Riley Newman announced on social media today that the power duo will no longer be playing together in doubles. This is quite a surprise to those who follow the sport and have witnessed the team be one of the few formidable opponents to the Johns’ brothers. We reached out to Riley for a comment and he had this to say.
“Achieving a medal in every tourney we entered was quite the run, but in the last 6 months we have only won Gold once and haven’t gotten over the hump against the John’s.
Matt was a great partner, but at the end of the day I felt like it was needed to switch it up and give teams a different look.”
– Riley Newman on parting with partner Matt Wright.
Further details of the split are unknown at the moment, but it leaves lots of speculation as to who these two players will be playing with moving forward. For Riley, one of the most athletic players in the game, he will be best suited with a solid right side player who is comfortable sharing the court with Riley and letting him do his thing. Riley is at his best when he is moving laterally and that sometimes puts his partner in a tough spot. Names that come to mind and don’t have long term partnerships would be Thomas Wilson and Julian Arnold. Julian seems like an odd partnership because they are both alphas who prefer the left side, but it will no doubt be an interesting pairing and would certainly give the Johns brothers something to think about. Riley’s next tournament will be the PPA Seattle, his home town. Riley is registered, but has not declared a partner as of yet.
As for Matt’s future partners, it seems a bit easier to find a partnership that fits his style of play. With some of the fastest hands on tour, Matt is comfortable on the right, which provides a long list of potential suitors who would love to have the experienced Wright playing by their side.
Players like James Ignatowich, DJ young, Andrei Daescu, and AJ Koller all come to mind. Matt is currently signed up to play in PPA Denver, but has yet to declare a partner.
It will be interesting to see who these players team up with to give the Johns a run for their money, but it is also just as interesting to see how these two will play each other. It will very likely require beating each other in tournaments in order to get a shot at the Johns.
This will certainly be something we are tracking as we head into the second half of 2023.
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