Navratil Shines, McGuffin Digs Deep; Waters/Parenteau Advance in Straight Sets
| July 11, 2023
The Guaranteed Rate PPA Championships opened with incredible Men’s/Women’s Singles matches at the Darling Tennis Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. This tournament ome with the highest stakes for PPA Points during the 2021 season, and the intensity was felt on center court.
Men’s Singles Summary
Ben Johns was slated as the number one seed and played like it before being beating a fiery John Cincola (11-9,11-8) setting up a semifinal match against Zane Navratil, who only gave up 15 points before the Johns/Navratil matchup. Navratil met upstart Hayden Patriquin (11-8, 11-3), William Sobek (11-4, 11-0), and Kyle Yates (by Forfeit).
Zane met Ben for one of the best matches of the day. The match was full of spin serves, competitive points, and opposite strategies. One play in particular piked the crowd’s interest as Zane felt there was a bad call by Ben which heightened the suspense. Navratil got the best of Johns in straight sets (11-6, 11-8).
Zane Navratil moves on to Championship Sunday looking for a second straight PPA title.
The bottom half of the bracket saw Jay Devilliers, JW Johnson, Tyson McGuffin, and Ryan Sherry advice to the quarter-finals.
Jay Devilliers and JW Johnson featured the best quarterfinal match of the day as Johnson bested Devilliers (11-8,7-11,11-5). Devillers and Johnson met again for the bronze medal match, as Devilliers won 9-11 11-2, 11-9. Tyson McGuffin and Ryan Sherry met in a familiar match as McGuffin looked determined and advanced 11-5, 11-7 setting up the match of the day against JW Johnson.
Johnson and McGuffin met with arguably the largest crowd of the day as Johnson came out swinging taking game one 8-11. McGuffin started clicking through game 2 after being down 7-4 ultimately stealing the second game 11-8. McGuffin brought the crowd into the match with lots of yelling and cheering. The final game didn’t look close on paper, but was extremely close on the court. McGuffin came out victorious 11-6 as he punched his ticket to Championship Sunday.
Tyson Mcguffin will meet Zane Navratil at 11 AM PT for Men’s Singles Gold.
Women’s Singles Summary
Anna Leigh Waters and Lea Jansen have developed quite the rivalry over the last few months and found themselves on the same side of the draw. They ultimately met in a semi-final match that felt like a game three on a Sunday. Anna Leigh came out hot and didn’t think let Jansen regain momentum as she won 11-6, 11-6. Anna Leigh punched another ticket to Championship Sunday, but against a new face.
Catherine Parenteau and Callie Smith met in the other quarterfinal. Parenteau beat Lauren Stratman (11-1, 11-8) after her first-round bye. Callie had a tougher time as she drew a match with Irina Tereschenko that went 3 games and was the closest match of the day on the women’s side as Callie won 6-11, 11-3, 11-4. Catherine faced an improving Lauren Stratman (11-1, 11-8) and then beat Callie (11-6, 11-3).
Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau meet Sunday for the Women’s Singles Gold at 12:30 PM PT.
