John Bae
110 posts


Someone please explain to me how this can happen in a PPA QF. Freeman/McGuffin v Klinger/Johnson. Klinger/Johnson have been beaten once by a lesser team recently, Collin Johns/Len Yang. Johns/Yang used a very specific strategy. But, Freeman/McGuffin never used that strategy and lost 11-4, 11-4. When I say they didn’t use the strategy, I mean they didn’t use it AT ALL, not one single rally. The strategy? Hit everything CC to CJ. Stay away from JW’s BH. When someone shows a clearly proper and winning strategy, why doesn’t every other team copy it? You may not win with it, but losing 11-4, 11-4 and never trying it once? That I cannot explain.
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@Matt_Manasse It was a win for pickleball totally
But you think Genie will suddenly focus on doubles after 2+ years of not and even get good? 😂
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Just watched Pickleball Slam. Thoughts: (1) James Blake is pretty good, Agassi is meh, mostly just a banger. (2) the doubles played like a mixed game. Bouchard and Agassi were the weaker players. So a lot of Rside to Rside rallies. (3) ALW whined about not getting more balls. Well, again, it played like a mixed doubles match. She got about the right number of balls for the type of match it was. (4) in game 2 of dubs, ALW played some right side. Terrible decision. Made it easy to hit to Bouchard, just as would happen if a right handed woman played left side with a right handed partner in a mixed match. (5) it confirmed what we have LONG known about sports; men’s senior pros are better than the women pros. True in every sport, nothing learned here.
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@pickleball_jim He’s done with singles. Only reason he played this event is cause ALW isn’t here to do mixed doubles.
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Is it time for Ben Johns to hang it up in singles? I had predicted last December that 2026 would be his last year of singles. Seeing him in Sacramento, I think this might have been his last singles event. The game has changed to more of a baseline game, and that is not a fit for him. Now he loses to JW in an old school style match. Ben is no longer a top 10 singles player, and may well not even be a top 20 singles player. Does he really want to play singles events as just another guy? As to #18 seed? I don’t think so. He’s the best doubles player. Stick to that.
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@NmlPickleball A large issue is that many of these companies, even the established ones, don't make their paddles from scratch to finish. They use molds are go with what the factory tells them to do. As is such in many of these instances.
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It is notable that the Friday guys said they would “never willingly infringe on anyone’s trademark, patent or anything like that” in their YouTube response posted earlier today
youtu.be/kFNd0ZkQNRU?si…

YouTube
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This is a mischaracterization based on top end results. There were plenty of US dubs teams that were pushed or lost to non-US teams in earlier rounds. The top end non-US teams are not competitive yet with the very best, but they are right there with a lot of the pros
Jim “the smartest man in pickleball” Kloss@pickleball_jim
One interesting thing to note on PPA Asia is that the success of the Asian players is limited to men’s singles. No Asian players in the quarters of any other event. One Aussie team made women’s dubs quarters. Otherwise, complete domination by USA-based players. Men’s singles is just a different game, with players able to have great success without corresponding success in doubles. So good job by the Asian men in doubles, but overall the Asian players need more time before they catch up to the rest of the world.
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