Pro Doubles Day
Posted on March 1, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Travel.
Saturday was men’s and women’s pro doubles day. It was a really long day. The guys started playing at 8 AM and didn’t finish until almost 10 o’clock in the evening. Saturday was also the day that I played mixed and even though I didn’t do well in my event I had a lot of fun spectating. We also got a ton of great pics.
Here are a couple of pics from my mandatory player orientation for mixed doubles on Saturday. This is how they start all of the events.
Karen, Chandi, Krista, and I with our #1 female pickleball idol, Lucy Kovalova.
Karen and I also got pics with Dayne Gingrich (left) and Dave Weinbach (right).
And also with our favorite men’s doubles team, the #WichitaBoys aka #TeamModel aka #TeamEurope — Patrick Smith (in white) and Jocelyn Devilliers (in blue).
I also got some awesome pics courtside. This is team Waters, Leigh (left) and daughter Anna Leigh (right).
Kyle Yates and Matt Wright — this is the first time I’ve seen them play together again since the Franklin Pickleball Masters pickleball invitational tournament at Chicken N Pickle almost two years ago.
Lucy and Simone, who I like to call team #Lucimone, are the most dominant women’s doubles team and super fun to watch.
#TeamSelkirk’s Tyson McGuffin and Riley Newman.
The #CaliforniaBoys DJ Young and Callan Dawson pictured below both play for #TeamProkennex.
#TeamUtah’s Tyler Loong and Spencer Smith were so much fun to watch.
Our #WichitaBoys in action — Pat in white and Jocelyn in blue.
Chandi and Krista made a Jocelyn sandwich to keep him warm.
Arizona gets really cold at night. Pat was nice enough to let us borrow his clothes to keep warm. Karen got his pants and I got his pullover jacket. Jocelyn also let Karen borrow his hoodie. Our boys are the sweetest.
Though I didn’t do well, it was a very successful tournament day for the Wichita crew. Lucy and Simone took gold in women’s pro doubles and Jocelyn and Pat took silver in men’s pro doubles. It was totally worth sitting in the freezing cold to watch.
More from the PPA Arizona tournament next time. Until then GNG.
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Late Night Practice
Posted on February 28, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Travel.
Dylan Frazier and Chris Heck arrived in Phoenix on Friday night and went straight to the pickleball courts. We got to watch their practice session with Matt Wright and Kyle Yates.
The funny part about this is that I think Chris only told me where they would be so I would take pictures but the best part is I got to meet a little chess master and had a fun little game of chess.
I have to say, she’s the cutest opponent I’ve ever played chess against.
Here’s a pretty picture of palm trees on the way back to our room.
Until next time. GNG.
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Women’s Doubles Day
Posted on February 27, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Travel.
Friday was women’s doubles day. Karen and I didn’t do so hot in the tournament but we had a lot of fun watching Jocelyn Devilliers (aka Jay, the French half of #TeamModel) play singles and cheering from the sidelines.
Here are some pics from that day.
Ben Johns is always all smiles because he is the undisputed #1 pickleball player in the world. We were lucky enough to be courtside for some epic matches.
Our pal Jocelyn took bronze and Ben and Zane (Navratil) battled it out for first and second, with Ben victorious in the end.
As for the women, Simone Jardim and Michelle Esquivel played for first and second. Simone came out on top. Michelle took second and Vivienne David took third. The level of play was out of this world and it was so much fun to watch.
Win or lose, Jocelyn always has a lot of fun and I like that about him.
Here are some of my favorite photos of Jocelyn from pro singles day.
Later that day, Karen and I hit Roy’s for happy hour.
And then it was off to the pool.
We had a great time hanging out at the pool but we couldn’t stay long because once the sun was gone it quickly got cold. That’s the crazy thing about Arizona weather. The weather is wonderful during the day but early in the morning and late at night, it still feels like winter. I’d been to Arizona before and should have known this but it had been over ten years and I’d forgotten how drastic the temperature difference is between midday and night. I was completely unprepared for it.
That’s pretty much all for now. More on the trip next time. GNG.
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Dinner at the Desert Ridge Yard House
Posted on February 26, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Here are some pictures from our dinner on Thursday night at Yard House.
