The Beer City Open, although not a PPA Tour stop, was a popular event this season and featured a number of PPA players. Here are a few things we learned from the weekend in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Jessie Irvine plays singles
Irvine is one of the most decorated players in PPA history. She has a total of 45 medals since joining the tour, but she doesn’t have a single one while playing singles.
That’s because she doesn’t play singles. Singles is much harder on the body, especially when you lack cartilage in your knees and joints, as Irvine does. To save her body, singles is not a division that Irvine plays in.
But Thursday at the BCO, Irvine played singles and showed she has what it takes. She beat Judit Castillo in her half of the draw and earned her way into the bronze medal match, which she lost against Irina Tereschenko.
Irvine isn’t scheduled to play in the singles draw at this week’s PPA Tour stop in Seattle, but you have to figure she was playing singles in Grand Rapids to get herself ready for the upcoming MLP season.
Johnson and Frazier set to be the PPA’s second-best team
Dylan Frazier and J.W. Johnson took home another medal, finishing with the gold at the BCO. They beat Connor Garnett and Rafa Hewett in the championship match.
The two have medaled 15 times together, including two golds, the last gold coming in April at Newport Beach, Calif.
And while they are certainly a known talent and a top-ranked team, the rest of the season could be interesting for the two. Riley Newman and Matt Wright are no longer partners, and the pair had been the second-best team in pickleball behind Ben and Collin Johns. Newman is playing with Julian Arnold in Seattle. Matt Wright is playing alongside Jay Devilliers.
No one is saying Wright or Newman won’t be back on the podium, but with the pair splitting up, it leaves room for a new challenger to the Johns brothers. And aside from Newman and Wright and the Johns brothers, no team has been together as long or as consistently as Frazier and Johnson.
The Johns brothers will be in the field in Seattle.
Jorja Johnson is a star
We kind of, sort of, already knew this, but with the three-medal showing she had at BCO, it’s a lock now.
Johnson came into the week having medaled seven times on the PPA Tour and just once in her singles career. She finished the weekend with a pair of gold medals, including winning the singles bracket, 9-11, 11-9, 12-10 over Tyra Black.
Johnson teamed up with brother JW for a 13-11, 11-9 win against Dylan Frazier and Lauren Stratman and earned a bronze with Stratman in the women’s bracket.
Johnson will be in Seattle. She’ll play with JW in mixed, Lucy Kovalova in the women’s field, and also play singles.
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