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(Head)shot heard 'round the world

(Head)shot heard 'round the world

Ben Johns takes a dangerous shot at Quang Duong in quarterfinals

Team KOTC
January 13, 2025

The story of The Masters (aside from the actual results, which are mostly as you would expect) is the attempted body bag of Quang Duong (QD) in his men’s doubles match vs the Johns Brothers. QD has played Ben many times for such as short career, but most of their meetings have been in singles.

QD has gotten the better of Ben many times and plays a completely different style than what Ben is accustomed to playing. It seems that play style finally got to Ben during their doubles match when he hit a ball at roughly 300 mph directly at QD. QD luckily avoided the head shot and calmly took the free point and played on. Bravo on QDs part.

In baseball, that kind of targeting would usually clear the dugouts. Did Duc (QD’s dad) meet Ben in the parking lot after the tournament to express his thoughts? Ben posted a slo-mo of the shot on his Instagram… is he proud?

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Ben admitted in the post game interview that it was “a warning shot” for QD going for the body on some of his previous drives. As of publishing, the PPA has been silent on the whole incident, other than promoting a replay of it on socials (PPA Tour as well as UPA-owned pickleball.com).

In the vein of protecting players, this type of behavior (while it will inevitably happen) can’t be ignored when it is not only blatant, but also admitted to. In baseball, pitchers routinely get suspensions for intentionally throwing at or near a batter’s head. While a pickleball directed at the head isn’t nearly as dangerous as a 90 mph fastball, it still could have severely injured QD, had it hit him in the eye.

This year is a huge test for the UPA as they try to grow up from a fun startup league into a legitimate professional sport. Protecting your athletes has to be a top priority. The league could easily cite section 5.E.iii.1 from their player handbook as justification:

“Players shall not violently, dangerously or with anger hit, kick or throw a ball while on the grounds of the tournament site except in the reasonable pursuit of a point during a match (including warm-up). For purposes of this rule, abuse of balls is defined as intentionally or recklessly hitting a ball out of the enclosure of the court, hitting a ball dangerously or recklessly within the court or hitting a ball with disregard of the consequences.”

2024 PPA Player Handbook, 5.E.iii.1

This is an opportunity for the league to show that all players are held accountable to the same standards. While understanding “the line has to be drawn somewhere”— it’s better to draw the line and be too cautious, than draw no line at all, and someone gets seriously injured.

Until then, it’s time to wear your goggles, kids!