The surprise semifinal matchup on Saturday featured #6 seeds Matt Wright/Jaume Martinez Vich against #11 seeds Tyson McGuffin/Max Freeman after both teams logged fantastic upsets on Friday. Wright/Vich took down #2 seeds Federico Staksrud and Hayden Patriquin 7-11, 12-10, 11-9 in their quarterfinal, while McGuffin/Freeman defeated #3 seeds JW Johnson/Andrei Daescu 9-11, 11-9, 11-9 on their own side of the draw.

Saturday’s semifinal saw McGuffin/Freeman come out firing to take a big game one 11-0, then go up 7-3 in game two. In a surprising twist, Wright/Vich came roaring back to win game two without dropping another point 11-7, then took a tight game three 11-8. The match’s total point count actually had the victors logging less points at 22 compared to 26, as well as slightly more errors at 19 compared to 18.

“Yeah we had a strategy, Jaume sent it to me this morning, I said ‘I disagree with it,’ we went with my strategy, and we were down 11-0, 7-3 and then I finally listened to him,” Wright laughed afterwards. “So yeah, I may be the seasoned veteran, but I think the wily young guy came up with the better plan.”

Vich, in his typical good natured fashion, gave Wright kudos, saying, “when we get to tight moments, I look at him and say, ‘hey can I do this’ and he just tells me, ‘do whatever you want, man’ and so far it’s been working.”

On the other side of the draw, #1 seeds Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio faced familiar foes, but ones that have rarely been seen paired together: Jay Devilliers and Riley Newman, coming in as the #7 seeds. Devilliers/Newman played a heck of a match, winning an epic game one 11-8. For a moment, it looked like the #1 seeds might be in trouble.

“They came out and played really well, especially in that first game. We went down pretty quick and they just came with a lot of great shots,” Johns admitted. “Games two and three, it was mostly just important to be getting to the line a bigger percentage of the time and getting some looks, even if you’re missing some attacks.”

Sunday is set to be an exciting one, with two veterans in the shape of Johns and Wright taking the court alongside their newer partners, Tardio and Vich. Tune into Pickleballtv to catch all the action from 11am ET–5pm ET tomorrow.