Before huge crowds at The Salt Palace, fans were treated to close matches and great competition, as numerous matches went to three games. There were standout performances and others that were more forgettable.

Let’s go over the highs and lows of this great event.

Anna Bright: better GM or player? Anna Bright is obviously known as a great player, but let’s not ignore her skills as a player evaluator. Last year, she tabbed Rachel Rohrabacher as her MLP teammate; this year it was the relatively unknown Kate Fahey.  Both of her picks proved their worth this week in Utah, with Rohrabacher pairing with Bright to win women’s doubles, and Fahey winning her first gold medal by winning women’s singles. Who will be next year’s Bright surprise?

Fede can beat them all (almost)! Federico Staksrud proved again he is the best men’s singles player (maybe). He waltzed his way to a singles gold medal without losing a single game. He capped his dominant performance with an 11-2, 11-4 trouncing of #2 seed, Connor Garnett in the final. But, some fellow named Ben Johns was not in the draw. Until Fede beats Ben in a PPA final, there will be an argument about who is really #1.

Andre the Giant returns! Since coming back from his suspension, Andrei Daescu’s results have not been up to his standards. Consequently, he and Gabe Tardio were given a relatively low #8 seed in men’s doubles. However, Daescu and Tardio proved they are still near the top, beating James Ignatowich and Matt Wright in three straight games in the men’s doubles final. That leads us to the question of how they rank among men’s doubles teams…

Who is the best men’s doubles team right now? While Daescu and Tardio returned to the winner’s circle, JW Johnson and Dylan Frazier had another difficult week, exiting in the quarter final. With Ben and Collin Johns not performing up to their standards, and Christian Alshon/Quang Duong winning their first gold medal in the Bristol Open, a reasonable question is, “Who is the team to beat in men’s doubles right now?” This burning question could be answered by picking any one of these teams. This will be an interesting storyline all the way through the end of year PPA Championships.

New faces in the Top 10? It was another big week for emerging players both in women’s and men’s competition. In addition to Fahey winning a gold medal, Mari Humberg had another big tournament. Mari, paired with Jorja Johnson, won a silver in women’s doubles. On their way to that silver medal, Humberg and Johnson defeated Etta Wright/Meghan Dizon, Allyce Jones/Callie Smith, and Lea Jansen/Tina Pisnik. Humberg also paired with Pablo Tellez to finish 4th in mixed doubles. On the men’s side, Tardio earned that aforementioned men’s doubles gold medal with Daescu. He then showed he can also play a strong left-side game in mixed doubles winning a gold medal thriller with Jessie Irvine against Bright and Ignatowich. The question now becomes are Humberg and Tardio Top 10 players? Based on this last week, it sure looks like it.

Some top players are struggling. Jack Sock had another difficult week. He played all three events, but could only manage one round of 16 exit, and two round of 32 losses.  Similarly, Riley Newman had two round of 16 exits in his two events. As the younger players heat up, can the 30+ players like Sock and Newman keep up?

Next up on the PPA Tour is the Las Vegas Pickleball Cup to be held at The Fontainebleau resort. It looks like it will be another great venue, likely to draw large crowds.

If you can make it, what better place to watch a PPA event than in Las Vegas? If you can’t be there in person, check out the action on PickleballTV.

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