Hot on the heels of the massive World Championships last week in Dallas, the PPA managed to shoe-horn in one last regular season stop before we start heading to tour and MLP finals. They headed north to Milwaukee for the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) 2024 Veolia Milwaukee Open. It was an entirely indoor event, held at the Baird center, but it was still one last shot for players to qualify for San Clemente.
Click here for the PickleballBrackets.com home page for the event, where you can get tournament details, draw sheets, and results.
Let’s Recap the action.
Men’s Pro Singles Recap
Unlike in Dallas, where the top eight qualifiers all advanced into the main draw, not one of the top eight seeded male qualifiers made it through, ensuring a slew of new names in the main draw. Once they arrived at the round of 32, they found a thinned field missing a big chunk of the top 10 (Johns, Garnett, McGuffin, Vich, Alshon, and Sock all took this event off), which always spells opportunity for an unsung singles player to make a run. (Coincidentally, with Alshon’s absence, the field is officially set for Men’s Singles in the Tour Finals. We’ll write a separate preview later).
No sooner had we gotten to mid-day Thursday and we had three 30-something seeds into the round of 16, headlined by #48 German qualifier Tom Protzek, who toppled #18 Jakovljevic, #16 Whittaker, and then took the first game off of #1 Federico Staksrud before coming back down to earth and losing. #35 Zane Ford got two very solid wins over #8 Lohani and #12 Khlif, then took a game off of Fed before falling in the quarters.
The biggest surprise run though was from #30 Adam Harvey, who took out #3 Dylan Frazier early, then laid waste to the Las Vegas Night Owls MLP men’s team of #13 Hovenier and #7 Hewett to earn a surprise semi. Harvey fell in the semis, but topped Tellez in the bronze medal match for his first professional medal, and is in the running for the title of, Most Unlikely Singles Medalist of the season.
The bottom half of the draw seemed laid out for a deep Quang Duong run, who got a career high #2 seed. He dominated his first two matches, pickling both Scarpa and Rettenmaier, but then he suffered a knee injury in the quarters to give a walk-over to #5 Pablo Tellez. Meanwhile, Michael Loyd (seeded #11 on the strength of his massive Dallas Grand Slam run) found himself right back in the quarters, facing off against the always-tough Hunter Johnson. Hunter took down last week’s silver medalist, then topped the lefty Tellez to set up yet another meeting with #1 Staksrud for the gold.
In the final, Staksrud and Johnson met for the seventh time this year … but for the first time in the gold medal match (Staksrud led the season series 6-1). Hunter played into Staksrud three times in the round of 32 early, then they met in the semis three other times (Salt Lake, Virginia Beach, and last week at Worlds). On this day, Johnson won a streaky match despite getting pickled in game 2. Final score: 4,(0),3. Hunter takes his second PPA gold with his second win over Fed this season.
Gold: Hunter Johnson. Silver: Federico Staksrud. Bronze: Adam Harvey
Women’s Pro Singles Recap
Like in the men’s singles draw, a slew of top-ranked women opted out of the singles draw in Milwaukee. We were missing Waters, Buckner, Parenteau and Devidze, one of whom dropped out late enough to give the #2 seed in the draw to lucky loser Zoey Weil (who, of course, went ahead and won her first main draw match after losing in the qualifiers).
Thanks to next week’s MLP finals, a couple of non-singles regulars were lurking with lower teen seeds: #17 Allyce Jones and #19 Anna Bright. Both took out their unlucky round of 32 seeds, but both ended up falling in the 16s. Bright played a spirited match against her MLP teammate #6 Kate Fahey but fell in a good-hearted third-game match early. With so many of the top 10 missing, the quarterfinals ended up being almost entirely chalk, with the remaining top 7 seeded players joined by #20 Jessie Irvine, who vanquished Weil in the 16s.
From there, the women’s singles draw offered an intriguing glimpse into the future, as lower seeds prevailed. #1 Jansen retired while trailing #5 Parris Todd, who has spent the entire season building up her singles ranking to now be on the precipice of the top four. #8 Chao Yi Wang pickled #4 Mary Brascia in game two to earn a semis matchup with Todd from the upper side and officially eliminate Brascia from reaching the Tour Finals in 2024. #7 Judit Castillo cruised past #20 Irvine to earn a semi. Lastly #6 Fahey faced down her second straight brutal singles opponent, going three-games to top #3 Kaitlyn Christian.
