The PPA Tour is back in a big way beginning June 16 with the start of the Select Medical Orange County Cup. It takes place at the beautiful Life Time Rancho San Clemente, one of the best stops all year on the PPA Tour. The whole facility is awesome, but center court is particularly nice, just a great place to play and watch a pickleball tournament. The weather is expected to be in the low 70s and sunny. What could be better than watching the best players in the world, at a beautiful facility, with perfect weather?

 

 

Men’s doubles has now developed a Big Four: #1 Gabe Tardio/Ben Johns, #2 Federico Staksrud/Hayden Patriquin, #3 Christian Alshon/Andrei Daescu, and #4 CJ Klinger/JW Johnson. While the men’s game is very deep, it is hard to see an outcome that does not feature those four pairs all in the semifinals. The draw has Tardio/Johns facing Alshon/Daescu, and Staksrud/Patriquin against Klinger/Johnson. Can anyone else upset the apple cart and beat one of the Big Four? Dylan Frazier/Dekel Bar have the #5 seed, and would play Staksrud/Patriquin in the quarters, but you have to favor all the Big Four making the semis. There will be some great early matches among the lower seeds. One match I really want to see involves “Double Zane” - #14 Zane Navratil/Zane Ford against #18 Eric Oncins/DJ Young in the round of 32. That will be a great match (I’m picking Oncins/Young). Again, I don’t see any of the Big Four losing before the semifinal, but if I have to pick a potential team to break through, I would go with #10 Hunter Johnson/Augie Ge. That is a new and interesting partnership. Ge is super steady, while Johnson is up and down in doubles. Johnson has not had top 20 results, but he is a top 20 talent. Perhaps playing with the ever-steady Ge is what Johnson needs to have a breakthrough event in doubles to go with his singles success.

 

 

 

Men’s singles remains by far the toughest event to predict. Just look at this list of players who are not even seeded in the top 10: #12 Gabe Joseph, #13 Noe Khlif, #17 Grayson Goldin, #20 John Lucian Goins, #21 Cason Campbell, #25 Jay Devilliers, #35 Max Freeman, #40 Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez, and #46 James Ignatowich. Any of these players could make a deep run. For the top seeds, we have #1 Federico Staksrud, #2 Hunter Johnson, #3 Connor Garnett, and #4 Ben Johns. Staksrud and Johns would meet in one semifinal, a match I would love to see, but I think one or both will lose earlier. The draw is critically important in all events, but especially men’s singles where you want to avoid the young, big hitters who are so capable of an upset. Hunter Johnson appears to have the best draw, so look for him to have a good week. Grayson Goldin makes his PPA debut in San Clemente, and he may have a showdown in the round of 16 against Connor Garnett. If they both get that far, that will be a great match, with Goldin’s power game against Garnett’s tenacity and consistency. For another must-see match, catch a round of 32 battle between #9 Jack Sock and #22 Donald Young. We need to get the radar gun out for that one, as Sock and Young have two of the fastest serves and forehands in the world. Don’t expect much cat and mouse play, just some old fashioned hard hitting. Count me in.

 

 

As usual, Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns have the top seed and are the overwhelming favorites. #2 Jorja and JW Johnson will try to challenge them once again. Can anyone get in the way of that showdown? The #3 seed is the pairing of MLP teammates Etta Tuionetoa/Christian Alshon. Lots of talent there, but both looked a bit tired at MLP Daytona Beach. #4 is Federico Staksrud/Catherine Parenteau, a pairing that looks strong on paper but has not had results to match as yet. #5 is another MLP pair, Anna Bright/Hayden Patriquin. Can they have PPA success to match their MLP success? I do like them to play well this week. A couple of lower seeds who should do well are #7 Rachel Rohrabacher/Dekel Bar and #10 Parris Todd/Andrei Daescu.

 

 

 

Anna Leigh Waters and Anna Bright get the #1 seed and Rachel Rohrabacher and Catherine Parenteau get the #2 seed. Everyone will be looking for those teams to face each other in the final again. I like Waters/Bright to get there, but there are a couple of other teams I see having a good chance to spoil the party on the other side of the draw. At #3 are Tyra Black and Parris Todd and at #6 are Jackie Kawamoto and Etta Tuionetoa. Rorhrabacher/Parenteau will likely have to face the #6 seed in the quarters, and if they win, then the #3 seed in the semis. I don’t think Rohrabacher/Parenteau can get by both this week. The depth in women’s doubles continues to improve. A couple of good round of 16 matches are likely: #7 Tina Pisnik/Kate Fahey v. #10 Mari Humberg/Meghan Dizon, and #11 Zoey Wang/Brooke Buckner v. #5 Allyce Jones/Callie Smith. A good round of 32 match to watch early in the week features #9 Jade Kawamoto/Jessie Irvine v. #18 Genie Erokhina/Christa Gecheva.

5. Women’s singles: Who will play Anna Leigh in the final?

 

Women’s singles remains dominated by #1 seed Anna Leigh Waters. She loses about as much as the Fourth of July happens. Will her annual loss happen this week? Kate Fahey gets the #2 seed, and one of these days she will beat Waters. It’s just hard to see when it will happen. In San Clemente, Fahey will have to get by #7 Catherine Parenteau in the quarters and then the winner of #4 Parris Todd/#5 Brooke Buckner in the semis. A couple of great round of 16 matches are #8 Zoey Wang v. #10 Judit Castillo (former teammates on MLP Las Vegas), and #6 Lea Jansen v. #12 Helena Jansen (the “Battle of the Jansens”).

 

 

 

Predicting PPA winners is both easy and difficult. If Waters is playing, pick her and you will win much more than you lose. For men’s singles and doubles, get out your coin and start flipping as that will give you as good a chance of picking winners as any other method.

 

Men’s doubles: My coin came up with Alshon/Daescu over Klinger/Johnson

Men’s singles: Let’s go with some upsets on one side of the draw and pick Hunter Johnson over John Lucian Goins

Mixed doubles: Waters/Johns over Rohrabacher/Bar

Women’s doubles: Waters/Bright over Kawamoto/Tuionetoa

Women’s singles: Waters over Todd

 

Progressive draw is in play at San Clemente, so we will have Quaterfinal Friday and Semifinal Saturday, in addition to Championship Sunday. There will be plenty of interesting early round matches, but expect Friday and Saturday to be epic. I think Friday and Saturday at progressive draw events are as good as it gets, as there is just one great match after another, all day. If you can get out to Life Time Rancho San Clemente, you won’t regret it. It is a special place to watch a pickleball tournament. Hope to see you there!

 

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