A day before her 30th birthday, Kate Fahey enjoyed quite an early present on a cool, breezy Sunday.<\/p>\n
The former Michigan Wolverines standout tennis player was the only competitor to leave the Professional Pickleball Association\u2019s third Virginia Beach Open with two gold medals.<\/p>\n
The New Jersey native won her first PPA Tour doubles championship, the mixed title with Eric Oncins, in dramatic fashion. Then she came back a short while later to the packed stands at Virginia Beach Pickleball and taking her eighth singles championship with relative ease.<\/p>\n
After her 11-1, 11-9 singles victory over No. 21 seed Helena Jansen, the top seed said to fans in her postmatch interview on court, \u201cYou brought the energy every day. You guys were incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ranked seventh in the world, Fahey said, \u201cI think I\u2019m a tough cookie; I think I\u2019m pretty resilient.\u201d She said she\u2019ll relax on her birthday with her new husband, Charlie.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at the last day of a tournament that offered more than $1 million in prize money and drew several hundred competitors, many from Hampton Roads, in accompanying amateur divisions.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s doubles: Top-seeded Sofia Sewing and Catherine Parenteau saved three match points in a semifinal that began at 8 a.m. \u2014 necessitated by Saturday\u2019s eight-hour rain delay \u2014 to edge No. 8 Mari Humberg and Zoey Weil 9-11, 11-9, 13-11.<\/p>\n
Sewing, a 27-year-old from Miami, then captured her first PPA Tour doubles title as she and Parenteau, a 32-year-old Canada native, defeated No. 5 Alix Truong and Layne Sleeth 11-8, 11-6 in the first of Sunday\u2019s five finals.<\/p>\n
Mixed doubles: In the day\u2019s most dramatic final, Fahey won a tour doubles gold for the first time. She and Eric Oncins, the No. 3 seeds, overcame an 8-2 deficit in the third game to edge No. 4 Parenteau and Riley Newman, a Washington state native, 11-13, 11-4, 11-9.<\/p>\n
Oncins ended the match with a blazing crosscourt backhand volley winner, making sure he stayed out of the \u201ckitchen,\u201d the area near the net where it\u2019s illegal to volley.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m more known for singles, but I\u2019ve really been working on my doubles and mixed doubles,\u201d Fahey said. \u201cEric is such a positive partner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s doubles: Seventh-seeded Jaume Martinez Vich of Spain and Elliott Schupp, a 19-year-old based in Arizona, won a semifinal, upended No. 2 Andrei Daescu and Will Howells 11-6, 11-7 and then won a roller-coaster 11-4, 4-11, 11-4 title match over Newman and France\u2019s Noe Khlif, the third seeds.<\/p>\n
Schupp said of Vich, \u201cI\u2019ve just got to make balls and hit counters and he\u2019ll do the rest. And it helps when the crowd is so engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s singles: Fahey took the court for singles four times and outscored her opponents 66-21; players could only score while serving.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s singles: No. 5 seed John Lucian Goins, 18, who is from Bradenton, Florida, and is ranked 31st in the world, was impressive in closing the show with an 11-5, 11-3 victory over sixth-seeded Vich.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew it was gonna be tough conditions. The wind is crazy; it\u2019s chilly. I was just thinking: Get one more ball back and make him earn it,\u201d Goins said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A day before her 30th birthday, Kate Fahey enjoyed quite an early present on a cool, breezy Sunday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[2558,99,428],"class_list":["post-887142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-latest-headlines","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}