Quarterfinal play suspended until Saturday morning
In an anticlimactic end to an exhilarating day of pickleball in Virginia Beach, quarterfinal play has been suspended due to unsafe conditions—namely, a lack of lighting on Humana Championship Court.
During their men’s doubles quarterfinal match against Dekel Bar and Hunter Johnson, Ben and Collin Johns made the initial complaint about the lighting situation.
After meeting with tournament management, Head PPA Referee Don Stanley decided to suspend play until Saturday morning due to a lack of lighting.
That decision can be made only by the Head Referee, per the 2024 Player Handbook.
When that decision was made, the top-seeded brothers were leading 11-7, 3-8; it was initially announced that Johns/Johns would concede Game 2 and play out only the third game on Saturday, but because players cannot legally agree to a partial forfeit, play will resume at that same score.
The match will continue on Humana Championship Court at 10 a.m. ET on PickleballTV, with semifinal action set to begin directly afterwards.
The other two remaining gender doubles quarterfinal matches will be played back-to-back on Grandstand Court starting at 10 as well and can be streamed on the PPA YouTube.
Here are the remaining matchups in the order that they will be played.
- Women’s Doubles: No. 1 seeds Anna Leigh Waters/Catherine Parenteau v. No. 8 seeds Parris Todd/Jade Kawamoto.
- Men’s Doubles: No. 2 seeds JW Johnson/Dylan Frazier v. No. 5 seeds Gabriel Tardio/Andrei Daescu.
It looks like Semifinal Saturday will be a little busier than usual.
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