Thursday’s action at the Fasenra Virginia Beach Cup presented by JOOLA ended with the mixed doubles quarterfinals, with eight teams looking to punch their tickets to the semis.

Tina Pisnik/Andrei Daescu became the first pairing to do that with a hard fought 7-11, 11-3, 11-4 victory over No. 3 seeds Anna Bright/CJ Klinger.

The No. 7 seeds seemed to really find their groove in the deciding game, as they scored the match’s final eight points to secure the comeback win.

Pisnik gave some insight into playing against a lefty in Klinger, which changes the patterns.

“It changes things a lot, but we had two matches like that already. We’ve only been playing lefties so far, so I’ve kind of drilled myself there, and I don’t mind going crosscourt,” she mentioned. “I like to let the ball bounce in that rally, but it just comes down to using the whole court and moving the ball around and finding the openings. That’s not easy to do against CJ and Anna, but we made it work in the end.”

Following the afternoon’s opening triumph, the pairings of Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns, Jorja Johnson/JW Johnson, and Parris Todd/Christian Alshon—the highest remaining seeds in the draw—each won their respective quarterfinal matches in straight games.

These results set up a tantalizing semifinal slate for Friday afternoon:

•                   No. 1 Waters/Johns v. No. 7 Pisnik/Daescu
•                   No. 2 Johnson/Johnson v. No. 4 Todd/Alshon
•  

As always, you can catch the action on Pickleballtv.