Top Seeds, Upsets, and Injury: Breaking Down Wednesday Afternoon’s Pro Action

Pro singles, gender doubles, and mixed doubles play kicked off on Wednesday at the Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships.

With an unfortunate injury and upsets in mixed doubles, here are snapshots from a busy afternoon of play at Brookhaven Country Club.

On match point of her women’s doubles match against Lingwei Kong and Jamie Haas, Sarah Ansboury appeared to suffer a severe ankle injury when moving back for an overhead.

She was carted off the court minutes later and taken to a local hospital, waving to the applauding crowd as she left.

The No. 21 seeds Kong and Haas will now face the No. 5 seeds Vivienne David and Lacy Schneemann in the Round of 16 on Thursday.  

Later on in the night, No. 14 seeds Meghan Dizon and Shelby Bates took to Championship Court to battle the No. 19 seeds Liz Truluck and Ava Ignatowich.

Bates and Dizon put forth an impressive display to win in three games, boasting aggressive dinks that allowed them to take control of rallies at the kitchen line.

Dizon, a California native, was quick to credit her partner for the pair’s success.

“Shelby has really great roll drops and roll dinks,” she explained. “I just knew I could trust her to move the ball around, and that really sets me up for opportunities to be able to step in and take the ball out of the air.”

Next up for the duo is a match against the No. 3 seeds Jessie Irvine and Parris Todd with a spot in the quarterfinals on the line.

In mixed doubles, the No. 26 seeds Lina Padegimaite and Stefan Auvergne upset the No. 7 seeds Dylan Frazier and Callie Jo Smith in a dramatic match that spanned five games.

Part of what worked for the pair was relying on Auvergne’s long reach to cover a large portion of the kitchen.

“We want to put good pressure and be aggressive,” he shared. “We know we have patterns that we like, and we’re trying to stick with those.”

Taking risks with those patterns proved beneficial when it mattered most, helping Padegimaite and Auvergne overcome an 0-6 deficit in that final game.,

“We made some more aggressive poaches and tried to put some pressure instead of just waiting for things to happen,” Padegimaite said.

Awaiting the pair now are the No. 23 seeds Dizon and Yates Johnson, who are coming off a five-game victory of their own against Julian Arnold and Lauren Stratman.

Men’s doubles had the most straightforward results of the day, with the top eight-seeded teams winning their matches in straight games.

Third-seeded Riley Newman and Christian Alshon and fourth-seeded Federico Staksrud and Pablo Tellez looked especially sharp out of the gate.

Play continues Thursday with Round of 16 matches in all three brackets. You can watch the action on PPA Tour YouTube or PickleballTV.