In the semis, #8 Wang surprised #5 Todd in a match marred by poor line calling, an issue that keeps arising despite continual advances in technology. All the calls went against Wang, who apparently was not aware of the ability to challenge line calls. By the third game, she had wised up and got two overrules just in the third game (to go with two missed out-calls earlier in the match). Pros shouldn’t have to depend on video challenges to overturn line calls, and when there’s no penalty for “missing” a call the spirit of the game is impacted. I believe it may be time to institute something similar to what NCAA tennis has, where excessive overrules result in point, game, and larger penalties. Fahey crushed Castillo in the other semi to earn her 6th gold medal match since August.
In the final, Fahey secured her third PPA gold, edging Wang 11-9 in the third.
A note here to talk quickly about the meteoric rise of Fahey; she did not play her first pro event until May of this year, where she qualified into the Atlanta Slam as the #47 seed. Her second PPA event was in Texas in June, then in her 3rd PPA event in August in Kansas City she made the gold medal match and has not looked back. One would have to think she’s a favorite in the upcoming Tour Finals and it may be just a matter of time before she’s really pushing Waters when they inevitably meet.
Gold: Kate Fahey. Silver: Chao Yi Wang. Bronze: Parris Todd
Mixed Pro Doubles Recap
As has been the norm lately, the Mixed Pro doubles draw featured few surprises earlier in the day, as there was just one upset-by-seed in the round of 32 (MLP Miami partners Milan Rane & Noe Khlif) and one in the round of 16 (#11 Lea Jansen teaming with the relatively unknown Max Freeman).
From there, we saw more evidence of the continual churn of top ranked teams just outside of the group that usually dominates Mixed Doubles play. Former podcast partners Dylan Frazier & Anna Bright secured the #1 seed and advanced to the finals by the skin of their teeth, beating #7 Patriquin & Black 14-12 in the third. From the bottom side of the draw, #2 Rohrabacher & Ignatowich fell to #6 Daescu & Dizon early, but it was the #3 team of Tardio & Irvine who earned the final. Tardio & Irvine beat out two great doubles teams to get there, beating #5 Duong & Pisnik in the quarters and then the uber-tall team of Daescu & Dizon in the semis.
In the final, Bright & Frazier rebounded from a game-1 loss for a straightforward four game win. This is Bright’s fourth career Mixed pro gold, all four with different partners (Riley in Feb 2023, Ignatowich in April 2023, Daescu in Mar 2024, and now Frazier in Nov 2024). Meanwhile, this is Dylan Frazier’s first ever pro mixed gold on the PPA.
Side note: sometimes the pairings on tour raise eyebrows. These players see each other week in and week out all year, so friendships and relationships naturally come and go. Rohrabacher and Staksrud have had solid success this year, with a bronze medal in Worlds and a silver earlier. Both were here, but opting to play with different partners. Rachel teams with Ignatowich, the ex-boyfriend of her regular doubles partner, while Staksrud pairs up with … Kate Fahey, who essentially replaced Rohrabacher as Bright’s “next great MLP find” for her 2024 St. Louis Shock. Sometimes these pairings are agreed to ahead of time, sometimes a player may play an event last minute and may have already told their normal partner to change up. I doubt these changes will impact who selects who as their partner for the Tour finals, but perhaps these are new teams to look for in 2025.
Gold: Bright & Frazier. Silver: Tardio & Irvine. Bronze: Dizon & Daescu
Men’s Pro Doubles Recap
With two top players missing this event (Ben Johns & J.W. Johnson), their regular partners had to find replacements, with varying levels of success. Collin Johns teamed with AJ Koller, who has missed a big chunk of the season with injury issues, to form the #3 seed in Milwaukee, but fell in an upset in the quarters to #11 Julian Arnold & Blane Hovenier. J.W. Johnson’s regular partner Dylan Frazier picked up Quang Duong to claim the #2 seed, but this promising team was derailed by an earlier Duong knee injury and they limped to a 7,0 quarter final defeat at the hands of #7 James Ignatowich & C.J. Klinger. With both top seeds upset early in the lower half of the draw, opportunity rose for one unlikely finalist, and it was Ignatowich & Klinger who seized it, topping Arnold & Hovenier for a spot in the Sunday final.
The top half of the draw featured a juicy quarterfinal: #1 Staksrud, playing with Tardio, had to face off against #5 Riley Newman & Hayden Patriquin in the quarters. Staksrud & Patriquin have won twice together this season, but prior partner arrangements have prevented them from exploring the partnership further. So, Patriquin picks up the veteran Riley Newman (who has gone from being the clear-cut #3 doubles player in the world in mid-2023 to nearly missing out on the top 16 cut-off line for the tour finals), and subsequently wins a gold with him at the biggest event of the year.
