The Carvana Mesa Cup presented by Proton begins February 17, and near perfect weather is expected in the Phoenix area for what should be a great event. All the best players are entered and set to go, so the draws are incredibly deep. There are opening round matches in the round of 64 that involve medal quality players. Predicting winners will not be easy, but let’s give it a try.

 

 

 

Ben Johns is back in action and gets a #2 seed. Federico Staksrud is the top seed, coming off an unusual early round loss in Tucson. Connor Garnett gets the #3 seed and last week’s winner, Hunter Johnson, is the #4 seed. The men’s singles draw is probably the deepest event of all five. Look at these first round matches (round of 64); #13 Pablo Tellez v #49 James Ignatowich, and #17 Gabe Tardio v #46 Tom Evans. Tardio already has a singles gold to his credit this year and all of these players are capable of deep runs. Looking ahead in the draw, we have expected round of 16 matches between Johns and #23 Zane Ford, #8 Christian Alshon v #9 Dylan Frazier, and #7 Jaume Martinez Vich v #11 Michael Loyd. Wow!

 

 

While women’s singles is not as deep as the men’s side, the competition is getting tougher by the tournament. No better evidence is supplied than the fact Catherine Parenteau is a #7 seed. The top seed goes to Anna Leigh Waters and she has a likely quarterfinal match with Parenteau. Again, that is a matchup that used to be a gold medal match all the time, but now the women’s draw is so deep that the match is now in the quarters! Hot hand Kaitlyn Christian gets the #2 seed. She likely will be tested early, by #14 Genie Bouchard in the round of 16. Last week’s winner, Parris Todd, gets the #5 seed, but likely has to face tough #9 seed Zoey Wang in the round of 16. Another likely matchup in the round of 16 is #6 Kate Fahey v #12 Jorja Johnson. What is a fan to do? Too many good matches all at the same time! Watch out for #3 Brooke Buckner. She has a relatively quiet spot in the draw, so she should make a run to the semis at least.

 

 

Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters get the top seed, but face an early test in the round of 32 against #31 Zoey Wang/CJ Klinger. I don’t expect an upset, but that one going three games would not surprise me. Last week’s runners up, Tyra Black and Christian Alshon, draw the #5 seed this week. They are in the top half of the draw, so will likely see Johns/Waters in the quarters instead of the finals. Black is playing the second best of any woman behind Waters, and Alshon is pushing Johns as the best on the men’s side, so expect another shootout if they play each other again. The bottom half of the draw is wide open. Jorja Johnson and JW Johnson are the #2 seed but will be tested by #4 Catherine Parenteau/Federico Staksrud, #6 Jessie Irvine/Gabe Tardio, #7 Tina Pisnik/Andrei Daescu, and #11 Lea Jansen/Riley Newman.

 

 

 

The talk in women’s doubles this week will focus on whether we see another rematch of #1 Anna Leigh Waters/Catherine Parenteau and #2 Rachel Rohrabacher/Anna Bright. Waters/Parenteau won easily last week, so the second seed will be looking for revenge. The #3 seed goes to Tyra Black/Parris Todd, a dangerous duo, who have a favorable draw. Some new pairs have the other top seeds, with #4 Lacy Schneemann/Meghan Dizon, #6 Jorja Johnson/Vivian Glozman and #7 Etta Tuionetoa/Lucy Kovalova. I have been expecting Dizon and Tuionetoa to split, so this may be a sign that is occurring for good. Lurking at the #9 seed are the ever-steady Kawamoto sisters; they have a good draw, so expect a deep run by them.

 

 

The marquee event this week should again be men’s doubles. The draw is super difficult. The top seed goes to Federico Staksrud/Hayden Patriquin. The big question for them is how Staksrud will handle his new Adidas paddle. Last week was an inauspicious beginning. They have #4 Christian Alshon/Andrei Daescu in their half of the draw. An interesting expected round of 16 matchup in the top half features #7 AJ Koller/Collin Johns v #12 Quang Duong/CJ Klinger. I do not expect a lot from Koller/Johns, but on the other hand, the Duong/Klinger pair have not done as well so far as we might all have expected. In the bottom half of the draw, the #2 seed goes to Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio. Tardio has so far not performed up to his talent level in the last couple men’s doubles events. Does he miss the chemistry with Daescu or is this the week he finds his top game? Other expected round of 16 matches include #8 James Ignatowich/Riley Newman v #9 Jaume Martinez Vich/Augie Ge. The top 16 seeds look good to make the round of 16; if you are looking for a team to break through, try #23 Ivan Jakovljevic/Anderson Scarpa.

 

 

I was on fire last week in Tucson. I hit four of the gold medalists and seven of ten finalists. Don’t expect a repeat of that any time soon. But, let’s take our best shot.

 

In men’s singles, I have been saying the best player in the world is Hunter Johnson. I am starting to convince some people. I will ride that train agin this week. Johnson over Ben Johns in the final.

 

In women’s singles, I will stick with Anna Leigh Waters, this time over Parris Todd. Todd’s constant practicing with Hunter Johnson is helping her game a lot.

 

For mixed doubles, hard to bet against Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns, so I won’t. I will pick them to defeat #7 Tina Pisnik/Andrei Daescu.

 

In women’s doubles, I am going with Anna Leigh Waters/Catherine Parenteau to defeat #3 Tyra Black/Parris Todd. I like Black/Todd in an upset over Rohrabacher/Bright in the semis.

 

Finally, in men’s doubles, I am riding the Christian Alshon/Andrei Daescu train again. I have them defeating Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio in the final.

 

If you have a chance, come on out to Mesa to see it all. There is no substitute for watching the pros from a seat 10 feet from the court. If you can’t be there in person, watch it all on Pickleballtv.

 

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