Another ALW Triple Crown, Controversies, and Upsets Highlight the PPA Virginia Beach Cup

The first time the PPA Tour visited the state of Virginia was a wild success. The weather was great after Tuesday, and the crowds were huge on Saturday and Sunday. The Stratusphere Gin PPA Virginia Beach Cup was the fourth from the last PPA event before the CIBC Finals.

The race for the CIBC Finals is heating up, so all of these outcomes are very important for seeding and/or making the finals altogether.

Let’s get into the action from Virginia Beach.

Top Plays and Moments

Quang Duong double pickled Kento Tamaki in singles.

Greg Dow was losing badly to Ben Johns, and Ben signaled that they would play their last two points as skinny singles. You can’t miss the return on the first one, though, Greg!

Anna Leigh Waters and Ava Ignatowich had a crazy athletic point with a ton of angles.

Federico Staksrud hit a no-look shot in the opposite direction he was facing.

This is easily a top-10 hands battle this year: Rafa Hewett and Riley Newman vs. Max Freeman and Casey Diamond.

Allyce Jones was a resetting MACHINE on this point.

Jaume Martinez Vich and Ben Johns played an absurd cat-and-mouse singles point.

Top Storylines

Two big controversies surrounded Collin, Ben Johns, and Don Stanley this weekend.

Two big controversies occurred this weekend, and both involved the Johns brothers and the Head Referee, Don Stanley.

The first controversy happened Friday night in the men’s doubles quarterfinal match between the Johns brothers and Hunter Johnson/Dekel Bar. It was later at night, and the sun had gone down.

Hunter and Dekel lost the first game, 11-7. As always, they switched sides for the second game. Hunter switched to the left side and roped drives at the Johns brothers. They grew increasingly frustrated and took two timeouts within a five-minute span.

At 7-3 (in favor of Hunter and Dekel), a drive whizzed by Collin, and he immediately walked to the bench with Ben. The score was 8-3. Without any timeouts, everyone was confused about what was happening.

Don Stanley, the event's Head Referee, was called in because Collin and Ben were arguing that the lighting was not good enough from that side, and they refused to play any longer.

Stanley announced that play was halted and would resume in the morning. This also affected two other quarterfinal matches that had to be played on Saturday morning instead of Friday night.

The controversy in this one came from the fact that Dekel and Hunter had just played from “the bad side” and lost—it didn’t seem fair that Ben and Collin were able to stop the match.

Upon restarting the match in the morning, Ben and Collin lost three points quickly, losing the second game 11-3. In the third game, Ben and Collin put on the afterburners, pickling Dekel and Hunter.

Phew - and that’s just the first controversy!

The second controversy was on Championship Sunday in the men’s doubles final vs. Hayden Patriquin and Federico Staksrud. Hayden and Fed got off to a hot start, winning 11-9. Ben and Collin then froze out Hayden in games two and three, winning 11-6, 11-3.

The controversy began in game four. The Johns brothers were up 9-3, two points away from winning the entire match. Fed and Hayden scored three points, making it 9-6. Ben and Collin walked to their bench without indicating they were taking a timeout.

Earlier in the match, Don Stanley, who refereed the match, had warned both teams they needed to verbally and/or physically indicate a timeout was being taken. This is a new emphasis on tour that players have been warned about for the past few events.

Because the Johns brothers just walked off after both teams were warned, Stanley called the Johns for a “delay of game” and deducted a point. Now the score was 8-6. Hayden and Fed ripped off five straight points, winning game four, 11-8.

The Johns brothers were visibly frustrated in game five. Hayden and Fed took over, using a drive-and-crash strategy that worked well. Eventually, Hayden and Fed won 11-2.

Hayden Patriquin and Federico Staksrud are 10-0 together and have two championships in 2024

Hayden and Fed are becoming a formidable duo. They play a unique style that is becoming the “new meta”—Hayden plays a big right side, while Fed plays a steady left side, setting Hayden up.

This duo is easily in the top five in men’s doubles right now when they play together. I am thinking they will be long-term partners in 2025.

