Rachel Rohrabacher and Etta Tuionetoa competing in women's doubles at the Florida Dairy Farmers Daytona Beach Open.
Rachel Rohrabacher and Etta Tuionetoa found their groove in their quarterfinal victory on Friday. PPA Tour

First-time partnerships shine in women’s doubles

The top four seeds in the women’s doubles draw advanced to the semifinals, and three of those partnerships are playing together for the first time this week in Daytona Beach.

Those first-time pairings are Anna Leigh Waters/Jorja Johnson, Catherine Parenteau/Tyra Black, and Rachel Rohrabacher/Etta Tuionetoa.

After watching Tina Pisnik/Meghan Dizon and Parenteau/Black advance, Waters/Johnson took the court against No. 7 seeds Jessie Irvine/Mari Humberg.

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The top seeds found themselves trailing 2-6 in the opening game, but they completely flipped the script after that point and eventually cruised to an 11-6, 11-2 victory.

 

“We played two matches this morning, but Jessie and Mari are a very high level PPA team, so I feel like we hadn’t quite been battle tested yet going into a really tough match that we knew was going to take some grit,” Waters said of the performance. “I feel like they came out playing amazing with some crazy shots, and I think we were kind of our on back heels and maybe short on confidence, but we were able to win a couple points and get some energy when we needed it.”

Later on, in the final match of the day, Rohrabacher/Tuionetoa defeated No. 5 seeds Callie Smith/Allyce Jones by an 11-1, 11-4 score line.

Tuionetoa spoke afterwards about the decision to have her on the left side, where she put forth a dominant performance.

“I know we’re both capable of playing both sides, so we knew that we had that in the works if we needed it, but I have been playing the left side for most of my career, so Rachel just let me loose out there and was encouraging me to play big and reminded to go for my shots,” she explained. “It’s really nice that we have complimentary styles.”

Spots in the final will be up for grabs on Saturday.