BRIAN WOODSON Bristol Herald Courier
BRISTOL, Tennessee – David Bieger starts a new job Monday as a software developer at Capital One in Richmond.
Why not start by playing some pickleball at the same facility where he used to play tennis?
The Bristol native, who won the state championship in tennis in both team and doubles play at Tennessee High, and his doubles partner and girlfriend Lauralei Singsank decided to visit the Bristol SportsPlex this week to qualify for the mixed doubles portion of the Carvana Professional Pickleball Association IHG Hotels & Resorts Bristol Open.
Of the 45 participants in the mixed doubles, they were the only duo to win all three qualifying matches. On Friday they played against professionals.
“We decided to come and try our luck at the Bristol PPA. How could we not, a great facility, you can see everything (Bristol SportsPlex owner) Matt (Lavinder) has done with the place, it looks a lot different than when I played tennis here,” said Bieger, who played at what was then the Bristol Racquet Club during his childhood. “We won our three qualifying matches and now we’ve moved into the main draw to play against the big guys in Bristol, Tennessee.”
People also read…
They never imagined getting to this point in their wildest dreams. They just want to enjoy the moment while they can.
“We’ve proven that we deserve to be here. We’re going to go out there and I think if we play our best pickleball and have fun, that’s going to be our mission and whatever happens, happens,” said Bieger, who endured eight matches and 18 games in nine hours of pickleball under the blazing sun on Wednesday. “As long as we play our game and play well, I’m happy. That’s more important to us than the results.”
“We just want to have fun,” added Singsank, a Hawaii native who met Bieger when they became partners in mixed doubles on the University of Virginia’s pickleball club team. “None of us thought we would get this far. We don’t know who we’re playing in the first round, but we know they’re going to be good. We hope we put on a good show and do our best.”
Bieger, who was part of Tennessee High’s team championships in 2017 and later won the doubles crown with Hagen Oakley in 2019, decided against college tennis and went to Virginia instead. Thanks to the recommendation of a friend from Bristol who showed him an article about the club team in Charlottesville, he found a similar sport in pickleball.
“It wasn’t until my third year of college that I discovered college pickleball,” Bieger said. “I immediately fell in love with the sport. It’s very social, it’s really high-level athleticism, and it just mimics everything I love about tennis.”
Singsank, who attended Virginia Law School and will now begin working at a Richmond law firm, began playing pickleball in her native Hawaii during the pandemic in 2020, following in the footsteps of her mother, who has played the sport for more than a decade.
“I was part of the group that started during the pandemic,” she said. “I drove home to Hawaii with my parents, just drew some lines in our driveway and got started.”
Their relationship has grown since then, especially on the pitch, which was evident in Wednesday’s three wins.
“I like to play extremely aggressively, especially in mixed doubles, and she really gives me the freedom to do that,” Bieger said. “She’s a very good reset player, she can dink really well and she can attack really well. Even when she gets teased, I tell her to just attack the ball and we both jump in and have a quick hand fight and kind of play our game, we like the fast game.”
In Virginia, they had similar success, winning the national pickleball club championship by defeating North Carolina in the finals, a team that included current professional pickleball player Collin Shick.
“It was really exciting because I think we were number five and we didn’t really expect to win it,” Singsank said. “It was a really cool experience because we had to beat almost all of the players above us to get to the final and it ended up being a really, really close game in the final. It was a single tiebreaker and we won 22-20, which is about as close as it gets.”
Shick, who could face Bieger and Singsank in a match on Friday, is also the men’s doubles partner of Jack Sock, a three-time major doubles champion and gold medalist in professional tennis.
“(Shick) is really the poster boy for college pickleball all the way up to professional pickleball. A really nice guy who is super fun to watch. I love the way he plays, his super quick moves and his really good hands,” Bieger said. “I’ve talked to him here before. Depending on how the draws go, we might actually see him (Friday). At least I hope so. He’s a great guy and another example of college pickleball.”
While pickleball requires many of the same skills as tennis, such as solid groundstrokes and quick hands, there are differences that players like 17-year-old prodigy Anna Leigh Waters and Hawaiian Jaume Martinez Vich demonstrate on the court.
“It’s different. You need a lot more patience, some points can be a lot longer. Some shots are completely different, like a dink, which you never hear about in tennis, you never want to hit the ball softly,” Bieger said. “In pickleball, there are a lot of those feel shots that take a lot of practice to perfect, and it’s really rewarding for players who can dink aggressively but stay low. That’s something you don’t really see in tennis.”
The duo will have little time to prepare for Friday’s opponents, as the pairings are not expected to be announced until early Friday morning, with the first matches scheduled for around 10am.
“It takes a lot of practice to figure out what I can do and what bothers my opponent. And when you combine those two things, it helps with decision making,” he said. “It takes a lot of practice to get the shots right and a lot of experience to know what works and what doesn’t…”
“No matter who we play against, we’re more concerned with having fun, doing our best and playing well than winning.”
Bieger had several coaches during his playing days at Bristol, including David Poole and Jim Flannagan, and both have been in touch with their former pupil this week to follow his success on the field.
“David Poole is one of my best coaches and he sent me a text message congratulating me on my success. He teaches all the time, so it’s hard to get him here,” Bieger said. “Jim Flannagan coached me for a long time too. We actually played tennis once a week at this exact facility when I was about 14. He was here to support and cheer me on at all my matches.”
Bieger has played in local cash tournaments and numerous college pickleball events, but this is his first chance to play with the pros and he can’t think of a better place to do it.
“It’s really an honour to play here in Bristol,” he said. “I think I’m the only male player from Bristol in the qualifiers. The home advantage and the support of everyone here has really meant a lot to me and made playing a pleasure.”
Editor’s note: Bieger and Singsank lost 11:3, 11:8 to Michael Loyd and Martina Frantova in the opening round of the mixed doubles on Friday.
