Lea Jansen hits a pickleball forehand.
Lea Jansen and Hayden Patriquin are into the mixed doubles semifinals. PPA Tour

PPA Instant Classic: Jansen, Patriquin victorious in Minnesota epic

LAKEVILLE, MN - Friday afternoon brought a moment of poetic justice for Lea Jansen.

Just one day removed from surrendering a 9-1 Game 3 lead to Parris Todd in women’s singles, she and Hayden Patriquin completed an improbable comeback of their own in the final game against No. 2 seeds Anna Bright and Collin Johns.

Their comeback from 2-9 down was just the icing on the cake of what very well may go down as the match of the year on the PPA Tour.

After taking Game 1 12-10, Bright and Johns had six (!) chances to close the match out in two games.

That obviously didn’t happen, as the No. 8 seeds escaped 14-12 to force Game 3.

When Bright’s final dink fell into the net, Jansen and Patriquin’s victory was sealed.

And in that moment, Jansen found herself on the other (and better) side of a come-from-behind victory.

“This actually kind of makes up for yesterday,” she told PickleballTV’s Dave Fleming. “I kind of channeled my inner Parris Todd. She did it to me, so I know comebacks can happen.”

The heroics of Hayden Patriquin were an important feature of the effort, too.

The 18-year-old consistently found openings in the middle with his speedups off the bounce and helped turn the tide in Game 3.

For ‘Big H,’ all it took was playing up to his nickname.

“I just had to be big and play big,” he said. “I was exhausted, so I figured I’d just do something and speed it up, and it worked.”

This win moves Jansen and Patriquin to the semifinals, where they will face No. 12 seeds Rachel Rohrabacher and Federico Staksrud.