APP pro, Alix Truong, is writing a live blog from the 2023 APP Houston Open. Check back regularly for updates throughout the tournament.
October 29, 2023, 2:18 p.m.
Well guys, that does it for the 2023 APP Houston Player Blog. Thank you so much to the APP, Intersport, and everybody for having us out. This blog was so much fun and a great experience, I hope to do it again another time.
The gold medal match was alright. I definitely did not play my best, unfortunately. I feel like I let Vivian down. But overall I'm very very proud of her, how far she's come, and how far we've come as a team together. We have one more tournament to go in Chicago, so we're looking to take it home there and close out the year with a bang!
Shout out to Engage Pickleball, Chicken N Pickle, Hidden House Coffee, Barebells. Also shout out to Jenny, Ryan and Ken with the APP, Alex with Hype Nation, Brent from Cora, the guy in the parking lot, and congrats to #FudgeBarr for another medal! And shout out to the fam at home - little brother LJ, older brother Ethan, and parents John and Vi. See you guys on the flip side - follow me on Instagram!
October 29, 2023, 10:53 a.m.
Good morning, everybody. Happy Sunday! Viv and I are just about to hit the court. We had a great warmup. Last night we went to get dim sum - it was so amazing - followed by boba. That's our favorite thing to do together, is just get some good food and boba.
Luckily we're coming from the winner's bracket so that's to our advantage, but we are not looking to give Megan and Susannah the game to 15 at all - we want to close it out in a two out of three. Tune in to the livestream on APPTV - thank you all for your support and talk to you after the match!
October 28, 2023, 7:15 p.m.
O-M-G we just won the winner's bracket final! This was Viv's and my first time going straight to gold. The other times that we made Sunday we had to play through the bronze match. So it's a nice and different feeling to be done early on. I can kick my shoes off, relax, watch the bronze match, and make sure that I have a relaxing evening so that I'm rejuvenated in the morning. I think I'm just gonna grab dinner, and boba is my good luck charm so maybe I'll do that again. Then I'll go through some content ideas with John so that we can continue filming a cool hype video tomorrow with our APP Lexus vehicles as we're driving to the venue tomorrow. We are the third match on - make sure to tune in to the live stream on APPTV and cheer us on! Love you, have a great night, and STAY MEAN!
October 28, 2023, 5:31 p.m.
Let's freaking go! Viv and I are slaying on Slay Day! We just finished the semifinal, so we're on to the winner's bracket final. We played that match on Center Court 1 for television purposes, therefore we were waiting for a few matches to go by. I want to say it was roughly 2-2.5 hours while we were waiting. I'm not gonna lie, I got a little bit anxious, so I started walking around, but all my nerves went away when I started to see puppies! I counted five of them and they were all so small, cute and fluffy. I am such a sucker for small animals, specifically dogs. I saw a Bernedoodle, which had giant paws compared to his little body. She had one blue eye and one brown eye - heterochromia - and it was just the cutest thing. There's another white lab puppy that has the softest fur and it likes to bite people's calves and pick up sticks. It reminded me of Vivian actually because when she's out and about in her own world, she is just super cute and she acts like a puppy, so I love that.
Shout out to DJ Mez for the hype beats going in to that match, it got me super loose and pumped up - another reason why we won the next match. We're stoked to be guaranteed a medal. But like I said in the post-match interview, we're going for gold, that's what we want this weekend. Cheer us on!
October 28, 2023, 2:23 p.m.
Hello, everybody! I'm currently sitting under Brent's tenet, a.k.a. my second home, with my new cameraman, John. He's been a trooper all weekend, working super hard getting content for me. Viv and I just finished our quarterfinals and we won that. It was a great match. I just played against another 18 year old who's in the draw and people always ask me how it feels to be the baby on the tour. I like to say that it has its ups and downs. I say that the negative is that I'm inexperienced, but the positives are that I have a lot of upside and I have many more years to go to gain that experience. Right now I think I'm gonna shoot some content with John, I'm gonna get stretched by Brent, eat more of my pretzels, and then Viv and I are going to change into our purple outfits. And I have to make sure that I have my matching purple scrunchie!
October 28, 2023, 11:15 a.m.
Good morning, everybody! Happy "slay day!" Yesterday was not the greatest but that's okay because today's a new day, and I call women's doubles day with Vivian "Saturday Slay Day," so we're out here ready to slay!
I had a great sleep last night, passed out around 8:00 p.m. and woke up around 7:30 this morning. I had a good morning routine, went straight to the venue and got stretched by my therapist, Brent. As I was laying there, I looked up from the table and saw Viv in my peripheral vision. She was just standing there waving at me and it made me laugh.
Thank you for all the Houston team name suggestions that I got last night. Viv and I decided to come up with our name, and it's...the Houston Hellcats! That was not my idea, it was Viv's, but I'll give it to her because I came up with more than half of them already. So we're going to go with it and have a great day. Viv and I have medaled five times consecutively together, and we're looking for another one this tournament. It's definitely going to be a challenge. We have a full bracket, and this is the first time the APP has had a qualifier in all women's events, so it would be super great to start closing out the year by adding more medals to our resumes. Hopefully that is going to be gold this week - at least, that's what we're aiming for!
October 27, 2023, 5:05 p.m.
I'm not super happy that we just lost. Mick and I ended up playing Yates and Emily, whom we practiced with yesterday, and the results were the complete opposite. They played great, but I think Mick and I are pretty tired and sore. I think we're just going to stretch it out and get ready for gender doubles tomorrow. I already did cupping for several days in a row, so I don't think that's a good idea to do it again. People keep bringing up my cupping marks. I just had a headache, so I cupped my neck, hoping to get more blood flow and it worked. So I don't care if there are marks on me, I'm just glad that I feel better.
