Debra Sledd competed in this year’s U.S. Pickleball Open for the second time in hopes of beating her 2016 performance. Sledd did not win a medal in 2016, but her heart was set on winning this year. Sledd’s entry would put her in one of the largest groups in the open: Women’s Doubles 50+ Skill Group 4.0. The brackets for her category were 36 team matches. Starting in the morning, she played all day in record hot weather until gold, silver, and bronze doubles positions had been proven. The competition was greater this year because twice as many athletes were competing than in 2016.
Her doubles partner, Liz Easdale, is a snowbird in The Villages but had already returned to her home in Scotland, thus giving them one more hurdle to deal with, “jet lag.”
Their first set was an easy victory, the second only a little harder, but the third bracket took the best 2 out of 3 to move to up. In the fourth bracket, court 36, Erika Battaglia and Jan Russell stopped Sledd’s winning streak. This loss put Sledd and Easdale’s dream of gold or silver out of reach and put them into the consolation bracket for bronze.
The consolation category is a one game battle to 15 points. Their first game was a 15-8 win. This put them back into a three-game set for bronze. They had already played 10 sets, in 90 weather. The attrition of weaker players would make this last match the most difficult.
The last set would take place on court 72 against Dorene Mulcahy and Susan Lawless, both from Fort Myers. Sledd/Easdale won the first 11-9. After trading sides, they lost the second 9-11. Now, the bronze medal would hang on one game in the hot afternoon sun on a court far from the main stage. The four women put in all their tired and dehydrated bodies could muster. Final set, 11-9, Sledd and Easdale had taken bronze.
