A Golden Pickle, a Slice of Pizza and Some New Faces Highlight PPA Kansas City Open

The Selkirk PPA Kansas City Open took over the Elite Tennis and Wellness Center in Overland Park, Kansas, this weekend and delivered plenty of interesting results, some new winners and ... in-game pizza?

The 14th stop on the PPA Tour this year provided plenty of drama. The Johns brothers went down again, Gabe Tardio won his first gold medal, and the PPA Tour made SportsCenter's Top 10 plays three times!

Let’s break down what we witnessed. But first ...

Top plays from the weekend

Noe Khlif pulls an amazing backhand ATP winner in singles against Jack Sock:

Eric Roddy with a Top 10 play, pulling off an ATP on the opposite side of the court in mixed doubles:

Ben Johns got in on the SportsCenter action, hitting an ATP in the mixed doubles final:

This mixed doubles point had defense, offense, and a super silky smooth inside-out forehand winner on match point from Meghan Dizon:

Kate Fahey had an incredible hustle point in her singles match against Lea Jansen. Fahey would go on to earn an upset victory and earn herself a silver medal:

MLP medal count at PPA Kansas City

New Jersey 5s - 🥇🥇🥉🥉
Dallas Flash - 🥈🥈🥈🥉
St. Louis Shock - 🥇🥈🥉
LA Mad Drops - 🥇🥈🥉
Orlando Squeeze - 🥇🥈🥉
Carolina Pickleball Team - 🥇🥇
Arizona Drive - 🥈🥈
Utah Black Diamonds - 🥇
Texas Ranchers - 🥈
California Black Bears - 🥉

Top takeaways

Federico Staksrud and Gabe Tardio win Men’s Doubles Gold

Fed won his second men’s doubles gold and Gabe Tardio won his first gold medal on the PPA Tour.

They beat the Johns brothers in the semifinals, 11-9, 1-11, 11-5. They showed great mental fortitude coming back after dropping the second game handily.

They faced the formidable top seed in the final of JW Johnson and Dylan Frazier. Fed and Gabe train regularly with JW and Dylan. In his post game interview, Fed even humbly thanked JW and Dylan for helping both him and Gabe continue to get better by training with them.

Federico and Gabe won the match, 11-4, 11-8, 11-2. One of the funniest things I have seen all year in pickleball was Gabe Tardio chowing down on a piece of pizza at 7-8 in the middle of the second game of the finals.

Fed and Gabe were on the comeback trail, forcing JW and Dylan to take a timeout. Only an 18-year old could think of having a piece of pizza during the gold medal match. Who knows, maybe it will become a signature move of his moving forward? Sponsorship opportunity perhaps?

Singles was a repeat of PPA LA

Brooker Buckner and Connor Garnett each earned their second gold medal in singles on the PPA Tour this weekend in Kansas City. Ironically, they both earned their first gold at the PPA LA Open in April.

Brooke had a tough road to her victory. The gauntlet started in the quarterfinals, where she defeated Judit Castillo, 12-10, 11-3. She then beat Kaitlyn Christian in two games, 11-3, 11-6. In the gold medal match, she faced an extremely quick Kate Fahey, squeaking out a three-game win, 11-5, 4-11, 11-8. I would put Brooke in the top two in terms of groundstroke skills on the women's side. She is in contention every weekend.

Connor Garnett had a similar route in his quest for gold. Garnett, as the No. 2 seed, started in the Round of 32. Here are his wins on the way to the finals:

(27) Alex Neumann - 11-5, 11-3
(16) Yates Johnson - 11-6, 11-3
(12) Aanik Lohani - 11-6, 11-2
(9) Chris Haworth - 11-9, 9-11, 11-7

Garnett faced Tyson McGuffin and in the first game of the gold medal match, Garnett got a GOLDEN PICKLE on McGuffin. Tyson never got to serve. After the match Dave Fleming said the first game took less than five minutes.

Garnett lost the second game, 2-11, before capturing the third game, 11-2, for his second gold.

Singles upsets galore

There were a slew of upsets this weekend in Kansas City. Here are some of the more notable results:

Men’s singles upsets

John Cincola (44) made a deep run to the Round of 16, beating the following players:
- Travis Rettenmaier (18) - 2-11, 11-8, 11-9
- Collin Shick (13) - 8-11, 12-10, 11-7
Eric Roddy (24) defeated Hayden Patriquin (14), 9-11, 11-0, 11-9. Yes, Eric Roddy pickled Hayden Patriquin.

