Anna Bright exalts in victory with her mixed partner Hayden Patriquin as she finishes off an undefeated weekend in Las Vegas.
PPA
After a week off, the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) began the first of a three tourneys in three weeks October as the leadup to their big 2026 Worlds event in the beginning of October with the 2026 Rate Las Vegas Open. Instead of holding the event in the Convention Center, or in the basement of a Casino, the tour held this event at the massive Darling Tennis Center, allowing for a 1,600+ pro and amateur field in the Vegas heat.
Because it was an “Open” event, or perhaps because of a bit of load management, or perhaps frankly because many of the PPA’s salary players have more or less fulfilled their contractual obligations for the 2026 season, attendance was spotty at this event. There were a slew of missing top players, and the singles draws were not nearly as populated, even by the WPC top 10 players who would normally get double byes. That meant new matchups, and new opportunity for the tour’s second tier players to make deep runs.
Click here for the PickleballTournaments.com home page for the event, where you can get tournament details, draw sheets, and results.
With that said, let’s recap the action. Reminder, the PPA has eliminated Bronze medal matches starting in September, 2026.
Men’s Pro Singles Recap
Hunter Johnson (foreground) beat Federico Staksrud (background) in the semis before finishing off Ben Johns for the gold.
PPA
The Men’s singles draws always seem to be good for a couple of upsets, and this week was no different. No. 1 Christopher Haworth went out at the hands of No. 14 Luc Pham in the round of 16, carving a wide-open hole for the other players in the top half of the draw. The player to take advantage? None other than Mr. double-bye Ben Johns, seeded 19th but still a top-4 talent. Johns took out Frazier, Alshon, and then Goins to return to the finals of a PPA pro singles draw for the first time since February’s Mesa Cup.
The bottom half of the draw was a lot more “chalk” in the latter stages. No. 3 Hunter Johnson, forced to start in the 64s, started down a solid string of singles players to get to the final. He beat Stanchev in the 64s, then the up-and-coming Miles Hoover in the 32s. He eased past the under-seeded Oncins in the 16s, dominated No. 5 Bellamy in the quarters, then got a solid 3-game win over No. 2 Staksrud to earn a spot in the final.
Johnson-Johns has historically been lopsided; Hunter entered the match 0-5 career versus the long-time top player in the sport. It did not take him long to get his first win over the legend, as Hunter trounced Ben 1,3 for the gold.
Gold: Hunter Johnson. Silver: Ben Johns.
Women’s Pro Singles Recap
A singles draw without Anna Leigh Waters usually means surprise results, and this event was no different. A singles draw also missing several other top-8 players makes for fireworks. Things got started early when No. 1 Kate Fahey went out at the hands of No. 5 Kiora Kunimoto in the quarters. She continued her run with a come-from-behind win over N0. 10 Cailyn Campbell in the all-teenage semi. Kunimoto has never won a domestic medal, but her international results have pushed her ranking well into the top 10, and her Vegas results will only bolster her pedigree, as she stands set to jump Catherine Parenteau for No. 7.
In the final she faced off against No. 2 Kaitlyn Christian, who outlasted No. 22 Sewing 11-9 in the third in her tourney opener, then cruised past both Rane and Jansen easily to get to the final. Kiora took game two against Kaitlyn, but could not close the deal, settling for silver in a three game loss to the veteran pro.
Gold: Kaitlyn Christian. Silver: Kiora Kunimoto.
Mixed Pro Doubles Recap
In Mixed doubles, Nico Acevedo showed he’s not just a flash in the pan in Men’s, teaming with Isabella Dunlap to beat two top-10 teams before falling to the indomitable top seeded pair of Waters & Johns in the quarters. Waters & Johns eased past No. 4 Tardio & Black in the semis to earn a spot in the finals.
Their opponent in the finals was the all-St. Louis Shock pairing of No. 2 Anna Bright & birthday boy Hayden Patriquin, who ground out three straight 3-game marathons in their early rounds, capped off by an 11-8 thriller over No. 3 Pisnik & Alshon to get to the Sunday gold medal match.
In the final, in a shocker, Bright & Patriquin took out the world’s top mixed pair in two games, winning 7,9 to claim gold. Anna Leigh Waters entered the event sitting on 198 career PPA full-stop gold medals, but thanks to this loss must wait until Worlds to clear the 200 gold barrier.
