Sarah's Pickleball Diary: PPA Roundup Day 3

3:00:39 Sarah Burr/Warren Tamanaha vs Lea Jansen/Tyson McGuffin

Wow! What a day! It started with an early trip to the Brekkie buffet to make some waffles. Unfortunately this plan was interrupted by an onslaught of 70+ teenagers who were dressed in costumes that looked like a mixture of Harley Quinn and Killer Clown. I have no idea why they were dressed liked this and I was too ‘chicken’ to ask in case they were in some kind of weird cult and that’s how they always dress. All I could do was grab for some cornflakes and eggs before they attacked the buffet. Fun note though, I overheard them saying that the waffles were shaped liked Texas! I had no idea!

Next stop, Lifetime Frisco for mixed doubles. Warren and I squeezed in a practice session to test out the extremely windy conditions. We then played a friendly warm up game with Meghan Dizon-Sheehan and Spencer Smith. They were kicking our butt so it was lucky that it was just a warm up! 😉

We then had our toughest match of all - Jessie Irvine and Jay Devilliers. Being the friendly girl that I am, our first scoring point was a nice ol’ pickleball tattoo to Jay’s thigh. Lucky my aim is not that good! We then proceeded to play our butts off, remaining patient in the points and then striking when the opportunity arose. I managed to tag Jay one more time and we pulled together 4 more points for finish with a respectable 5-15 result. Jay was a really good sport (about being tagged twice by a girl). The wind was actually ridiculous in this match. It was pulling across the court to the right which is where the ball naturally drifts for me as a leftie. Warren did an incredible job, particularly with his thirds in the tough conditions.

Match 2 was against Zilveti and Kerr who were relatively unknown to me (other than the fact that I played Zilveti in Womens doubles yesterday). We again started really well with the wind behind us. I started shaking the thirds and Warren did an incredible job of baking them. 👨🏽‍🍳Before we knew it, we were 8-1 up and it was time to change sides. Technically it should have been easier with the wind against us. I should have felt more confident to keep driving but the wind was really swirly and I made a few silly mistakes. Kerr and Zilveti also really upped their game in the second half. We were relieved to seal the deal after quite a few sides outs with a 15-10 victory.

Match 3. Tyson McGuffin and Lea Jansen. Well, what can I say… the build up for this one on centre court was HUGE. We knew that our only hope was to be aggressive and assertive from the start. I began by targeting Tyson to show him that I wasn’t scared of his pearly white teeth or the ball struck off his pearly white paddle. I’m not gonna lie, I did get a big kick out of putting a few past him and ’out dinking’ Lea a couple of times. Warren was super solid. His hand speed was ridiculous and I loved how he backed me up 100% when I sped up. He crushed a couple of balls down Lea’s line too. I’m sure he will be watching those points again on YouTube. 🔥🔥 It’s all a bit of a blur to be honest. I was in the zone…. I do remember that it was 8-9 or something like that at one point. I also remember Tyson saying ‘nice playing’ at the change of ends with a little flick of his towel. I was really happy with our end result of 9-15. We did good. We did real good.  (Watch Match)

Then came our 4th match. The one that would seal out fate - Bates and French. French has a huge reputation as the best player in Texas and played his way through to Championship Sunday (Saturday night) with Riley Newman in the mens doubles. A match had just come off centre court so we were secretly hoping that we would be placed on there where the wind was not nearly as annoying. Unfortunately this did not happen. Winning the toss, we elected to start with the wind behind us. We were up early in the set, with our drives and poached working a treat on the duo. Again, I started by driving and speeding up to Brendan to show that I wasn’t frightened of fire 🔥. We were all painting lines and narrowly missing lines which really got the heart going. We were up by a narrow margin at the change of ends. We managed to claw a bit more of a lead but then Shelby and Brandon really upped their game. Warren made some great down the line strikes against Shelby and managed to scramble to some impossible balls to set up a match point for us at 14-13. With our heart in our throats, we battled it out, Warren sending a ball to Brandon’s backhand only for him to pull off the most amazing ATP which I had zero chance of defending. It was incredible. That shot absolutely turned the tides. We each managed to force a few more side outs but ultimately, it was Bates and French who punched their ticket through for the quarter finals with a 17-15 win. We… were…. gutted….. I actually finished the game flat on my back like a starfish with nothing left in the tank.

All in all, I had such an amazing time playing with Warren. He was so patient with me when my thirds were not playing nice. He backed me up when I started firefights and he was always friendly and positive both on and off the court. Looking forward to seeing him at some of the other tournaments over the next few weeks.

With the tournament all done and dusted for me, I packed up and headed to Dallas Love Field airport to take an early flight to Houston. It is a different airport to the one I flew into. I was a little worried that it was going to turn out to be a fancy jet only airport to Love Island or something but all is good. 

I am currently sitting in a Southwest Plane, my 49 pound bag safely stowed underneath (hopefully) and am reflecting on what was a truly special weekend. 

My first time 

• to Texas 
• PPA event 
• travelling solo 
• partnering with the amazing rising star- Riley Bohnert 
• partnering with the absolute legend - Warren Tamanaha 

Thank you to everyone who made this trip happen and thank you to all of the wonderful people that I have met along the way. You know who you are… I know all of your faces, just not all of your names. 😊

Now for some much awaited family time. I cannot wait to be reunited with the gang in an hour or two.
Next stop APP Houston. (Partners: Susannah Barr, Austin Gridley) 

#SarahsPickleballDiaries  

Resources

• Facebook Post Includes Photos/Videos
• Sarah's Pickleball Diary
• Burr Pickleball Adventures - YouTube Channel
• Burr Pickleball Adventures in America GoFundMe Campaign
• Nonna’s US Pickleball Diaries
• Pickleball Fire Podcast: From Australia to the U.S. Open with Pro Sarah Burr
• Sarah On Instagram
• Shannon Burr On Instagram