I think I'm going to grab a nice meal tonight, maybe some Sweetgreen - or I'll grab dinner with some of the other pros before my favorite event, women's doubles tomorrow. Have a great night, ya'll!
October 27, 2023, 1:01 p.m.
Hi guys. I have played two matches, we lost in the first one and we just won in the second one. Something weird is happening this weekend. Today there are medical timeouts at almost every match, it's the weirdest thing. People are overheating, cramping, just not feeling great. So matches are going by super slow. I think it's going to be a long day but I'm just hoping to grind through the back. Mick and I also aren't feeling too great, but we want to take advantage of everybody else not feeling great and just keep on rolling.
Every APP Tour stop, in mixed doubles and women's doubles, the Tour asks for all the duos to match outfits and I think that's super clever and cute. Mick and I are checker-boarding with our brown and black, like I mentioned before, but everybody else has on all black, I see some cute gray and purple combinations, some light blues and pinks all around. It's a very colorful weekend. But Mick's and mine are better because they're Lululemon!
October 27, 2023, 11:49 a.m.
Good morning, everybody! Today is Friday and I like to call mixed doubles day "kill day" or "slaughter day." It sounds a little mean, but my saying is "stay mean," so Mick and I are ready to go out there and kill. I honestly don't know what looks better right now - Jaume Martinez Vich's hair or Mick's and my brown outfits. It's just a checkerboard of brown and black and it's looking super snazzy.
This morning I was stoked - I went and got Starbucks, got a little caffeine kick in me, as well as picked up some butter snap pretzels, which are my favorite snack to snack on during tournaments. Then I arrived at the venue and got a little warmup in and right next to me was my cheetah, Vivian! It just reminded me how much fun we have. We love having healthy separation, so seeing her again was super nice. We have to come up with a name - a team name - for ourselves when we are in Houston. At every tour stop that we have played together we came up with a little name. We started in Philadelphia and we were the Philly Philanthropists. Then we went to Chicago and Viv calls Chicago "chee-town" not "chai-town," so we were the Chi-town Cheetahs. New Jersey was Jersey Jags, went to Atlanta and called ourselves the Atlanta Air Conditioners, followed by the Dallas Doritos, and here we are in Houston. So let me know if you guys have any ideas!
But we're looking forward to a wonderful mixed day here in Houston!
October 26, 2023, 4:37 p.m.
I just closed out a little mixed doubles practice session with the Aussie legend, Andre Mick. We played against Yates and it was so much fun - I read Yates like a book, as always, and Emily just stood there laughing all cute like she is. We just got kicked off of a court, so I think that's going to end our day. I'm really excited because Mick and I are planning to wear brown tomorrow. As you all may know, I have been wearing a ton of brown recently, and it's fall time, so we're loving those vibes! I'm craving a smoothie or boba - I think I want a little treat tonight, and just relax before an early morning tomorrow!
October 26, 2023, 2:49 p.m.
And...we just lost. I was down 2-13, which is crazy to think about.. Then I came back 13-13 and got stuck there for a while, and then unfortunately lost 13-15 in a tough battle that wore me out, but I still have practice tonight. I'm really excited to start sharing the court again with Andre Mick. We're going to bring the energy even though it's just practice. We're super stoked. He's going to arrive here in a little bit and I just can't wait to play mixed and then hopefully see my cheetah, Vivian Glozman, later. Man, I missed her! Talk to you later!
October 26, 2023, 1:28 p.m.
Hey guys, we're back. I played my second match, which was the first in the back draw. That went a lot smoother than the first match. I found my rhythm, had a good warmup, and my head wasn't hurting that match. I thought I played really well, used my angles wisely, and mentally stayed focused. Now, I don't know how many more matches I have. It's going to be a tough fight throughout the whole day, but I will just recover and stretch. I'm going to eat my leftover Flower Child that I had last night, which was so yum! I'm looking forward to having a bit of my sweet potatoes, and hopefully that will give me energy to go onto the next match.
October 26, 2023, 12:40 p.m.
I just finished round 1 of singles, I was put on a bye, so I was waiting a little bit. The girl I played, Sharienne Ricardo, went to three games in her first match, so she was feeling pretty good going into my match. I started out a little bit slow, but started feeling my shots. I think the match went great. She definitely made me play, as did I make her play. Hopefully I can make a run through the back, if not...we have a long weekend ahead of us.
October 26, 2023, 10:59 a.m.
What's up, everybody? It's Alix Truong. Today we are starting the 2023 APP Houston Open, and we have singles today. Unfortunately it's raining outside, but fortunately the APP found us a nice indoor facility so that we can all play. I think the draws are going to go by pretty quick. There are 10 courts only for the pros, so that'll be nice. I'm looking forward to playing singles again. I didn't play in Atlanta and then had to cut my journey short in Dallas. So excited to be back, but I'm more excited to play doubles this week with my favorite partners, Andre Mick in mixed, and Vivian Glozman in women's doubles.
I got into Houston yesterday, Wednesday, the 25th. I picked up the Lexus rental car that Lexus and the APP are generously giving some of our players to drive around this weekend. I had a good warm up session for singles and doubles with Shelby Bates and Jaume Martinez Vich, as well as a little smack talk media day with Shelby which was so much fun - I can't wait to see it on the broadcast this weekend.
Let's go!
