Tulsa Pickleball Classic 2023
Posted on September 15, 2023 by Ching under Pickleball, Travel.
Just a few snaps from Tulsa Pickleball Classic 2023. This is the second year for this tournament. I had a lot of fun playing in it last year. Also, it was super organized and ran very smoothly so I wanted to check it out again.
With Gloria Otis on Friday, Singles and 50/50 day at Tulsa Pickleball Classic.
With Donnie Lesperance, Jenny Marcos, and James Moore.
Me and James.
With Donnie in our awesome Wichita Pickleball team shirts just for the event.
With Molly Sager on Saturday, Mixed Doubles day at Tulsa Pickleball Classic.
Tanner Rice was supposed to play with me but hurt his back so he and Matt Mauldin helped me find a last minute sub. Mohammad Luqman was nice enough to fill in. Tanner decided to come out to the tournament and hang out and got these action shots of Mo and me on Mixed Doubles day.
Karen Fox, and Tiffany and Donnie Lesperance had the perfect hang out spot by the courts on Sunday, Women’s Doubles day. It was a shady spot next to a giant mister fan — a cool spot for the cool kids.
I tried to get Bo Tolbert to fill in on Saturday when I found out that Tanner wouldn’t be able to play but he couldn’t take off work. He cold only play on Sunday, gender doubles day. It would have worked out perfectly if he could because, having played together a few times, we were already familiar with each other’s playing styles. Will have to reunite with this kid at some point, or maybe for 50/50 when the time comes and I’m the upper end of that team up.
Got a photo with one of my pickleball heroes, Jenny Marcos, on Women’s day. This woman is simply amazing. Donnie and I had to play against her and Ryan Luelf (they won Gold) in 50/50 and I was too starstruck to string shots together. She won 99% of our exchanges but I did get the better of her on a couple of dink battles and so I was pretty proud of myself for that. Her shots are just too good!
I had a ton of fun playing with pickleball daughter #2, Kendra Wicks. We’ve been trying to play more together to prepare for Nationals this November so we played PPA Kansas City Open together and also did a couple of sessions of women’s doubles league at Riverside Tennis Center.
Side note, she hated the pink outfits that I got for us to wear at the Diamond Amateur Championships in Florida last year (they were just too girly and frilly for her) so I let her pick out our Nationals uniform. This blue dress is her choice. Tulsa Pickleball Classic was basically our dress rehearsal.
Our division was one of the last to finish. We couldn’t wait until the championship match was over because Brian and I didn’t want to drive home in complete darkness so we just waited long enough to grab our medals and took off soon after we finished our Bronze medal match.
After we lost to Genevieve Eskridge and Nikki Baker, they moved on to play for Gold/Silver against Molly Sager and Cindy Egan. Molly and Cindy went completely undefeated that day. The four of them took a podium pic and Genevieve used her amazing Photoshop skills to add me and Kendra to that podium pic. She did such a great job that you can’t even tell this picture is Photoshopped.
In summary, these were my events/partners this year compared to last year’s events/partners/results:
| 2023 | 2022 | |
| Friday | Advanced 50/50 with Donnie Lesperance (1-2) | Intermediate 50/50 with Robert Mansfield (2nd place) |
| Saturday | 4.5 Mixed Doubles with Mohammad Luqman (1-2) | 4.5 Mixed Doubles with Tanner Rice (0-2) |
| Sunday | 4.0 Women’s Doubles with Kendra Wicks (3rd place) | 4.0 Women’s Doubles with Huyen Nguyen (1-2) |
I pretty much played the same events/divisions as last year with the exception of moving up to Advanced 50/50. Despite not moving up significantly in events, I’m actually pretty proud of my overall performance. I feel like a much stronger player than I was last year. While I was playing in these same divisions before and didn’t feel completely out of place, I didn’t feel like I completely belonged either. However, I am becoming more and more comfortable at this level as I get more experience and more matches under my belt. I can tell that I am getting better year over year and month over month. Each day I play, I truly feel like I am better (even if ever so slightly) than I was yesterday and that makes me happy. I am super proud of the progress I’ve made even though I’m just inching my way up at a snail’s pace.
I’ve learned and accepted long ago that some people are going to improve exponentially and move up in a matter of months (maybe even weeks) and just take off like rocket ships; whereas, there are people like me who will improve incrementally at a slow and steady pace. And that’s totally okay because I’m not in any kind of hurry. I’m enjoying every minute of this journey. Until next time, GNG.
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