Bar and Dawson Figuring Things Out – Finish Fourth in Orange County

You sometimes hear about these first-time partnerships that take off and get immediate results. 

You know, a team just comes together, chemistry kinda happens and the next thing you know you have two people smiling on the medal stand.

But what about those partnerships that are a work in progress? The partnerships that don’t have a “get rich quick” feel to it, that instead takes time, a bit of water, sun, and TLC?

That may be what’s happening with two of the best players in the men’s game.

Callan Dawson and Dekel Bar are known commodities, they just haven’t gotten the payoff. Yet.

Saturday in San Clemente at the Orange County Cup could be the start of an upward trajectory.

“It’s tough to figure out right away,” said Bar. “But we’ve figured a lot out. The results showed and we played a little better.”

This is the fourth tournament the pair has been together this season and Saturday’s run to the semifinals was their best finish. 

“It always takes two or three tournaments to figure it out, and I think this was our fourth together,” Dawson said. “We both have strengths and weaknesses and complement each other well. It was a night-and-day difference this time.”

The pair won two matches together and then one in the back-draw in Charlotte back in May at the North Carolina Open. Next time out in Atlanta, they lost in the second round to Spencer Smith and Hayden Patriquin before winning twice more in the back-draw. At the Texas Open last week, Bar and Dawson lost in the second round to Federico Staksrud and Pablo Tellez before getting five wins in a row in the back-draw. That positive run seemed to provide some momentum.

And this Saturday, things worked better.

Bar and Dawson came in as the No. 6 seed, won their first two matches, then beat Rob Nunnery and Patriquin to earn a first semifinal showing together. They fell to second-seeded Matt Wright and Riley Newman, 11-3, 13-11. And after an 11-8 win in game one of the bronze match against James Ignatowich and Tyson McGuffin, Dawson and Bar lost the next two games, 11-2, 11-8.

No medal yet, but the slow climb has begun.

“We both decided we have some tournaments open,” Dawson said. “We have two more to go together and the ultimate goal is to find someone you can mesh with, like the other top teams – Matt and Riley and Ben and Collin. So yeah, we have a few more tournaments and if we can keep going it’s something we can do long-term. It comes down to communication, and everyone has a different view on pickleball and how it should be played. Some don’t communicate well. We do.”

“Sometimes you don’t gel it at first, but now we’re starting to gel better and hopefully we’ll go up from here,” Bar said.