As the three seed, they beat the following teams this weekend on their way to the finals:

34 - Grayson Goldin/Etienne Blaszkewycz - 11-1, 11-2
15 - Chuck Taylor/Todd Fought - 11-3, 11-8
8 - Tyler Loong/Connor Garnett - 11-3, 11-6
2 - Dylan Frazier.JW Johnson - 7-11, 11-6, 11-5

I already discussed the final, but Fed and Hayden beat Ben and Collin Johns, 11-9, 6-11, 3-11, 11-8, 11-2.

Federico is a really good left-side player, and Hayden is a very good versatile player. In men’s doubles, he has won two golds with Fed while playing on the right. He also got a silver with Pablo Tellez while playing on the left.

In my opinion, Hayden is making a name for himself as the most versatile men’s doubles player in all of pro pickleball.

ALW and Catherine won the women’s title in dominant fashion

Losing to “the girlies” in Atlanta seemed to have fueled Anna Leigh and Catherine Parenteau in Virginia Beach.

They didn’t hold back and won every game during the entire event. In fact, the closest they ever came to losing a game was the second one in the finals, where they gave up seven points.

Here is how dominant they were this week: ALW and CP outscored their opponents 121-36. That is an average finishing score of 11-3.

The most dominant win they had this weekend was their quarterfinal match against 8-seed Parris Todd and Jade Kawamoto. They were forced to play the match Saturday morning due to the above-mentioned light issue, and I think that frustrated the duo. They won the match 11-0, 11-1.

Speaking of Anna Leigh - her fitness and mental fortitude is through the roof right now.

Anna Leigh won another triple crown. If Vegas were to put odds on whether she would win a triple crown, she would be favored in each event.

As previously mentioned, Anna Leigh started the day in women’s doubles, handling AB and RR easily.

In mixed doubles, Ben and Anna Leigh were up next against JW and Jorja Johnson directly after her women’s match.

They won the first two games pretty handily, 11-7 and 11-7, but then hit a rut in game three.

Ben clearly lost some energy in game three, and the Johnsons returned from being down by at least five to win the game 12-10. Anna Leigh found her energy in game four and helped pick Ben up for that decisive fourth game. They ended up winning game four, 11-3.

She got a break while Ben beat Hunter Johnson in singles in the final but then had to play Brooke Buckner.

Brooke came out ROARING, going up big in game 1. She would go on to win the game, 11-9. Anna Leigh was visibly frustrated but calmed herself between games. She looked like she chugged an entire can of Coca-Cola.

Playing a third match of the day (which followed a four-match day the day before), down a game to Brooke Buckner, Anna Leigh could have easily mailed in game two, and no one would have thought less of her.

Instead, she pushed herself, repeatedly saying positive affirmations aloud, and won game two, 11-9. In game three, she found her groove and won 11-6.

ALW's ability to continuously win at an extremely high rate while also playing the most matches of anyone in pickleball is impressive. Her fitness level is through the roof, and her mental toughness is even better than her physical fitness.

Upsets were the name of the game in Virginia Beach

The upset of the tournament has to be Julian Arnold and Lauren Stratman taking down 3rd-seeded Anna Bright and Andrei Daescu in the Round of 16. They won 12-10 and 11-2. I lost track of the number of “Andiamos” screamed by Julian.

In women’s singles, 47th seed Maria Klokotzky upset 20th seed Alix Truong in the first round, 11-8, 9-11, 11-2. The 37-year-old from Canada played tennis at the University of Louisville and switched to pickleball about two years ago.

Be on the lookout for her name moving forward.

In men’s singles, THREE qualifiers made it to the Round of 16:

(41) Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez beat (18) Marshall Brown and (11) Collin Shick
(42) Max Green beat (24) Luke Wasson, (9) JW Johnson, and (35) Zane Navratil
(47) John Lucian Goins beat (16 Grayson Goldin, 11-2, 11-4. By the way - HE IS 16 YEARS OLD

In men’s doubles, the big upset team was Max Freeman and Casey Diamond. Freeman, a friend of James Ignatowich, is beginning his pickleball journey and is a lefty.