Semifinal Saturday

Pool play is over in San Clemente. Now the season gets decided.

Three days of round-robin at the CIBC PPA Tour Finals are in the books, and every one of the five events has its semifinal lineup. Today — Saturday, at Life Time Rancho San Clemente — the finalists get chosen. No more points differential, no more second chances. Win and play Sunday. Lose and watch.

Start with men’s singles, because that’s where the drama lives. Federico Staksrud went a perfect 3-0 to top the ATP Pool, and his reward is a semifinal against Connor Garnett, who finished second in the Erne Pool. On the other side of the bracket, Erne winner Tyson McGuffin faces Hunter Johnson, who locked up second in the ATP Pool by beating Dylan Frazier 11-7, 11-8. Staksrud against Garnett is the one to circle: the world No. 1 against a player who has already beaten him this week… in doubles. Different event. Same confidence.

Women’s singles is simpler to describe and harder to change. Anna Leigh Waters went 3-0 with a plus-41 point differential and conceded almost nothing — she meets Mary Brascia in one semifinal, while Kaitlyn Christian, also 3-0 in her pool, takes on Parris Todd. Waters hasn’t lost a game since Sacramento. The question is never whether she’ll be there Sunday. It’s who shows up believing otherwise.

The doubles semis have the best subplot of the week. In mixed, Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns — 3-0 in the ATP Pool — face Anna Bright and Gabe Tardio. Tardio is the French thread running through this tournament: two weeks ago he was in Kuala Lumpur winning doubles gold with Noé Khlif. Now he’s one match from a Finals Sunday, standing across from the two best players in the world. The other mixed semi is an all-sibling-versus-all-star affair: Jorja and JW Johnson against Catherine Parenteau and Christian Alshon.

And men’s doubles? Keep an eye on Tyson McGuffin and Andrei Daescu. They hadn’t played a tournament together in over a year, walked into the Erne Pool, beat Staksrud and Hayden Patriquin — handing that pair its first defeat in twelve matches together — and then closed out Friday with an 11-0, 11-0 demolition of Matt Wright and James Ignatowich. A double bagel, at the Tour Finals, in pool play’s final game. That’s not a warm-up. That’s a warning.

What Friday proved is that the pool format did its job. Nobody cruised. The top seeds took losses — Waters and Parenteau dropped a women’s doubles pool match to Johnson and Schneemann earlier in the week, and had to survive on point differential. New pairings like Dekel Bar and Christian Alshon showed up dangerous precisely because nobody had film on them.

Today, none of that arithmetic matters. Four events, eight semifinals, one day. The broadcast is on Pickleballtv and YouTube, and if the week so far is any indication, at least one of these matches is going three games with the crowd standing.

The season ends Sunday. Today decides who’s allowed to end it.