Thursday, October 13, 2022

Sarah's Pickleball Diary: PPA Roundup Day 1


Day 1 - Frisco, Texas.

After a good rest, I was ready to brave it out into the world on my own today. 

I started off with a quick Uber ride down to Target to purchase a US SIM card for my phone to make communication a bit easier. 

Everything in Target reminded me of home! 
A drink bottle that nearly spelled out Elle’s name, lavender flavoured nuts that made me think of mum, Starbucks reminded me of Nan, the Burrito Halloween costume would have been perfect for Shannon! 

Some other cool but random things there too like Mimosa-flavoured energy drinks and bacon ranch flavoured tuna (why???) Ha! 

I attempted to walk to the courts from there but there was no footpath and I didn’t fancy finishing up day 1 as roadkill so I jumped back into an Uber. 😇

When I arrived at the Lifetime, I was blown away by its sheer size and beauty. 

The pickleball courts are configured on a diagonal which is really usual but I really like it. I happened to be introduced to Lifetime founder, Bahram Akradi who organised a personal tour of the huge indoor facility. It is set out like a hotel with a concierge, childcare, spa and cafe, but then turns into more of a ‘gym’ as you go up the levels of the building. 

I have never seen so many treadmills, cross trainers or weights equipment in my life. 😍How amazing it would be to have a facility like that in Australia (don’t worry everyone, I told him this! 😉).

It was amateur singles day today so I got talking to some locals and ended up warming up with a whole bunch of them. 

I was blown away by how friendly everyone was today (and how fascinated they are with the Aussie accent). 

Mens 5.0 number one seed Austin O’Reilly was particularly friendly and lined up a womens doubles partner for me for the upcoming Texas Open. 😊 

Pasquale Carbone was another friendly face today, giving me tips on effective warm ups and making the effort to chat to me when I was sitting alone. 

Chris Prouty was a godsend. He kindly let me hotspot his phone when the wifi dropped out, allowed me to charge my phone using his laptop when it was dangerously low and giving me a lift back to the hotel. How nice are pickleballers 😊.

I managed to fit in some great rec games today, one against Rachel Rettger and Shelby Bates on centre court and some other fun ones with my gender and mixed doubles partners when they arrived later in the evening. 

Riley Bohnert is an absolute weapon (and is super nice). Her mid-court defense is insane so I can’t wait to hit the courts with her in the morning for women’s doubles. 

There are only 5 teams so we will be playing 4 pool matches - all best of 3 games to 11 and this will give us the seedings for the playoffs (all 5 teams will progress).

My mixed partner, Warren Tamanaha was an absolute legend - coming straight from the airport to the courts at 8:45pm for some practice. We gelled really well together both personality-wise and on the court. 

We had some solid sets against some 5.0/pro men this evening so we are both feeling really pumped to play together on Saturday.

The PPA Celebrity Pro Am event was on this evening. It was absolutely packed to the rafters with spectators and the atmosphere was electric. Unfortunately I was not able to go inside. The $100 price tag was a little out of my budget but it was completely sold out anyway. Tony Romo was wandering around the outside courts looking for someone to hit with. Hannah Johns beat me to it but she did use my paddle and ball. That’s right - I got an Engage Pursuit MX in the hands of one of the Johns siblings. My work here is done! 😂

Photography is a bit dodgy. I will try to do better tomorrow.
Over and out! (Facebook Post Includes Photos/Videos) (Sarah's Pickleball Diary)

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