi. Devilliers salvaged the Bronze by taking out Garnett in two.

In the final, McGuffin returned to the winner’s circle for the first time since his famous win over Ben Johns in November in Texas by grinding out a win over Tellez 9,7.

Gold: Tyson McGuffin. Silver: Pablo Tellez. Bronze: Jay Devilliers.

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Women’s Pro Singles Recap:

Without Waters in the draw, the podium looked remarkably similar to the last event where the #1 singles player was absent, with Catherine Parenteau taking her third gold of the season. #3 Salome Devidze took the silver, her first time in the gold-medal match since December 2022. #2 Lea Jansen was upset in the semis by Devidze but salvaged the Bronze.

It was a drama-filled weekend for the top-ranked ladies. Jansen was caught on a hot mike essentially saying she doesn’t think the tour should even have singles, and then seemed none-too-pleased to even be playing Devidze in the semis, demanding a slew of extra line judges and having some pointed comments towards Devidze even before the match started. Devidze has a well-earned reputation for questionable line calls at this point, so the extra line judges are no surprise. But after a thorough beat down 7,1 that included arguments about balls, line calls, time wasting, and a paddle challenge approximately 2 seconds after the final point was played, Jansen may be in need of a new approach on the court against Devidze.

In the Gold medal match, Parenteau cruised to a 2,6 win over Devidze to earn her third singles title of 2023.

Gold: Catherine Parenteau. Silver: Salome Devidze. Bronze: Lea Jansen

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Mixed Pro Doubles Recap

McGuffin and Parenteau both won singles titles on Wednesday, but by the time Mixed doubles day rolled around on Friday, the two gold medalists had lost their mojo. The #1 seeds were ousted in the round of 16 by #17 Navratil and Susannah Barr in a tiebreaker, the biggest upset of the early rounds. This opened the door for the up-and-coming pair of #4 Anna Bright & James Ignatowich (runners up in Austin 3 weeks ago) to cruise to the finals from the upper bracket. Navratil & Barr salvaged the Bronze medal, the first PPA medal of any kind for Navratil since he took the singles gold in October, 2021.

In the bottom half, Riley Newman seems to have settled on another mixed partner in Andrea Koop; they made a run to the semis before being stopped by #3 AJ Koller and Jesse Irvine.

In the final, Bright and Ignatowich celebrated their new partnership with its first gold medal, beating Irvine & Koller three straight.

Gold: Bright & Ignatowich. Silver: Irvine & Koller. Bronze: Barr & Navratil

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Men’s Pro Doubles Recap

With a couple of top Men’s doubles pros missing, we saw some interesting teams competing in Utah. #1 Collin Johns teamed up with Dekel Bar in the absence of his bro, while long-time #2 Riley Newman picked up James Ignatowich in the absence of his normal partner Wright. Ignatowich’s departure left McGuffin without a dance partner; he ended up with little known Brendon Long, and made the most of it. As the #6 seeds, McGuffin and Long dominated their matches all day long, ousting the #2 and #3 seeds without dropping a game to cruise into the gold medal match.

There, they met Johns and Bar, who had ground their way past tough opponents Koller and Rettenmaier in the semis. And the fans were treated to one of the best matches of the year, a best 3 out of 5 match that went the distance for the first time this season. In the end, McGuffin earned a double on the weekend by taking a 13-11 game five win with partner Long. It is the first pro medal of any kind for Brendon Long on the PPA.

Gold: McGuffin & Long. Silver: Johns & Bar. Bronze: Newman & Ignatowich

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Women’s Pro Doubles Recap

When the favorite is absent, surprises abound. And in Utah, we saw the pairing of Meghan Sheehan-Dizon & Etta Wright earn the title and get each woman their first ever PPA gold medal. They earned it, taking out the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th seeded teams enroute to the gold. As with the Men’s doubles final, the Women’s doubles final featured a 5th game super-tiebreaker, as Sheehan-Dizon/Wright took out #4 Lea Jansen & Allyce Jones in the final.

Gold: Sheehan-Dizon & Wright Silver: Jansen & Jones Bronze: Kovalova & Smith

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Senior Pro Competition Quick Recap

· Men’s Senior Pro Singles: Lee Sponaugle surprised the draw by winning as the #9 seed.

· Men’s Senior Pro Doubles: Mills Miller & Joe Paraiso win the Senior “Open” Doubles draw in Utah.

· Women’s Senior Pro Doubles: Amy Walker & Susie Fought went undefeated in the 5-team round robin to take gold.

· Mixed Senior Pro Doubles: Joy Schelin & Jason Peery took the five-team round robin Mixed senior pro doubles draw.

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Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? We have a blessed week off of pro events, the first such break in the calendar since the first week of January. Then the week after is the biggest event of the year; the US Open in Naples Florida.

Next up on the PPA Tour? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule … in two weeks’ time the PPA has a competing event to the US Open in San Diego.