Thursday, August 20, 2026

10:28 a.m. EST

I just got done with my first match because I got a walkover on the first match. I played Richard Livornese, who was actually one of the the best APP Next players. He played APP Next for so long, and that's actually who I played and saw in one of my first APP Next Tournaments. Not to go off subject, but APP Next I think is a great format. You get to be there with all the kids, your peers, people that are younger. You get great matches, a bunch of great reps, you get to play with better players than you, and then also you get to hang out with Ken, Chad, Lee that give you amazing coaching, and you just can learn so much from being in that arena and playing so many good matches. I think next gens are amazing, and it's really helped me get a bunch of reps in, and then when I come out here, I just feel confident on court, knowing I put in the hours and I'm just ready, ready for my match.

To go back to the match, I don't think I played amazing, but obviously you're not going to play great every single match. Richard, I don't know if he was playing great either, but it was first match for me. Got off a little bit long on the first set, it was 11-9, and ended up getting through it. And then second set, I was down, Richard was playing great. He was changing up the tactics, he was serving a lot bigger, and he was just playing really well. He covers the net great, but I was able to come back from 10-5, and I came back from that and got it back to 10-10, and then I ended up getting a little bit lucky and winning that one 13-11. But great match for Richard, and sorry about that! But it was a super fun match.

Great first match, really looking forward to the next one, and hopefully gonna come out with some energy and learn from the conditions that I just played in.

7:53 a.m. EST

Hello, my name is Tristan Dussault, welcome to the blog! Super excited to be doing this in Detroit this week, and it's just going to be so much fun!

Got to Detroit yesterday morning. Got an early flight. Met up with Dusty and Naveen, and Jake Bauer, the other guy that I'm staying with, was already here. First we got Chick-Fil-A, Dusty and I, so that was a pretty good lunch. Chick-Fil-A is the standard! Then we all just came to the site, got a very good hit in. Got some singles reps. Looking forward to today, it's going to be great. There are a bunch of great players, it's going to be fun day.

I came to Detroit straight from the English Open. It was personally my first time playing outside the United States for pickleball, and it was probably one of my funnest experiences yet. It was so much fun! Thank you to Ken Herrmann and Chad and Lee and the whole APP Next team for bringing us out there. It was just an amazing experience. I got to see all the international players, got to play on those courts, It's just a whole different atmosphere. And it went pretty well overall. Ended up losing in quarters of singles to the guy I was actually supposed to play today, but he ended up walking over because he was sick, unfortunately. (So get better soon, Mateusz, and hopefully we'll get to play again soon.) In men's doubles I played with Ronan Camron, it was kind of like a last-minute partnership so I was really looking forward to that, and we ended up getting silver. We played great all day, and it was just super fun to share the court with Ronan. He had such great energy, and it was just an amazing experience. Then mixed day, I actually played with a local named Evie Kenna from from UK, and it was just so much fun. We ended up getting fourth overall, so we had a very great day. We had some good upsets, got to play in front of the crowd - the crowd was obviously rooting for my partner - and it was just so much fun to play with Evie. She had such great energy.

Was here for a day, and then this morning we got in a Dunkin breakfast, got here and just looking forward to this tournament. Super nice indoor convention center, and the courts are actually playing very well. Looking forward to it!

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