March has been loaded with nonstop PPA action, and this week we head to the Dallas area for the CIBC Texas Open presented by Fasenra. The big stories this week will focus on whether Anna Leigh Waters can grab back-to-back triple crowns, whether Andrei Daescu can make it a four-peat in men’s doubles, and who can emerge from a stacked men’s singles draw.

 

 

 

The #1 seed goes to Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau, and the #2 seed to Anna Bright and Rachel Rohrabacher. The question this week, as it seems to be every week, is whether any other pair can sneak in and spoil another finals rematch. This week, Waters/Parenteau have a relatively easy draw, so expect them to make the final. Bright/Rohrabacher are on the tougher side of the draw, with the main challenger likely to be #3 seed Parris Todd/Tyra Black. I do not expect much of a challenge to the top seeds from the lower seeds. At #4 is Meghan Dizon/Allyce Jones and at #5 is Etta Tuionetoa/Callie Smith.

 

 

Men’s singles remains the deepest event and toughest to predict. One-third of the round of 16 at Cape Coral consisted of seeds #38 or lower. I don’t expect that to happen again in Texas, but picking the four semifinalists remains very difficult. Federico Staksrud returns to singles action and is the #1 seed. But, although he has returned to the JOOLA paddle, he still seems just a little off. Ben Johns is at #2 and has a good draw for him, in that he is not set to play any of the young power players who give him trouble early in singles draws. Barring upsets, the quarters would feature #1 Staksrud v #5 Quang Duong, #4 Hunter Johnson v #8 Dylan Frazier, #2 Johns v #7 Christian Alshon, and #3 Connor Garnett v #6 Jaume Martinez Vich. As always, the depth of this draw will give us some great early matches. This week, the first round features such matches as #24 Jay Devilliers v #42 Max Freeman, #22 Julian Arnold v #43 Juan Benitez, and #27 Blaine Hovenier v #38 James Delgado.

 

 

 

 

 

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The question every week is whether Anna Leigh Waters will ever lose a singles match. After dropping a game to Brooke Buckner in Mesa, ALW cruised in Cape Coral, not losing a single game. She won’t go all year without losing (I think), but predicting when a loss will happen is a very hard task. This week, she will face strong competition, likely facing in the quarters the winner of #8 Zoey Wang v #9 Lacy Schneemann, and #3 Buckner in the semis. In the bottom half of the draw, #2 Kaitlyn Christian will be challenged by #4 Kate Fahey and #6 Salome Devidze. Watch out for Devidze; she was out this year until Cape Coral, where she struggled a bit early but gave Fahey all she could handle in the quarters before bowing in three tough games.

 

 

Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns get the #1 seed and have, relatively speaking, an easy draw. Their side of the draw includes #4 Anna Bright/Hayden Patriquin (the toughest team on that side after #1), #6 Etta Tuionetoa/Federico Staksrud, and #8 Tina Pisnik/Collin Johns. I would expect a lower seed to knock off Pisnik/Johns, and Bright/Patriquin would have to face Tuionetoa/Staksrud, so I expect the only test for Waters/Johns to be the semifinal. In the bottom half of the draw, the #2 seed goes to JW Johnson and Jorja Johnson. They are playing well, but will be tested as the bottom half is significantly harder than the top half. In the bottom half are #3 Catherine Parenteau/Christian Alshon and #5 Rachel Rohrabacher/Dekel Bar. Alshon and Bar have both been playing top level mixed doubles, and both have good partners, so they will be tough outs. Some lower seeds who could challenge include #9 Viv David/Dylan Frazier, #13 Tyra Black/Jaume Martinez Vich, and #14 Lacy Schneemann/Tyson McGuffin. I like the Black/Martinez Vich pair in particular, but they are likely to face JW/Jorja early, so the draw is not good.

 

 

 

The last event is certainly not the least, as Andrei Daescu goes for a four-peat. This time he is paired with Dylan Frazier and gets the #3 seed. If Daescu can win, it would be four in a row, with three different partners. Daescu is demonstrating not just talent, but also versatility and that he is a great partner. You simply cannot do what he is doing on talent alone. He is the big story in Texas this week.

 

The #1 seed goes to Christian Alshon/Federico Staksrud. They were good in Cape Coral but not great. They are likely to have a tough task in the quarters from #7 CJ Klinger/JW Johnson. The Klinger/Johnson pairing looked mighty tough in Cape Coral. That quarterfinal match, if it occurs, is as good a matchup as any gold medal final you will see all year. It is one example why all day, every day there are great matches to watch at every PPA stop. In the bottom half of the draw, the #2 seed goes to Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio. If everything goes to form, they would face Daescu/Frazier in the semifinals. A couple of interesting new partnerships are #8 Quang Duong/Tyson McGuffin and #11 Riley Newman/Max Freeman. Duong has been looking for PPA success in 2025 to match his MLP success in 2024. McGuffin is a super-versatile partner, who will allow Duong to play his best game. They are likely to see Johns/Tardio in the quarters, which will be a good test. For Newman/Freeman, the question is whether Freeman can stand up in doubles. He had a breakthrough in singles in Cape Coral, finishing fourth; but singles and doubles are different and he will have to prove he can play top level doubles. Freeman does have the best partner he has ever played with in Newman, so this week is his chance to show what he can do.

 

 

Cape Coral went largely chalk in the finals, so I’m going to go the other way this week, and pick some upsets.

 

Buckner takes out Waters and defeats Devidze in women’s singles. Waters has to lose some time, so maybe this is the week.

In men’s singles, I like Ben’s draw, so I will pick Ben over Hunter Johnson in the final

For mixed, I will go chalk with Waters/Johns over JW Johnson/Jorja Johnson.

In women’s doubles, I will take Todd/Black in an upset over Bright/Rohrabacher, but will lose to Waters/Parenteau in the final.

Finally, in men’s doubles, I’m going relatively far out and will take #7 Klinger/Johnson to defeat #3 Daescu/Frazier in the final. They only played once together, but I think JW may have found himself the perfect partner in CJ.

 

Will any of these upset specials come to pass? We will see. I know I will be watching on Pickleballtv and wishing I was there in person.

 

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