Clay Court Pickleball Championship 2017

SUMMARY

The US Clay Court Pickleball Championships were held at Green Valley Country Club in Lafayette Hill, PA from Thu 08/03/17 thru Sun 08/06/17. The competion was held on three Har Tru tennis courts that were converted into 6 pickleball courts. The competition included singles and doubles events and generally split events into skill level/ age group events and Open/Pro events. The competition pool was rather small and the age/skill level groups were grouped by skill level rather than age.

It was a 3 hour drive and I stayed at the Plymouth Meeting Hampton Inn. I was able to find a Men's Double partner and a Mixed Doubles skill level partner. I had no experience playing pickleball on the Har True surface. There were many mis-hits and whiffs during the competition. The weather was very warm the first two days and cooled down for the last two days. It was an eye opening and humbling experience.

Green Hills CC Clubhouse: This was declared off limits to pickleball players because during the first day of competition, one pickleball player was seen inside the clubhouse with their feet propped up on a chair, talking on a phone. This international incident prompted a declaration that the tournament would be canceled if another trespassing incident happened.

Max in front of little golf clubhouse: it had restrooms that could be used by pickleball players.

View of the Har Tru courts: Three tennis courts split into 6 pickleball courts.

View of tennis courts gazebo with the tournament control center and computers where announcements were made.

Day 1: Singles Competition

I did not want to compete in the singles mainly because of my inexperience on the surface and concern for getting injured. I watched my Doubles partner Steve L. play a match where he was beaten in 3 games(to 11). I then returned to my motel. Later I received a text from my mixed doubles partner and returned to the courts, practiced and played two practice games to become familiar with the surface.

Day 2: Men's and Women's Doubles competition

I arrived at the courts at 0830 and practiced with my partner Steve L. The organizers decided to pool all the men's 2.0-3.5 skill level entries into a single competition regardless of age. The pool consisted of round robin competition amongst 4 teams. The games were to 21, switching sides at 11, win by one point. 3-5 min warm-ups.

Our first match was against a father-son team (60s-40s) that eventually won the competition. The 40 year old was an outstanding player and very athletic. They beat us 21-6.
The second match was completely different and we won easily 21-6.
The third match was against a team in their 70s. I knew one player from playing in Naples FL. I felt we played well but still came up short and lost 21-10.
The fourth match was also against a team similar to our age and we were not able to play well and lost badly, 21-4.
So we ended up having a 1-3 record. Somewhat disappointing in that all the games were one-sided. Here is a photo of the team.

The draw/results for men's doubles age/skill 3.5

Open Men's doubles

I watched some of the Men's Open matches while I was waiting between matches. View of open doubles Ben Johns (US Open Champion) & Jeffery Siegel (neon outfit), who won the open doubles after losing a match at the end of winners bracket and winning a rematch in the final. Note how they approach the net in parallel.

Women's Doubles Competition

Beth and Caroline in action. Winners of Bronze medal in Women's age/skill doubles.

Day 3: Mixed Doubles Skills 3.5 Level Competition

This competition used conventional format. All winner's bracket games were to 11 and best 2 out of 3. The loser's bracket consisted of single games to 15. Each team was guaranteed at least two matches. In our first match, Beth and I played a very competitive first game and lost 12-10. We were very disappointed and we really folded in the second game. We dropped down to the loser's bracket and our next game was against a team we had practiced against on the first day. We had a terrible performance against Neil and Caroline and thus ended our mixed doubles competition.

The draw/results for the mixed doubles age/skill level 3.5

Final Comments

Definitely a learning experience. It was difficult because of the unfamiliar playing surface, competition format, lack of playing time with partners, and the asyncronous waiting times between games. Had some good moments where we played well, but could not maintain the playing quality consistently to win more matches.