Staksrud meanwhile, picks up Patriquin’s roommate and close friend Tardio … so naturally the teams had to play.(conspiracy theory alert; the PPA may “mix seeds” at these events, but boy does it seem ironic that we constantly get matchups with off-the-court relationship impacts). In the end Staksrud & Tardio crushed Riley & Hayden 7,0 to move to the semis. Then, who do they play in the semis but Daescu & Tellez: Tardio & Daescu won two straight gold medals together in late August/early September … then neither of them has medaled since. Staksrud & Tardio closed out #4 Daescu & Tellez to earn a Sunday final.
In the final, Staksrud & Tardio exposed Ignatowich & Klinger in a short-lived 5,2,3 beat down to claim the title. These two won together in Kansas City earlier this year, and they offer a great left/right side combination that’s becoming more prevalent in the pro game today.
Quick side note about Tellez: this is his 8th medal this season. The lefty has won medals with Daescu, Bar, Devilliers, Patriquin, and Staksrud, showing great flexibility of partnerships. Amazingly though (and I had to double-check this), despite having won 13 career medals, Pablo has never won gold on the PPA tour.
Gold: Staksrud & Tardio. Silver: Ignatowich & Klinger. Bronze: Daescu & Tellez
Women’s Pro Doubles Recap
Milwaukee fans were robbed of the regularly scheduled Women’s Pro Doubles final of Waters/Parenteau vs Bright/Rohrabacher at this event; these two pairs had met in the finals of the previous four PPA events and eight times overall just this season, but both players from the #1 pair took the event off. Bright & Rohrabacher did their part, sliding into the #1 seed and cruising into the final from the top side without dropping a game.
The bottom side’s #2 seeded team of Todd & Smith, playing together for the first time in 2024, unsurprisingly got beat early by a team of players that are far more used to each other’s playing style: the Brascia sisters. In a fun bottom-side semi, Mary & Maggie faced off with another all-sister team of Jackie & Jade Kawamoto. These two all-sister teams faced off in each of the first three events of 2024 …but none since. In this rematch, the Kawamoto sisters advanced to the gold medal match as a team for the first time since Sept 2023.
In the final, what many thought would be a 3-game blowout quickly turned into a massive dogfight. The Kawamoto blitzed the #1 seeds 11-4 in game one to set the tone, Bright & Rohrabacher won the next two games without much trouble, switching off their regular positions on the court (Anna played most of this match on the right) and then had match point in game four but at 8-10 down, the Kawamoto’s put on a clinic of defensive play to get back into a rally and earn a put-away. From there they ran off four straight points, including a fantastic volley winner to claim game four and force the decider. In the 5th, Bright & Rohrabacher went back to their normal positions but went down early and Rohrabacher took a medical time out that was the subject of some “fair play” debate on social media. In the postgame interview she reported a stomach issue. The challenge for the tour, of course, is this: medical timeouts should not be used as strategic/momentum interrupting timeouts. You shouldn’t, for example, be able to claim a “medical timeout” because of fitness issues, endurance issues, or cramping; that’s part of being a professional, playing the game at its highest levels.
After returning from what the announcers called “a delay,” Bright and Rohrabacher got back into the game and started grinding to the finish line, holding onto a slight lead throughout the fifth, getting to 10-6 for championship point, but couldn’t convert. In echoes of game four, the Kawamoto’s staved off a deciding point to earn back the serve, but this time Bright & Rachel held firm, won back the serve, and took the match.
Gold: Bright & Rohrabacher. Silver: Kawamoto & Kawamoto. Bronze: Jones & Black
Senior Open Competition Quick Recap
The competing USAP Nationals event made for relative slim pickings for the Senior pros at this event, but there were two divisions competed.
- Men’s Senior Open Singles: Joshua Cooperman survived a challenge in the semis but swept the gold medal match 9,0 over Brian Dunk.
- Men’s Senior Open Doubles: Minnesota natives and some-times pro medalists Gonzalo Petschen & Chad Flynn took the senior open doubles round robin competition for gold.
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 dating to the beginnings of all the major pro tours, plus pro events that predated 2020.
Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, it’s MLP finals time in Orlando!
Next up for the PPA? The tour finals, in San Clemente, the 2nd weekend in December.
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