Sunday, August 9, 2026

3:36 p.m. CT

It's tough to say after like a tough loss in three sets. Props to Jack and Richard. We were down in the first set and then we just fired up. We came back, won the first set, they came back, won the second, and the third was really tight. But ultimately they didn't miss the last few balls. I think we kind of made a bit more unforced errors. And yes, we did have to move to indoor because there was a thunder and lightning storm delay. I only got a 20-minute notice because I was chilling at a Starbucks, and I thought the match would be a lot later. But turns out, "Q, your match is gonna be on at 2:00 indoors. But I love indoors, I've been playing indoors, that's not really an excuse at all. I think overall it was a really great match. Even my dad says he thinks both teams played extremely well.

Actually, I do have an excuse. My excuse is, yesterday I should have eaten another deep dish pizza instead of Jimmy Thai. There's nothing wrong with Jimmy Thai. It's a great restaurant, great Thai food, but I think I should have just shoved another deep dish. But overall, I loved the tournament. I couldn't be happier. I mean, of course I could be happier if I had won a gold medal, but it was a great tournament. First time in Chicago, did really well with PK in our first time too. So overall, really good learning experience, and hopefully I can come back here soon.

11:18 a.m. CT

Last day today. Really super excited.! Fingers crossed that it doesn't rain today because even on my airplane ticket they said, "watch out for thunderstorms today." So fingers crossed. Hopefully something good happens and we get all sunshine.

Last night was good. I had a Thai food at Jimmy Thai, it was pretty good. All the players recommend it to me like Santosh, Thomas, Purple Jesus. I had pad see ew. Bao had ramen. My dad had tom yum noodle soup. Honestly, if anybody goes to Jimmy Thai, I would recommend to get the chicken satay. Probably the best so far I had in the U.S. - really good, really juicy.

Okay, no more food. Pickleball, forgot. Yeah, pickleball. It's a pickleball blog. Forgot. Really excited for finals today. Playing Jack and Richard, we obviously had many battles throughout Asia, so this is my first time facing them in technically their home ground in the U.S. So it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun, but I'm gonna have a nice long warm up session because I only have one match today, which is men's doubles with Patrick, and I'm just gonna give it my all.

‍

‍

Saturday, August 8, 2026

3:37 p.m. CT

After a tough quarter, I was really excited to play the semis. It's just a bit unfortunate our opponent has to withdraw. Honestly, was pretty rough, but I was like, "Oh my god, I should go prepare?" I was warming up, and then not warming up. It's like back and forth, back and forth. But I think now I'm just gonna refocus basically, just focus on everything for tomorrow. Take my time, get a good rest in, get some good dinner, and just yeah, just gonna give my all for tomorrow.

‍

‍

1:34 p.m. CT

I'll be honest. I don't really know what to say, but we got SO lucky! I've played this team of Tanner Tomassi and Ammar Wazir before. Last time we had set points in the first set - I played with Jayden Broderick - and at 10-7, I missed a forehand speed up, and it landed about an inch outside the line, and it was - oh my god! And then we lost the second set because I think Jayden accidentally pulled something. I forgot what it was, but then we ended up losing badly in the second set. But this time I was trying to get a little bit of revenge on them. But now they came out playing extremely well. Props to PK. We stayed really solid in the first set. Second set was a lot tighter, and the last two points. To be honest, I don't know how we won. We just stuck the paddle out there,  just stuck it out there.

Overall, feeling great. Actually, not that tired as yesterday. I don't feel like I'm gonna have  full-body cramps. Maybe because I chugged down a whole deep dish pizza and a Tavern-style yesterday. That maybe that's why. Yeah, I mean sometimes you gotta just shove a deep dish pizza down your throat.

11:22 a.m. CT

Going strong today.! First men's doubles match was pretty good . We played a good friend of mine, Dusty Boyer, and his partner Caden Salefsky. They were very solid. I think Caden is like 6'8" or 6'7" or something, no pun intended. But overall, was a really good startup, we came out hot in the first match and in the second match we played also two of my good friends, Andre Mick and Callan Dawson. We started off really hot in the first set, played really well. I think we were against the wind, so most of their dinks were popping up just enough for us to reach in and put them away. The second set we were up by like 8-2. I was shuffling for an Erne because Callan kept going behind my back a lot, so I was like 'oh my god, screw it. I'm gonna go for the Erne.' My feet accidentally went too far over, and I didn't touch the ball, so they called a foot fault. After that, I think they came back to 8-6. Sothere was that little incident, but shoutout to PK, staying really solid on the right side. After that we managed to get a side out, and the rest just went really well from there. Into the quarters!

8:10 a.m. CT

First of all, good morning to everybody! Lovely day today. Actually, today's weather it's a bit cooler than yesterday. Feeling good. I did actually have a really good dinner last night. I got some pizza last night actually. So stay tuned for the review!

