LAKEWAY, TX - The men’s doubles semifinal didn’t start off the way that Matt Wright and Andrei Daescu were hoping for. In fact, the first game went about as poorly as a game can go on a pickleball court.

Yeah, they got pickled.

Fortunately for them, though, their match against No. 2 seeds JW Johnson and Dylan Frazier was best two out of three games.

And Wright and Daescu certainly made the next two games count.

They came back to win them 11-4, 11-5 to make the gold medal match.

“We weren’t playing our best, and they cleaned us up in the first game,” Daescu mentioned. “But we knew our level and knew how we can play together. We just had to do it.”

And they did do it, displaying some impressive hand speed in the second half of the match in hands battles at the kitchen line.

“I think we’re tough to attack with our hands and size,” Wright said of his partnership with the 6’4’’ Daescu.

The No. 4 seeds will take on No. 9 seeds Christian Alshon and Zane Navratil, who beat the Johns brothers earlier in the tournament, for the men’s doubles title.