It was an interesting weekend on the PPA Tour. We had new winners in singles, plenty of drama, and learned plenty.
Here are three takeaways from Takeya:
Tyra Time
Tyra Black has had a lot of hype surrounding her since she started playing pickleball and during the past month, she’s started living up to it.
What a week for her at Fountain View, Calif. Not only did she beat Anna Leigh Waters in the singles quarterfinal – a first loss for Waters since March – Black went on to win her first gold medal with a singles victory against Yana Newell, 11-13, 11-8, 11-3.
In addition, Black got to the podium in women’s doubles, earning a bronze alongside Allyce Jones.
Gold for Gabe
It was quite a run for Gabriel Joseph in front of his friends and family at Takeya. He was sensational.
Despite being a regular at PPA events, Joseph hadn’t been on the medal stand since 2020 when he earned a silver against Ben Johns.
But Thursday he started his run as the No. 24 seed with a win against the ninth seed Pablo Tellez, then a win against the No. 8 seed Connor Garnett. Johns lost in the second round, so that meant Joseph got No. 16 seed Yates Johnson, who he went on to…
