The APP Tour is a non-stop pickleball machine. In the last two weeks alone, the APP Tour traveled from Philadelphia to Chicago (and even had a stop in Spain the same weekend as its Chicago Open). The APP Tour is now on the road to Atlanta for its 18th tour stop of 2022 in the United States (with 7 more stops in the U.S. alone throughout the remainder of the calendar year).
If you like to play pickleball and want to compete week-in and week-out, the APP Tour will certainly give you plenty of opportunities. And, there are a ton of pro pickleball players along for the ride. In fact, a handful of pros and senior pros have already played in over 100 brackets this 2022 calendar year! Shoutout to these pro pickleball players and senior pro pickleball players who are absolute road warriors!
Let’s breakdown the last two APP tour stops…
DJ Young and Vivienne David Shine at the APP Philadelphia Open
Both DJ Young and Vivienne David—both Dreamland residents, practice partners, and CRBN-wielding players—shined at the APP Philadelphia Open, winning gold together in mixed doubles and then again in their respective gender doubles events. Young won gold in men’s doubles with Mario Barrientos, while Vivienne David took home gold in women’s doubles with Lauren Stratman (which was the second gold in a row for this duo).
Other standouts from the APP Philadelphia Open include:
- Pablo Tellez snagged three medals—one in each event he played in. Tellez took home silver in men’s singles, silver in men’s doubles (with Brendon Long), and bronze in mixed doubles (with Milan Rane).
- Speaking of Milan Rane, she grabbed two medals herself. One bronze in mixed doubles and one silver in women’s doubles with partner Jorja Johnson, who grabbed two medals, too, with her women’s singles championship. Megan Fudge also matched Rane and Johnson with two medals of her own—a bronze in women’s doubles with Olivia McMillan and a silver in women’s singles.
- Andrei Daescu scooped up two medals at the APP Philadelphia Open – a bronze medal in men’s doubles with Eden Lica, and a silver medal in mixed doubles with a “pick-up” partner in Andrea Koop (who filled in for her sister, Maggie Remynse, who had to back out last minute). Not too bad for a late pick-up…
- Federico Staksrud climbed back on top of the men’s singles podium. Staying with singles, John Cincola claimed bronze in men’s singles, and Alix Truong had a strong showing, claiming bronze on the women’s singles side.
- Last, but certainly not least, Julie Johnson was the standout in the senior pro brackets, as she took home the coveted triple crown (winning gold in senior mixed doubles, senior women’s doubles, and senior women’s singles).
The APP Chicago Open Features Lots of “If Necessary” Games
The APP Chicago Open featured a “Championship Sunday,” with all championship matches being played on Sunday, and a good crowd came out to support. The pro pickleball players put on a show for the in-person crowd, too, as a majority of the matches (4 out of the 5 championship matches) in the APP Tour’s double-elimination format went to the “if necessary” game to 15. The big winners on the weekend were:
- Federico Staksrud defended his APP Philadelphia Open men’s singles gold with another gold in Chicago. Staksrud held off JW Johnson in the “if necessary” game to 15, leaving Johnson to have to settle for silver.
- Salome Devidze snagged the women’s singles gold, defeating Anna Bright. Both Bright and JW Johnson were on the hunt for a triple crown, but were stopped in their quest early in the day.
- Similar to Bright and Johnson, two senior pros were also in the hunt for a triple crown—Rick Witsken and Beth Bellamy. Only Bellamy, however, was able to procure the triple crown on the weekend. Congrats to Beth Bellamy!
- Turning to pro gender doubles, two more “if necessary” games to 15 were played.
- Andrea Koop and Lauren Stratman completed the ultimate comeback. After the pair lost their first match of the women’s doubles bracket, Koop and Stratman came all the way back, completing the “double dip” against Jorja Johnson and Anna Bright, and grabbed the gold medal. APP Tour founder, Ken Herrmann, even called Stratman the “player of the month,” as she has won the last three women’s doubles events in a row on the APP Tour.
- Andrei Daescu and Dylan Frazier held off an attempted “double dip” from JW Johnson and Dekel Bar. With a young gun and a big man on each side of the pickleball net, it was Daescu and Frazier who came out on top.
- Mixed doubles was all about Dylan Frazier and Anna Bright, who squeaked out the finals (again, in the “if necessary” game to 15) to claim the gold medal over their common gender doubles partners and friends, the brother-sister duo of JW and Jorja Johnson. As a result, Frazier grabbed double gold, Bright snagged three medals on the weekend, and JW Johnson went 0-3 on Championship Sunday, having to settle for three silver medals.
- Also, shoutout to the bronze medalists at the APP Chicago Open: James Ignatowich and Rosie Johanson in their respective gender singles events, Etta Wright and Lee Whitwell in women’s doubles, Thomas Wilson and DJ Young in men’s doubles, and Andrea Koop and Zane Navratil in mixed doubles.