Gabe Tardio (22) made a deep run to the quarters before losing to Tyson McGuffin in three games. He upset:
- Gabe Joseph (11) - 12-14, 11-8, 11-7
- Quang Duong (6) - 9-11, 11-3, 11-8
Rafa Hewett (15) made it into the quarterfinals for the first time in over a year, defeating Donald Young (21) and Christian Alshon (4).

Women’s singles upsets

Both Mari Humberg (30) and Kate Fahey (31) were forced to go through qualifiers to get into the main draw. Both players don’t play a ton of singles on the PPA Tour. That didn’t stop both of them from earning their first medals in singles on the PPA Tour this weekend.

Humberg earned a bronze medal, defeating Lauren Stratman (4), Milan Rane (22), and Daria Walczak (27), before losing to Fahey in the semis. In the bronze medal match, Humberg bested Kaitlyn Christian (5), 12-10, 11-7.

Fahey had a similar run to her silver medal. She defeated Lea Jansen (2), Allyce Jones (17), Samantha Parker (12), and Humberg. She fell just short in the finals against Brooke Buckner, 5-11, 11-4, 8-11.

The Johns brothers are officially spiraling

Ben and Collin Johns have not won a men’s doubles gold since the PPA LA Open back in April. If they don’t win in Bristol next week, that will mark four straight months without holding a trophy.

Prior to the PPA Red Rock Open in late April, the Johns brothers won five of seven PPA tournaments they played together. In those seven matches, they went a combined 26-2 for a 92.8 percent win percentage. Since then, they have played six tournaments together – going a combined 16-10 – for a 61.5 percent win percentage.

Here are their results in the last six events on the PPA Tour:

PPA Red Rock - 3-2 record - withdrawal in the bronze

Lost in semis to Gabe Tardio/Andrei Daescu - 11-1, 13-11, 0-11
Withdrew in bronze vs. Tyson McGuffin/Dekel Bar

PPA Atlanta - 3-2 record

Lost in semis to Federico Staksrud/Matt Wright - 5-11, 3-11
Lost in bronze vs. Tyson McGuffin/Dekel Bar - 5-11, 11-4, 10-12

PPA Texas Open - 3-2 record - withdrawal in the bronze

Lost in semis to Matt Wright/Dekel Bar - 7-11, 9-11
Withdrew in bronze vs. Tyson McGuffin/Jaume Martinez Vich

PPA Sacramento - 2-1 record

Lost in quarterfinals to Gabe Tardio/Riley Newman - 10-12, 9-11

PPA Orange County Cup - 2-1 record

Lost in quarterfinals to Hayden Patriquin/Pablo Tellez - 11-8, 3-11, 11-13

PPA Kansas City - 3-2 record

Lost in semis to Federico Staksrud/Gabe Tardio - 9-11, 11-1, 5-11
Lost in bronze to Hayden Patriquin/Christian Alshon - 4-11, 3-11

Last week, Travis Rettenmaier went off on Collin Johns for his thoughts on MLP. Apparently Collin didn’t hear that or care. Both Collin and Ben didn’t look like they wanted to be in the bronze match in Kansas City.

You can check out the last few minutes of the bronze match for yourself. Rob Cassidy was quoted saying, "I can’t stand the posture ... I am a big fan of athletic positioning," regarding Collin’s engagement level on a reset. That quote in the commentary has been cut from the video posted to YouTube. Also, don’t mind the score on the screen – the scoreboard operator had the scores reversed.

Cassidy also said the Johns' were "very not present" in the video clip.

A highlight of the last three points of the match:

Collin Johns hit a lazy third-shot lob
Ben Johns missed his serve
Ben Johns missed a serve return

The Johns have withdrawn from other bronze medal matches this year – that would have been a better look than the effort they showed on Sunday.

Catherine Parenteau and Anna Leigh Waters continue to dominate

Some stats to put Catherine and Anna Leigh in proper perspective:

This is their ninth women’s title together in 10 tournaments in 2024
Their record together is now 98-1. Not bad.

This is talked about a lot, but it’s true – the reason that Anna Leigh and Catherine are the best women’s doubles team is because they have the most offensive firepower and are without a doubt the best defensive team.

The partner communication and overall support with the duo is also elite. On top of their play, having Athena (Catherine’s wife) and Leigh (Anna Leigh’s mom) on the sideline coaching helps them tremendously.

There was a point earlier this year when we thought Rachel Rohrabacher and Anna Bright would start contending with ALW/CP, but that hasn’t really transpired. It seems now more than ever that Catherine and ALW are the top women's duo by a very wide margin.