The draws for pro pickleball events keep getting bigger.
More players, more match-ups, more names in the game that cause you to rub your chin and say, “Now, who’s that?”
In the singles draw, the PPA Tour has a player – Collin Shick – qualify for the main draw on a Thursday morning and make it all the way to a Sunday championship match.
And each week it seems like an upset or two has become the norm.
“Respect everybody, it doesn’t matter what their seed is,” said Tyson McGuffin, who may have learned his lesson after falling in the first round of the Charlotte tournament last month to a pair of unknown players, while teaming up with Jack Sock.
So if Thursday was full of lower-seeded players and some upsets throughout the bracket – which included the No. 1 men’s and No. 2 men’s player getting beat, Friday at the Orange County Cup was about the big names in the game taking over.
Top-seeded Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters will take on third-seeded Catherine Parenteau and Tyson McGuffin on Sunday for the mixed doubles title.
By the time we got to the quarterfinals Friday, the bracket had only two seeds that didn’t hold form and by the time we got to the semifinals it was No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5.
Sports are made by the top players,” John said. Those who have the following of the fans. You want fans. You want the following. That’s important. but every fan wants to see the underdogs win too.”
True. Sports are all about dynasties. There’s the Lakers and the Celtics, Alabama football, the Patriots in the NFL. All of those teams had huge support and created a massive amount of buzz, but fans love March Madness, too, where brackets get busted and underdogs are the talk of the town.
That wasn’t the case Friday at all.
“I would much rather see people we know well,” Johns said of facing a top team versus a team that may be unknown. “Any time I see people I don’t know, the patterns aren’t quite there. The more pattern recognition I can be aware of, the better it is for me.”
The pattern is there for McGuffin and Parenteau. Each are set to play in two title matches on Sunday. Parenteau will take on Waters in the singles final. McGuffin will go up against Connor Garnet in the men’s single final. Both will also be playing Saturday in the gender doubles bracket.
McGuffin and Parenteau beat the second-seeded team of James Ignatowich and Anna Bright in the semifinal, 11-6, 11-4, continuing another pattern of not losing a game all day. And, according to Parenteau, there is more pressure knowing you’re a top-seeded team.
“Yes, you have expectations,” she said. “There are so many great teams out there in mixed doubles.”
Johns and Waters dropped game one in the semis to the fifth-seeded team of J.W. and Jorja Johnson, but rallied for the 6-11, 11-6, 11-3 victory.
Ignatowich and Bright, who survived a three-game quarterfinal win over the 10th-seeded team of Lea Jansen and Travis Rettenmaier, beat the Johnsons in three games, 9-11, 11-8, 11-5, and earned the bronze.
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