This morning is a lovely day. Bao, my younger brother, is actually playing doubles today. Of course, we're brothers, extremely competitive. We will not say this in front of each other's faces, but he is an upcoming, extremely talented, player, and he is, I guess, half decently good! He's doable, if you have nobody, he's there for you. But all jokes aside, I would not be where I am today without him. He helps my game a lot. He's a really good training partner, and today he's playing. He's actually the complete opposite of me. If I'm playing, I need my dad to be there. I need everything to be on time, very precise, very superstitious. But Bao is like, yeah, whatever, whatever works. To be honest, if my dad watches him, it's okay. If he doesn't, don't really care. He still performs as usual, he's very carefree. I think that's where he get his talent from. He's very carefree, open-minded. His first match today is actually on Championship Court, which is pretty exciting. Hopefully he wins. I'm gonna maybe watch a bit, not too much, because, well, I don't really care. I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding! At the moment he told me he's trying to get as much experience as possible, just have the best time of his life out there. And last thing about him, actually, I'm not gonna glaze anybody, but so far every time that we play together, we got a gold medal, so I'm not saying his partners are bad. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that at the end of the day, I'm still his best bro. Just saying.

Today I'm playing with Patrick Kawka. Really excited. We're gonna mix it up. He's very chaotic. So we see how it goes.

‍

Friday, August 7, 2026

2:46 p.m. CT

Losing in the Round of 16 again is kind of a bummer. I think the weather kind of killed us today. Because it's mixed, I got covered so much, and especially in the Round of 32, we played Avery Chew and Drake Palm. Even though we won it into two sets, it was a very tough match. I think the match was like an hour-and-a-half or something in the scorching weather on CC, where there's no shade whatsoever. I want to give a quick shout out to the volunteers there for every time that we called a timeout they opened the umbrella just for us to have like, what, a minute of shade. So shout out to those guys.

After that match, I would expect to have a lot longer of a break, like at least 20 minutes, half an hour.  But I was at the physio getting a massage because I was about to full-body cramp and the next thing I know "sorry, QD. You don't have enough time, so you gotta go out." So not even five minutes and I'm already to my next match. And first set, I I gave it gave it my all. Luckily, we got the first set. Second set, it was just a bunch of unforced errors, honestly. I think the second set was 11-1 or something so it wasn't even close. Third game was really close. We managed to get the first break at 6-5  and after that, props to the other team, Brandon and Christine, as well. I think they played really solid, really well. I think today I just needed more time to rest. Mixed doubles was so so hot today, and I was like almost about to full-body cramp the entirety of the match.

Probably the rest of the day, I just go home, sleep, take a nice shower and get some food in.

‍

12:14 p.m. CT

First match today - props to the other team. I think they fought really well, hands were decently solid. No excuses but our first match, I made a couple unforced errors, same with Viv. To mention that I think today the ball is a lot slower than yesterday in singles mainly because there's not a single speck of cloud right now in Chicago. It is just burning hot. Imagine you being a deep dish pizza baking in the oven right now. Actually like that. Or a tavern style, which is the crispy thin style. But overall, really happy to get the first dub. We're gonna regroup. get well-rested, hydrated, and yeah, let's see. Hopefully, we can do do better in our next.

10:15 a.m. CT

So after after the match last night, we went and had Cava. Hot take: I think Cava, if there were more locations, I think it would be better than Chipotle. That's my hot take. I think it is better than Chipotle. I know. I don't care what people say. I think it's better. Now, I would say Chipotle is more consistent on the chicken. It depends on which location you go to. There's some really good chicken and some really bad chicken, but Chipotle has a better consistency of chain.

So went home, took a nice long hot bath, maybe like what, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, just soaking that back in there, ice. My dad did acupuncture on me, and then  just a bit of stretch. Don't want to overstretch to make it more twisted. I did massage, and just took some melatonin and just went straight to bed and got a very good deep sleep.

Woke up this morning feeling great. Back is feeling good so far, actually, so hopefully today in the mixed match I don't pull it again. I did fully tape it like yesterday. I'm starting to incorporate a small amount of breakfast into my morning routine because usually I don't eat breakfast. I just like to starve myself until dinner during tournament play. But the schedule is just super grueling, and I don't have enough time to recover. So I'm trying to find every little amount of time that possibly I can to just recharge energy, protein, and carbs, and just to recharge for the day. I think I had like half a bagel. Honestly, start with something light, just half a bagel, decent. Playing with Vivian Glozman today, very exciting. We do have some medals, not a gold yet. We have every color of the medals, but not a gold. So hopefully, fingers crossed for this time. Had a good warm-up session today. It is a bit hotter, I know it's actually a lot harder than yesterday. No clouds. We'll see how we do.

Thursday, August 6, 2026

8:37 p.m. CT

Amanda and I went 1-2 in our event. It was definitely an experience. We started off a bit slow, the format is just extremely tough. This time was a bit different from the the genders doubles event in the last Shriners Children's Pro Invitational. Last time we had a little bit more time to recover. This time there was no warm up. We went straight into an eight-minute match, and I think in the first two matches the clock definitely got to us. In the last one we just calmed down and played our game.

