The threatened rain luckily never appeared to disrupt play, and Championship Sunday at the Veolia North Carolina Open played out magnificently. We had longshots, upsets, and a showdown for supremacy. What more could anyone have asked for?

 

 

One star of the weekend was Gabe Tardio. He started by winning a longshot gold medal in men’s singles. Tardio has always been a good singles player, and previously won PPA Australia, but the Veolia North Carolina Open had much tougher competition. Tardio won as a #13 seed, beating fellow longshot #10 Roscoe Bellamy in the final. En route to his gold medal, Tardio had wins over #3 Connor Garnett and #1 Federico Staksrud.

 

 

Tardio came back later on Sunday to team with Ben Johns for a second gold medal in men’s doubles. Tardio/Johns worked their way through a very tough field. The highlight was an epic gold medal win over #1 seed Hayden Patriquin/Federico Staksrud, 11-9, 11-5, 10-12, 13-11. Each game was a tough battle, with many long rallies, clever speedups, awesome counters, and excellent offense and defense by both teams.

 

 

 

Championship Sunday featured two major upsets. First, in women’s doubles, #3 Jorja Johnson/Tyra Black took down #1 Catherine Parenteau/Anna Leigh Waters, 1-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-7. After the 11-1 triumph in game one, the crowd likely thought this one would end in yet another crown for Parenteau/Waters. But, as they had shown all week, Johnson/Black were incredibly resilient, and they came back strong to reel off three straight games for the win.

 

 

The second big upset of the day again involved the second star of the weekend, Jorja Johnson. She along with brother JW Johnson took down #1 seed Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns in the final, 8-11, 11-7, 11-6, 3-11, 11-8. Beating ALW once in a weekend is tough enough, but Jorja Johnson did it twice! After Waters/Johns won game three easily, you had to wonder if this one would slip away. But the Johnsons hung tough and gutted out a close game five win.

 

 

 

It is always interesting to try to spot up and coming players, especially someone with potential to break into the mix for Sunday play on a regular basis. This week, Eric Oncins made his case to be a regular Sunday player. Oncins teamed with Dylan Frazier as the #8 seed in men’s doubles. When three of the teams in men’s doubles are Tardio/Johns, Patriquin/Staksrud and Christian Alshon/Andrei Daescu, it is hard to get any kind of medal. But, Oncins and Frazier defeated Alshon/Daescu in a quarterfinal thriller, 11-3, 6-11, 12-10, and they went on to earn the bronze. Frazier played his usual excellent right side, but Oncins play on the left was the eye-opener. He was solid all week, and displayed good power on offense, but it was his high level of steady dinking and good counters that were unexpected. Oncins played this week like a top 10 talent; is that what we will see going forward, or will North Carolina be an aberration? Based on what I saw, I think he will be back.

 

 

 

Anna Leigh Waters was the #1 seed in women’s singles, but decided instead to withdraw. That created a chance for players to show they are the second best singles player in the women’s game. Kate Fahey was the #2 seed, deservedly, as she has been the steadiest over the course of the last year. But Parris Todd has been staking her own claim to the #2 spot, capturing a silver last week, and having taken the gold the last time ALW sat out a singles draw (in Tucson). The two claimants ended up facing each other in the final, and played a very hard fought match, lasting well over an hour. Todd took game one 11-4 and had a nice lead in game two. But, Fahey fought back, winning game two 11-9. In game three, it was Todd’s turn to come back, when Fahey took a 9-1 lead. Todd closed to 9-6, but that was as far as she got as Fahey closed it out 11-6 to take the gold. Expect to see a lot more battles in 2025 between Fahey and Todd as they chase that #2 spot.

 

 

 

The predictions for the week were thrown off a bit by the singles withdrawals. I hit on only four of the 10 finalists. I did correctly predict Johnson/Black would make the final over Bright/Rohrabacher and did correctly predict Waters/Johns would lose in the mixed final. But, overall it was a week of upsets and I missed on my prediction of an Alshon/Daescu victory. It will be very tough going forward to pick the right men’s doubles winner, with three excellent teams and a couple others who can beat anyone in any one match. It will be fun to watch it all play out!

 

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