I usually prefer to eat local when I’m out of town so I stay away from chains but Karen had never been to a Yard House before, I knew they had an extensive menu that would not disappoint, and the restaurant was literally just a mile away from our hotel (about 3 minutes by car or 15 minutes on foot). The crazy thing about dinner that night is the whole Uber situation in Phoenix. Because of the pandemic, a bunch of Uber drivers quit because they weren’t making any money (because everyone was staying home and people weren’t traveling) so there’s a shortage of cars available. Anyway, it took us almost 45 minutes to get from our hotel to the restaurant because, after waiting 20 minutes, our first driver canceled our trip and so we got another driver who we also had to wait a long time for. We seriously could have walked to the restaurant in less time. However, Karen was nursing her heel and, after playing singles all afternoon, I really didn’t feel like walking anywhere so we were stuck waiting on the Uber I ordered. I didn’t have to order the Uber back because Matt had his Uber drop Karen and I off at our hotel on his way home.
The whole Uber situation in Phoenix is horrendous. On our last day, I saw on Facebook that Melissa McCurley gave her Uber to Simone Jardim because Simone had the same situation with her Uber driver canceling the trip and waiting on another Uber would have made her late for her flight. Thankfully, Melissa’s Uber was already there and I think she had more flexibility so she gave up her car to Simone. Both of these experiences (our dinner one and Simone’s trip to the airport) made me grateful that I had prearranged a car service with Execucar. Granted it cost over $200 just for two rides — from the airport to the hotel and then from the hotel back — but the guarantee of having a car available at the scheduled time (our ride to the airport was actually early) is totally worth it.
Anyway, more about the trip on my next post. Until then, GNG.
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Singles Tournament Results
Posted on February 26, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Travel.
We had a pretty small field for 3.0 singles, as you can see from the above bracket. Since there were so few of us (4 players in 35+ and 2 players in 19+) they decided to combine both of our divisions. As it turns out, the older women actually prevailed. Gold (Jimena) and silver (me) went to women over 40 years old. I thought Christina (she took bronze) was actually under 35 so I assumed everyone would get a medal because there were only six of us total. But since Christina was part of the 35+ group, one of the ladies didn’t medal. However, both of the 19+ girls got medals — yes, even the one who had to withdraw.
Here’s a pic of me and my new friend Jimena from Gilbert, AZ. We both play with Electrum Pro paddles. I thought that was neat.
Here’s our podium pic:
– Jimena got gold.
– I got silver.
– Christina got bronze.
I was super nerdy and brought my Wichita flag to the podium with me.
Even though they combined our divisions, they awarded medals for both age groups. They basically just gave you a medal based on your performance so my new friend Marla also received a gold medal.
I think the best part of playing singles was having my Wichita pickleball friends there to cheer for me. At one point, Patrick Smith even came over. It made me feel super nervous but also special — because how many people can say they have Pat in their corner? Although, he just poked fun at us for our five-minute long timeouts. Without a ref there to enforce the 60-second limit, we weren’t really timing ourselves so we were basically having a good ol’ time during timeouts chatting about random things like what we’re having for dinner that night, plans for the evening, and what we’re wearing tomorrow. There was some talk of pickleball strategy but not much. LOL.
Speaking of refs, I did get my first experience with reffed matches when I got to the medal round. I learned that refs don’t watch the lines for you. You’re responsible for calling those yourself. If they see it, they’ll chime in but it’s not their responsibility. Mainly the ref is responsible for calling the score, making sure that you’re serving from the correct spot, and they watch for foot faults.
In the bronze match against Christina, I hit an overhead winner and had to steady myself to make sure I didn’t fall in the kitchen (I didn’t) but ref Andy was ready to pounce and call a foot fault. He had this look of “I’m going to get you!” on his face. We had a good laugh about it.
The ref for the gold match Diahann was super animated. She would call the score like it was baseball. Here’s a video of that match. This is the match where I learned the refs really don’t help you on the line calls. They’re not really watching for this and so you’re pretty much on your own. With me not being confrontational, I didn’t fight for some bad calls that I really should have and missed some opportunities (because every single point matters, specially in singles). Oh, well. It was a learning moment for me. At least I’ll know how to handle these things for the next tournament. And, I’m happy with my silver medal.
More from the PPA tournament next time. Until then, GNG.
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