There were a lot of upsets today actually, it's pickleball and you never know what's going to happen. I definitely had some fun out there, of course it's not fun when you lose but it it's definitely interesting, it's definitely more chaotic and with all that being said, I had a pretty good time.  Now I'm going to go home and sleep, recover, just try to get my back as much recovery as possible for mixed and men's doubles.

5:02 p.m. CT

So I had a decent break, I think I had a four-hour break, so I went home. My dad did acupuncture on me, massaged me really well, I iced my back, stretched. I did a lot of things for me to get prepared for this Shriners Children's Pro Invitational charity event, and so hopefully the back will hold up. I taped it as well, now I'm a new person.

Honestly, walking out here, dude, I love the atmosphere. There are a lot of people here, lots of kids out here, so I'm really excited. There are a lot of people from Shriners too, so a lot of children are here to watch some really good athletes, not only me, but a bunch of other great players as well. So hopefully, I can put on a show for them. I'll focus on one match at a time. The format is a bit different than the regular format so that is the thing you should keep up on. Let's just have fun!

‍

12:25 p.m. CT

Unfortunately I had to pull out of singles with a back issue. Mainly the back issue has been happening for about three weeks already. Three tournaments ago there was a really big singles event that I withdrew from because of of my back issues. I got everything taped, played pretty well in that tournament for doubles and mixed. Next tournament I was feeling good, which was the APP Malaysia. My dad said, "Okay, listen, just tape the whole tournament, tape everything."  So I did, and still in that tournament, I think I called about three to four medical timeouts when it would start acting a bit. But the tape really helped, so was really fortunate enough to get the singles title and the doubles title and silver in mixed. Yeah, but the back I don't know how it held up. It held up. Next tournament was actually feeling pretty good. It stopped hurting, playing decently well, no pain at all, and then we have our last tournament in the Philippines. That I played with no tape, even though I did not play singles for that because I don't think there was a singles draw, only mixed and doubles, zero pain, nothing happening. But one thing I should have kept in mind is that with these tournaments, I didn't have a long enough of a break. My longest break was three days, basically. I went from Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, and had a day-and-a-half to two days rest, and I came straight to Chicago. Traveling so much, it is a bit difficult to find good physio wherever I go. Chicago is my first tournament back in the U.S. for singles and I was really excited to play. It's like you know what, screw it. I'm gonna play. My dad was the one who was like, "QD, I think I think you shouldn't play singles for this tournament, you've been playing so much for like four weeks straight."  But I might as well just give it a shot. And I think I was a bit overconfident, not in the skill level, but in my like my own body. There's too much playing, too many tournaments going on, and that's kind of how it happened.

In the Round of 16 match against Ammar, I think overall it was an extremely tough match. To be honest, I think I got kind of lucky in the first set. I was down 2-7, came back up to 9-7. He came back, 9-all, and then I somehow pulled it out 11-9. Second set - I'm not using the back injury as an excuse. Ammar played really well in the entirety of the match. I think was 6-2 in in the second set. Ammar hit a really good, amazing inside shot. I went for it for too much and I immediately fell down. My back twisted and overall, yes, I should be be more careful next time.

So now we're gonna tape the back and then we're gonna play the pro invitational tonight. Doubles should be a lot easier on the back. A similar thing happened previously - I had a withdrawal because I was training for singles and back still hurt. So the main problem is singles. Too much movement, and not enough time for me because I travel around Asia, just back and forth, back and forth, too much, and I should have taken a lot better care. It is tough to take care with your body, especially with all the traveling. But I'm learning.

10:00 a.m. CT

Hey guys, it's QD here! I just got in around two days ago, actually, for the 2026 APP Vlasic Classic Chicago Benefiting Shriners Children's. I'm super excited! This is my first time in Chicago, actually. I know Chicago has really good pizza, the Chicago deep dish AND specialty. Actually, a lot of people do not know that Chicago Style, one of their other signature styles, is very crispy, thin crust pizza. Listen, I'm very open-minded. I would love to try both at the end of the tournament. Of course, I'm not gonna eat the pizza during the tournament, it's extremely heavy.

Honestly, Chicago's been very nice. Love the weather here. Just got to the venue, it's a very nice venue, lovely courts. Today is singles, and I'm very excited. Just finished my first match. It was pretty tough against one of my friends, Max Wild. If people look at the score they might not have seen that way. But it was a tough match. A lot of side outs, Max is a very good player, very lengthy guy as well, and I think next up I'm playing with one of my other friends, Ryan Fu. So it it's a bit different playing the U.S. Everybody I play is my friend, so I'm really excited.

Hopefully I still have some energy left because tonight is the Shriners Children's Pro Invitational Chicago event. I did awful in the first pro invitational because I got food poisoning, and actually the whole invitational event last time I had full-body cramps. So hopefully this time I don't get last place like last time!  

To all the fans and the Asian fans, hopefully see you guys around here or watch me live! Thank you!