Eleven Points: PPA Stats and Facts at the Mid-Season Break

Dialed-in Dinks: 

Federico Staksrud and Hayden Patriquin were the only team to play a Doubles final (Sacramento Open) without hitting a dink into the net or wide. How rare is this? It happened only twice last year.

1-2-3 x 2: 

Teammates in a Doubles final who did not hit a ball “out” on a serve, return, or third shot:

Ben Johns and Collin Johns, Houston Open, Men’s final.

Blunt Force Trauma: 

Doubles finals where: (1) Every rally was fewer than 30 shots, (2) There was fewer than eight shots per rally,  (3) The match had fewer than 1,000 shots overall: 

Mixed Doubles final, Masters. (Waters & Johns def. Bright & Ignatowich)

Women’s final, North Carolina Cup. (Parenteau & Waters def. David & Schneemann)

Fundamentals: 

Players in a Doubles final who did not hit a ball “out” on a serve, return, third shot, or dink. (This happened only three times last year): 

Anna Leigh Waters, North Carolina Cup, Mixed Doubles.

Collin Johns, Houston Open, Men’s Doubles.

Federico Staksrud, Sacramento Open, Men’s Doubles.

Equal Opportunity: 

Federico Staksrud’s five singles titles this year have come in finals against five different players. Better yet, his nine career titles have come in finals against nine different players.

Five: 

For the first time in PPA history, there was a run of five consecutive tournaments in which Ben Johns played Men’s Doubles, but did not reach a final.

Pickles: 

There were nine 11-0 games in Singles and Doubles finals. Perhaps the most intriguing was in the Men’s Doubles final in Houston. The Johns brothers “pickled” Federico Staksrud and Pablo Tellez in Game One. They also won Game Two. The Johns brothers trailed in Game Three 2-0-2, then they won the game and the match by scoring eleven unanswered points.

Old School: 

The most deliberately-played final:

Red Rock Open, Women’s Doubles. Lea Jansen and Tina Pisnik def. Anna Bright and Calie Smith. There was an average of 14.5 shots per rally, and more than one-fourth of the rallies were 20 shots or more.

Cleaning Up, Singles: 

Most clean winners (no net or opponents paddle) by a player in a singles final:

24, Lea Jansen, Red Rock Open.

Cleaning Up, Doubles: 

Most clean winners (no net or opponent’s paddle) by a player in a Doubles final:

25, Ben Johns, Masters.

Longest Rally in a Final:

85 shots, Los Angeles Open, Men’s Doubles.