Naples' Jardim wins title on opening day of U.S. Open Pickleball Championships

The Minto U.S. Open Pickleball Championships has become a global event, but fans had a local favorite to cheer for on the opening day of the weeklong tournament.

Simone Jardim delighted the sellout crowd at the Zing Zang Championship Court on Sunday. As the director of the U.S. Open Pickleball Academy at East Naples Community Park, home of the third annual tournament, Jardim took the homefield advantage and ran with it.

More than 1,000 fans, many of them students of hers, watched Jardim win the Women’s Pro Singles title on Day 1. She won her third straight title in the division – or every one since the U.S. Open began in 2016.

“This is where I work,” Jardim, 38, said with a smile. “To have everyone in those bleachers there – I’m thankful for all the people in the community for their support.

“You see this?,” she said, gesturing to the covered miniature arena, packed with fans to watch more than 2,000 players this week. “It’s growing every year.”

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After watching Jardim breeze through Lucy Kovalova 11-2, 11-1, the crowd was disappointed in the next match. Fort Myers native Kyle Yates, who became the face of the U.S. Open when it was started in Naples two years ago, lost in the men’s final for the third straight year.

Tyson McGuffin, the No. 1 ranked singles player in the world, beat Yates 11-5, 6-11, 11-4 in the Men’s Pro Singles final. The men’s and women’s champs each took home $1,750 of the tournament’s $46,400 purse, while the silver medalists each earned $750.

In the senior (50-and-over) singles, Scott Moore repeated as the men’s champ while Cammy MacGregor won the women’s title in her first appearance in the U.S. Open. Each player won $1,000.

McGuffin, 28, won the U.S. Open after winning the USA Pickleball Association National Championships in November. He lost in the U.S. Open semifinals last year, but he’s been unbeaten the past 11 months.

“I got up 6-2 (in the second set) and started looking ahead instead of staying focused,” said McGuffin, a tennis instructor in Yakima, Washington. “Kyle got the momentum, but I knew if I could get out to a good start (in Set 3) I could get it back.”

The Women’s Senior Pro gold medal match was the kind of back-and-forth battle expected from two opponents who know each other well. MacGregor beat her doubles partner Jennifer Dawson, 12-10, 11-8.

MacGregor and Dawson are both tennis pros in San Diego, California. They’ve been playing together for three years, since Dawson invited MacGregor to pick up the sport.

“It’s always difficult to play your best friend and doubles partner,” MacGregor, 49, said.

Dawson was up 6-0 in the first set before MacGregor came back to win in extra points (each set goes to 11). MacGregor was up 8-1 in the second set but Dawson pulled within 9-8 before MacGregor scored the final two points.

“That’s pickleball,” said MacGregor, who gets to play in the senior division because she turns 50 this year. “I was down 6-0 and I said, ‘I gotta grind it out. Things happen.’ It was just a few points here and there. It could have gone either way.”

Last year Dawson became the first player to ever win the U.S. Open triple crown, taking titles in the senior pro divisions in singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

In the Men’s Senior Pro finals, Moore continued his two-year long hot streak. He beat Brian Staub 11-4, 11-5 in the finals to win the division’s gold medal for the second straight year.

Moore, 56, finished runner-up at the inaugural U.S. Open Pickleball Championships in 2016. He hasn’t lost a singles match since. Moore estimated he’s won 50 straight matches and 12 straight tournaments.

With a full schedule ahead of doubles and mixed doubles matches, Moore hopes winning a title on the tournament’s first day sets him up for success throughout the week.

“It creates momentum and confidence,” the Colorado Springs, Colorado, resident said of his win. “Singles is so physically taxing. It’s brutal. I knew if I could get through it, it would give me confidence that I’d be good for doubles.”