PPA Orlando Cup: Pickleball Tournament Recap

Over the last few days, I had the opportunity to attend the Professional Pickleball Association's (PPA) tournament in Orlando Florida.  It was held at the beautiful United States Tennis Association's  (USTA) Training Center which includes tennis, Pickleball, and padel. The facility has been open for just over a year and the Pickleball courts opened in June. I have to say it's great to see the USTA embracing Pickleball as well as the Tennis Channel providing live coverage of the finals on Sunday. It's too bad the coverage had a two-hour rain delay as the stadium court was full. But just as the women's singles final was set to start, the rain came in so the finals started at 2 p.m.

The first match of championships on Sunday pitted 14-year-old Anna Leigh Waters against Lea Jansen. The two have faced each other a number of times in singles including the PPA tournament in San Clemente, California earlier in the summer. They met in the finals and Waters lost a heart breaker to Jansen,  8-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-7, 11-8. Yesterday in Florida it was a different match as Waters won easily in three sets 11-6, 11-3, 11-4.  Honestly I was surprised it was such an easy match for Waters. Jansen just looked to be off, making many unforced errors.

Waters was on a roll not only in singles but also in doubles.  Anna and her mom Leigh Waters defeated Simone Jardim and Lucy Kovalova 12-10,9-11,11-8,11-7.  It's great to see the Waters get back on track as they missed most of 2020 due to not playing during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the men's side, Ben Johns and Matt Wright out played AJ Kohler and JW Johnson 11-4,15-13,11-6 to win the final.  The first game was all Johns and Wright so it was great to see Kohler and Johnson at least make a game of it in the second.  Still Johns and Wright were too much for the competition and came out on top in three games.

Johns was back to dominating the men's singles where he didn't lose a set throughout the event.  He beat Tyson McGuffin in three straight sets 11-7,11-7,11-8  in the final.  Things didn't go as well for Johns in mixed doubles as he and Jardim were relegated to the losers bracket and they did not medal.  Catherine Parenteau and Riley Newman were a top the podium in mixed doubles as they overcame Jessie Irvine and Jay Devilliers 11-9,11-4,6-11,11-6 .