Vietnam Day 3 Recap: Late run lifts Truluck over Christian; Navratil, Bhatia stun Johns, Bar in three games in men’s doubles
PPA Tour Asia ‘s MB Vietnam Cup continued Thursday evening with semifinal coverage, and the action from Da Nang didn’t disappoint.
In one of the biggest upsets of the week, Zane Navratil/Armaan Bhatia took down top seeds Ben Johns/Dekel Bar in men’s doubles by an 11-4, 8-11, 13-11 score line.
Navratil/Bhatia—who took bronze last week in Malaysia—jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the deciding game, but they found themselves facing match point a few minutes later after a furious rally from Johns/Bar.
Four match points saved later, Navratil/Bhatia regained serve and closed out the contest after over an hour on court.
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“We had our chances in Game 2 that slipped away, and it looked like Game 3 might slip away from us as well, but we were able to clutch up in some important points,” Navratil said afterwards.
No. 2 seeds Eric Oncins/Tyson McGuffin await in the final.
The top seed also fell in women’s singles, where Liz Truluck defeated Kaitlyn Christian 11-5, 8-11, 11-9.
All nearly seemed lost for Truluck when she got down 1-8 in the deciding game, but she went on to score ten of the match’s final 11 points to pull off an unprecedented comeback and surge into the final.
"I’m really happy with my performance,” Truluck said afterwards. “I just kept telling myself to keep fighting because it’s never over till it’s over, and I knew that anything could happen. I just kept trying to take it point by point and really tried to stay in the moment.”
Truluck will face Australia’s Sahra Dennehy for gold in what will be a rematch of a Round of 16 contest from last week in Malaysia, which Dennehy won in three games.
Live championship coverage from Da Nang will be available starting at 9pm ET Friday evening on Pickleballtv.
Here’s a look at all five gold medal matchups.
Women’s Singles: Liz Truluck v. Sahra Dennehy
Men’s Singles: Phuc Huynh v. Hien Truong
Women’s Doubles: Kaitlyn Christian/Zoey Wang v. Alix Truong/Jamie Wei
Men’s Doubles: Zane Navratil/Armaan Bhatia v. Eric Oncins/Tyson McGuffin
Mixed Doubles: Zoey Wang/Tyson McGuffin v. Alix Truong/Jonathan Truong
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