Martin Emmrich hitting a pickleball.
Martin Emmrich at the 2024 North Carolina Cup. PPA Tour

Emmrich, De La Rosa advance to Round of 16

CARY, NC – Men’s doubles has been full of some epic battles at the North Carolina Cup.

Most recently, 16th-seeded Martin Emmerich and Daniel De La Rosa went up against Anderson Scarpa and Greg Dow. 

Scarpa and Dow won the opening game 11-7. 

“We slowed down a little to make sure we didn’t make mistakes,” shared De La Rosa regarding the duo's approach heading into the second stanza. 

Then, Emmerich and De La Rosa came back and won 11-7 in game two. 

“Slowing down gave us some rhythm so we can come back and do our game,” mentioned De La Rosa. 

Moving into game three, tension ran high. You could feel the passion with every point. These two teams were a close match. 

“Our style is to play aggressive and they were sitting on the balls, so we just had to adjust. It took a little bit of time, but we pulled through,” said Emmrich. 

“They both play amazing. It’s always tough to play Scarpa because his style is different from everybody else, and Greg only gets better and better,” added De La Rosa. 

Up next, Emmrich and De La Rosa will play Ben and Collin Johns for the fourth time. 

“We’ll play like we did last time,” said Emmrich. “Last time, we went out pretty aggressive but no one else thinks like Ben Johns, so we might have to put a couple of rockets on them.”