Gold: Bright & Patriquin. Silver: Waters & Johns.
Men’s Pro Doubles Recap
Christian Alshon (L) and Andrei Daescu (R) repeat as Men’s Doubles champs in the desert.
PPA
One half of Arizona’s Cinderella Men’s doubles team (Nico Acevedo) pulled off more upsets in Vegas, teaming with Jaume Martinez Vich to beat the 4th seeds and 5th seeds to make the semis, but could not take out the top seeded Johns & Tardio team, back together after a few weeks break. It’s now been since last November since the duo failed to make a final … or lose in general.
The bottom half saw one of the PPA’s hottest up and coming players, lefty Elliott Schupp, team with Goins and make a run, taking out the 6th seeds early before falling to No. 3 Patriquin & Staksrud in the quarters. Hayden, in Vegas early for his 21st birthday, ran out of gas in the semis against the No. 2 Alshon & Daescu team, who won in Arizona and look to go back to back.
In the final, Alshon & Daescu beat a somewhat disinterested looking Johns & Tardio team 6,9 to repeat as champs from two weeks ago. With the loss, Johns ends up going from being in position to Triple Crown at the beginning of Sunday to having three finals losses in a row.
Gold: Alshon & Daescu. Silver: Johns & Tardio.
Women’s Pro Doubles Recap
Not playing singles apparently keeps Anna Leigh Waters pretty fresh for her doubles matches, and the top ranked duo (with Anna Bright) destroyed the upper half of the draw to get to the finals. They gave up a combined six (6!) points in their first three matches, which included a double-donut win in the quarters over No. 7 Layne Sleeth and Alix Truong where, amazingly, they challenged a line call at 10-0 in the second game to preserve the shutout. Perhaps not the most sporting move ever, but also a testament to the competitive nature of the two ladies.
In the final, they faced No. 2 seeds Hurricane Tyra Black and Catherine Parenteau, both without their regular partners thanks to planned absences (Rachel Rohrabacher missed the event to get married) and other partner shuffling at the Vegas event. Parenteau & Black were similarly untroubled in their path to the final, winning all three early round matches with ease.
In the final, Black & Parenteau made the top seeds work for it, winning game two to force a tiebreaker, but Bright & Waters prevailed 11-5 in the third to win again.
Gold: Waters & Bright. Silver: Black & Parenteau.
Senior Pro Competition Quick Recap
In the first time since May 2026, the PPA’s senior events featured the full slate of all five disciplines, thanks to the Vegas venue and the proximity of the event to the October Worlds and Nationals. Here’s a quick recap.
- Men’s Senior Open Singles: Top seeded Blake Arrant held serve and topped Matthias Johansson in the final.
- Men’s Senior Open Doubles: 7th seeded Todd Murphy/Jamil Atcha took out multiple top-4 seeds to take the title.
- Women’s Senior Open Singles: Utah’s Kimberlee Nelson took the 5-person Women’s pro singles round robin competition.
- Women’s Senior Open Doubles: Jennifer Douglas & Cherie Nabeta took the doubles title without dropping a game.
- Mixed Senior Open Doubles: Julie Henderson & Daniel Roditi certainly made a mockery of the seedings, winning gold despite being seeded 9th.
The Pro Pickleball Medal Tracker spreadsheets have now been updated with these results. Click here for the Pro-only Medal Tracker, and click here for the Senior Pro Medal Tracker. These spreadsheets hold Medal winners for every pro event going back to the beginnings of the tours.
Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule , The PPA heads to Chicago next week for the 2026 Veolia Chicago Cup. Fun fact: the PPA tour has never been to the Chicago area before.
Any Head to Head or career match stats quoted in this article are courtesy of PickleWave. Visit picklewave.com for the premier source of Pro Pickleball data, including match replays, highlights, stats, and discussion. PickleWave has more than 31,000 matches in its database across all the pro tours, and has started a fantastic new Bracket Challenge feature for Fantasy-style sports fans to try out.
Other resources I use frequently to cover Pickleball include:
For a full list of my “Pickleball Bookmarks,” including a summary of my “go-to” links for coverage as well as a relatively comprehensive list of links for the industry, click here.
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