Impressions from day five of Select Medical Orange County Cup
Jim Kloss
Jun 30 2024 8:45 AM ET
SAN CLEMENTE, CA - Saturday was yet another perfect day for pickleball at Life Time Fitness. Friday’s play had almost half the quarterfinal matches being decided in three games; Saturday’s semifinals could not quite match that pace, but did feature multiple three-game matches and one amazing comeback.
1. ALW dominance continues. Through the quarterfinals, opponents were averaging three points per game against Anna Leigh Waters. The semis were a repeat, at least in singles and women’s doubles. In those four games, ALW lost only nine points. Judit Castillo played a fine game of singles against ALW, and they had a lot of long rallies. But Castillo could only win six points in two games.
2. A not-quite breakthrough in mixed doubles. ALW’s third event, mixed doubles with Ben Johns, gave us what was perhaps the most thrilling match of the tournament. JW and Jorja Johnson lost game one 11-3, but came back to win game two 11-5. The Johnsons had a solid lead in game three and six match points! But they couldn’t hold it. ALW/Ben reeled off the last seven points of the match and took game three 12-10. Had the Johnsons won, it would have been a PPA Sunday without Ben Johns, something that has not happened for years, when he is entered.
3. Draws matter. For anyone who thinks the draw doesn’t matter, I give you men’s singles at this tournament as Exhibit A. Federico Staksrud defeated Tyson McGuffin to make the final; Ben Johns lost to Chris Haworth in three games. Johns’ opponents in this event were Hunter Johnson, Naveen Beasley, Quang Duong, and Haworth. That is a veritable murderer’s row of top singles players. Staksrud played Wyatt Stone, Tom Evans, Collin Shick, and Tyson McGuffin. Staksrud’s opponents are fine players, but Johns faced what might be the toughest road of singles players anyone will have to play all year.
4. Big H goes 1-1. Hayden Patriquin and Vivian Glozman lost to Catherine Parenteau and Christian Alshon 11-3, 13-11. Both games were unusual. In game one, Patriquin/Glozman had a 3-0 lead and lost 11 straight points. In game two, Patriquin/Glozman had 2 game points and CP/Alshon had five match points, before closing it out. Patriquin came back with Pablo Tellez to defeat Julian Arnold and Jack Munro 11-7, 11-7, earning a place in the Sunday championship lineup.
5. Parenteau made the mixed final, in one of the few tournaments this year she has not teamed with Jack Sock. Typically, Sock and Parenteau have been knocked out in the quarterfinals. With CP now making a final the one time she plays with Christian Alshon, what does this tell us about Sock’s level of mixed doubles play? Jack Sock is super entertaining, but his doubles game has a ways to go to get to the highest level of the sport.
6. Offense matters. There has been an ebb and flow in pickleball for years, where defense (third shot drops, resets, and dinks) has often dominated; with the development of more powerful paddles, offense (speedups, drives, and counters) is now on the rise. Mistakes and errors are still made, but it is becoming clear that to win, players must have some method to create offense, to affirmatively win points, in order to prevail. We have seen that on display all week, with players who struggle to create offense were struggling to win matches. More on this to come in a future column.
We will be back at it Sunday, with bronze medal action on grandstand court and gold medal action on Humana Championship Court. It promises to be another beautiful day. Come on out to watch!
Follow me on Twitter/x @pickleball_jim
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