The highly successful Proton Tucson Open is in the books. It was a beautiful week, with the excellence of the weather matched by the level of play. We had a full field in Tucson, and that brought out a nice crowd. Let’s talk about the highlights.

 

 

One of these days, we will have a radar gun at tournaments to measure who has the fastest serve, or who hits the hardest forehand. Until that day, we have to use the eyeball test. In Tucson, the leader in my view was Donald Young. Sporting the latest and greatest from Proton, the Proton 4 paddle, Young brought out an eye-poppingly fast serve and forehand. I was doing grandstand commentary all week, and Thomas Wilson joined me for a couple days. We agreed Young had the fastest serve and hardest forehand we had ever seen. If he can add better touch, especially on crosscourt rolls, watch out for him to make even faster progress on his switch from tennis.

 

 

 

Paddles are a frequent topic in online discussions and it is no different at a PPA tournament. This week, paddle talk centered on two players, one to the good side and one to the bad. Dylan Frazier, a paddle free agent, switched from Selkirk, trotting out a JOOLA 3. With the switch, Frazier was a new man on the court. Frazier previously had a fairly pedestrian drive for a top pro, but not with the JOOLA. Frazier suddenly had major pace on his drives, without sacrificing anything in the touch game. His newfound power seemed to help Frazier mentally as well, as he was extremely active on the court. With the new paddle in hand, Frazier snagged two bronze medals, in singles and in mixed, which previously had always been his weakest event.

On the downside, Federico Staksrud, newly signed with Adidas, played his first tournament with his new paddle. He was inconsistent, sometimes looking like the old Fede, other times seeming just a little off. He was shockingly eliminated in the round of 32 in singles; Staksrud just never loses early in singles, so that loss was the talk of the tournament. He followed that with a round of 16 loss in mixed and a withdrawal in men’s doubles. I would wager the poor performance by Staksrud was mostly due to some unfamiliarity with a new paddle, so look for him to bounce back soon.

 

 

In two of the five events, champions emerged without losing a single game. One was relatively expected, as Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau cruised to an easy gold in women’s doubles. They had their expected confrontation in the finals with Rachel Rohrabacher and Anna Bright, but rather than an epic five game match as many expected, Waters and Parenteau dominated early and often, losing only six points in the three game final.

 

 

Meanwhile, in men’s singles, Hunter Johnson turned in a dominating display, winning what may well be the deepest event without losing a game. Johnson had a tough road, as the men’s singles draw is never easy for anyone. He scored wins over such excellent singles players as Noe Khlif, Quang Duong, Dylan Frazier, and Christian Alshon to win it all. I had predicted in December that Johnson would be the #1 singles player in the world by the end of 2025. Needless to say, I am liking my prediction at this point.

 

 

 

Perhaps the biggest story entering 2025 was the breakup of the Ben Johns and Collin Johns men’s doubles partnership. Tucson was the first tournament after the brothers’ swan song gold medal at The Masters. Ben played with Hayden Patriquin and the expectation was nothing less than gold in the public’s mind, with the thinking being that if you pair two great players, great things happen. But, some of us said let’s wait and see, as often new partnerships take awhile to shake out. For myself, I predicted Johns and Patriquin would lose to Christian Alshon and Andrei Daescu and that is exactly what happened. Johns and Patriquin looked like they had some hesitation on middle shots. Patriquin was obviously used to seeing Johns take 70% of the court, but Johns was clearly ok with Patriquin taking his half of the court; that is the whole reason Johns moved on from his brother. It will be an issue to keep an eye on as they play together again. I expect they will be able to successfully work it out, with Patriquin taking some middle balls, playing aggressively, and injecting the extra offense Johns is looking for in a partner.

 

 

 

Every tournament I do a preview column and include predictions on the finalists for each of the five events. Outside of picking Waters to win, picking winners on the PPA Tour is a challenge. The brackets are just so deep, that hitting one finalist is good, while getting both finalists right is rarely done. But, I had a big week in Tucson. For my predictions on pickleball.com, I correctly picked four of the five winners and seven of the 10 Sunday finalists. Forgive me if I dislocate my shoulder patting myself on the back, but I may not have another week like this all year. Hitting on a #3 seed to win (Hunter Johnson) and a #4 seed to win (Alshon/Daescu) is not easy.

 

 

Next up is a progressive draw in Mesa for the Carvana Mesa Cup, beginning February 17. Temperatures are expected to be in the mid-to-high 70s, and Mesa draws some of the biggest crowds all year on the PPA Tour. It promises to be a great event.

 

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