Yesterday, we saw the exciting conclusion of the APP Tour’s fourteenth tournament of 2023: The APP Houston Open.
While we saw many podium-finishing staples, like the dynamic duo of Susannah Barr and Andrei Daescu, men’s singles stood out as the outlier, with two new faces making an appearance! Let’s take a look at each event and break down how each player got to the finals.
Women’s Pro Singles – Salome Devidze vs. Judit Castillo
Salome Devidze took home her sixth women’s gold in 2023, once again proving her dominance in singles. However, this wasn’t without some healthy (and unhealthy) competition in women’s singles throughout the weekend!
The weekend’s controversy once again centers itself around Devidze’s rivalry with Megan Fudge. Fudge has always been vocal about her opinions on Devidze’s on-court behavior, but after having dealt with four overruled line calls by Devidze, Fudge said enough is enough and has retired from singles until a rule is implemented.
In a series of tweets, Fudge outlined that she believes Devidze will continue to take advantage of the fact that no rule prevents her from continuously making out calls, regardless of whether they’re overruled or not. Essentially, on long balls, Devidze can just default to calling it out and hoping that the line judge misses the call – if they overrule her call, she doesn’t have to worry about a penalty for getting multiple calls overturned.
So, Devidze took down Fudge in an incredibly close three-game semi-final match, in which those line calls 100% impacted the game’s outcome. No matter whose side you’re on, it’s pretty apparent that the ruling should change. Maybe a “3 strikes and you’re out” type situation where players are only allotted 3 overrules per match before they begin receiving point-based penalization.
That’s about it for excitement in women’s singles – Judit Castillo was then able to sneak into the finals via the back draw, and Devidze won 2-0 (11-7, 11-4).
Men’s Pro Singles – Quang Duong vs. Ronan Camron
Men’s singles was equally exciting as women’s singles but with its focal point centered around the pickleball gameplay itself. Quang Duong took home his first-ever APP gold medal, and it was against Ronan Camron, who made his finals debut!
I’m not saying that I called it, but I totally called it. In our Houston Open preview, I pointed to Duong as one of my favorites going into the tournament due to his sudden rise in the pickleball pro scene. He’s even gone up against Ben Johns back in July at the PPA Denver Open. In Houston, Duong managed to take down some of the best tour players, including our other favorites, Hunter Johnson and Jaume Martinez Vich.
Ronan Camron made an incredible run through the back draw after being eliminated in the Round of 16 by Yates Johnson. Ronan cleared the back draw and, similar to Duong, managed to defeat Hunter Johnson and Martinez Vich to secure himself a spot in the finals. In the finals, Duong came out on top in a dominant two-game victory (11-3, 11-4).
Women’s Pro Doubles – Truong/Glozman vs. Fudge/Barr
Again, we nailed it in our preview! Our two favorites from either side of the bracket met in the finals. Of course, team Fudge-Barr took home the W. Despite getting upset in the Round of 8 by Christa Gecheva and Rachel Rettger, Susannah Barr and Megan Fudge battled their way through the elimination bracket to once again reach the podium with a gold medal!
We’ve got to give it to Alix Truong and Vivian Glozman, though, who had one of their best performances this season. The two managed not to drop a single game going into the finals, an incredible feat in the highly-talented women’s doubles bracket.
Fudge and Barr won the first two games (11-8, 11-8), which pushed the finals to an exciting 15-point tiebreaker. While Glozman and Truong held their own throughout the final game, Barr and Fudge came out on top, 15-11, and took home the gold.
Mixed Pro Doubles- Cincola/Emmrich vs. Barr/Daescu
Barr continues her hot streak with Andrei Daescu in mixed singles, as the two managed to defeat the team of John Cincola and Tamaryn Emmerich after having to bounce back through the elimination bracket. This was Cincola and Emmerich’s first appearance in the finals this year, and their silver medal is well-deserved, considering the fact that they only dropped two games going into the finals.
However, Cincola and Emmerich just couldn’t meet the energy of Barr and Daescu, who are one of the winningest teams in the APP currently, now with seven gold medals as a team! Barr and Daescu took the first two games (11-8, 11-1), pushing it to a 15-point tiebreaker in which they completely dominated (15-4).
Men’s Pro Doubles – Daescu/Nunnery vs. Auvergne/Long
Wrapping up the Houston Open was men’s pro doubles, where we saw Andrei Daescu and Rob Nunnery defeat Stefan Auvergne and Brendon Long. Nunnery and Daescu have now won four in a row together, seven total gold medal finishes, and took down the Houston Open without dropping a single game. They just cannot be stopped and are easily the most powerful doubles team on the APP Tour, in our opinion.
Auvergne and Long also had a strong showing, taking down a couple of our other favorite teams, including Jack Munro/John Cincola and Jaume Martinez Vich/Kyle Yates in the bronze-medal match. However, they couldn’t stand up to Daescu in Nunnery, losing in all four games they played against them: 1-11, 10-12 in the semis and 3-11, 6-11 in the finals.
