DALLAS, TX - The PPA Tour crosses the country this week, landing in Salt Lake City again, for The Picklr Utah Open. We can expect big crowds, as Utah is a hotbed for pickleball. Hopefully no rain this week, for a change!

 

Ben Johns, Anna Leigh Waters, and Catherine Parenteau all sit this one out. But, as we have seen before, their absence creates more wide open draws and a chance for new people to take down some medals.

Expect very close matches and some highly competitive medal matches this week.

 

 

Federico Staksrud will be there, and we can expect the top seed to be diffcult to knock out. He does face a very tough draw. Barring upsets (which can certainly occur), Staksrud could face a lineup of Noe Khlif, Gabe Tardio, winner of Pablo Tellez v Aanik Lohani, and Chris Haworth, just to get to the final. I thought Staskrud had a tough draw last week, but this one is arguably even more difficult. Watch for that Round of 32 match between Staksrud and #35 Khlif, if Khlif wins his round one match. Staksrud v Khlif means a lot of cat and mouse play, which is super entertaining. Another potential match to watch for is #5 Haworth v #9 JW Johnson in the Round of 16. As I have pointed out before, the Round of 16 in a PPA event is very tough. The way players have improved, I think winning a Round of 16 match today is more difficult than winning a final from just a few years ago.

 

 

The absence of Waters and Parenteau creates a truly wide open event. Any of the top 15 seeds could win this one. Lea Jansen gets the top seed, but to get to the finals, she likely has to defeat a lineup of Layne Sleeth, Judit Castillo, and Salome Davidze, no easy task there. Davidze is the #3 seed, but will face a tough Round of 16 match against likely opponent #14 Kate Fahey. It is another example of a Round of 16 match that features players who could easily be in a gold medal matchup. Kaitlyn Christian is the #4 seed, and has a good draw. Could this be the week where she gets over the hump to win a singles gold? She will not see a better opportunity any time soon.

 

 

Anna Bright and James Ignatowich combine again as the top seed. They have a good draw and should have a good chance to make the final. Standing on their way is likely to be the winner of a Round of 16 matchup between #5 Staksrud/Rachel Rohrabacher v #11 Andrei Daescu/Meghan Dizon. Once again, another Round of 16 matchup between players of championship caliber. Another probable Round of 16 match finds #2 seed JW and Jorja Johnson facing #13 Augie Ge/Etta Wright. The Ge/Wright pairing should work really well, as Ge’s breakthrough event was when he was paired with Tyra Black in Phoenix; Black and Wright have similar games and both are better on the left. Riley Newman returns to action, paired with Callie Smith as the #7 seed. They have a reasonable draw, but the question will be what kind of tournament shape Newman is in. An early Round of 32 match features #22 Tellez/Mari Humberg facing #14 Jack Sock/Jansen. Humberg likes that left side, so a pairing with lefty Tellez makes sense. But, it also puts Humberg directly facing Sock, and Sock will test her counters and blocks with constant speedups.

 

 

Johnson/Dylan Frazier are the top seed and they will look to get back on the gold medal track. They have a reasonable draw, so I look for a big bounce back week from the top seed. The #16 seed this week goes to last week’s giant killers, Todd Fought/Micheal Loyd. This week, they likely face #4 seed Tyson McGuffin/Jaume Martinez Vich in the Round of 16. Can they pull another big upset? With Ben Johns out, Collin Johns pairs with Dekel Bar and they get the #2 seed. It would be an upset to see them go far. They likely face a tough quarterfinal match against #6 seed Ge/Staksrud. As mentioned before, Newman returns to action, and gets the #9 seed with Brandon French. Right off the bat, they face a first round test against #21 Greg Dow/Anderson Scarpa, no easy task. The three seed goes to an old pairing of Matt Wright/Ignatowich. They have a good draw, so expect success this week for them. They will likely play a very interesting early match against #18 Sock/Collin Shick. If that matchup occurs, there just might be some chirping involved.

 

 

The top seed goes to Bright/Rohrabacher. They should have a good week. The second seed goes to Wright/Dizon. They have an easy draw, but Dizon has not been playing all that well in 2024, so an early upset there is quite possible. A Round of 16 match to watch for is #6 Tina Pisnik/Jansen v #9 Humberg/Johnson. Again, we see how difficult the Round of 16 can be.

 

 

In men’s singles, I will go with Staksrud over McGuffin.

In women’s singles, my pick is Christian over Davidze.

In mixed, I will pick Bright/Ignatowich to defeat JW and Jorja Johnson.

For men’s doubles, I’m going with Johnson/Frazier over Wright/Ignatowich.

Finally, in women's doubles, my pick is Bright/Rohrabacher over Pisnik/Jansen.

 

Should be a great event, held at an awesome facility. We will check back on Monday, to see how my picks held up. Enjoy the action from Utah.

 

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