Bright And Waters Claim Double Golds In The North Carolina Heat At The Pro Pickleball Association Season Opener

News and Noteworthy ahead of the Event

It has been a minute since the PPA was last in action, last May for the Tour Finals. We covered a lot of the important news in the season preview articles, but here’s some highlights of tour-related news from the past few months:

• 5/27/26: PPA announces PPA Spain tour. The Professional Pickleball Association is officially expanding into Spain with a new seven-tournament
  PPA Spain Tour beginning in Barcelona on September 23-27, 2026. PPA Spain will feature a full season of PPA125, PPA250, and PPA500 events, with
  all points feeding into the global PPA Tour rankings system.
• 6/1/26: Per a Jim Kloss tweet, the UPA recently informed players that they no longer get contractual credit for playing a Challenger. This impact can
  be immediately seen in the draw strength for the just-finished Ft. Collins challenger and the results. Subsequent Challengers have continued to have non-active MLP players playing, and with the regular tour schedule now underway it remains to be seen if this continues to be the case.
• 8/5/26: PPA announces the rollout of its World Pickleball Rankings, which we covered extensively in the season preview.
• One of the biggest impacts you’ll be seeing on tour this season is the elimination of the Bronze Medal matches for the first time in tour history.

With the MLP in action all summer, it actually was kind of quiet for PPA-specific news. With that said, let’s recap the action.

Men’s Pro Singles Recap

Singles draws at Grand Slams on the PPA always get out entrants who don’t normally play singles any more, and we got some interesting early results. Ben Johns and Tyson McGuffin, seeded 25th and 39th respectively, met in the round of 64; this was the Men’s singles final at the PPA’s first ever tournament in February 2020, and were the two leading singles players for the years leading up to the beginning of the tour era of the sport. Johns topped McGuffin 2,9, but then was beaten in the 32s by No. 8 John Lucian Goins by the incredibly odd score line of 0,(6),0. This was just the 2nd time Ben Johns has taken an 11-0 loss in his singles career.

Elsewhere in the early rounds, No. 7 Jack Sock struggled badly with the heat and lost in the 64s to No. 57 Matthew Barlow. No. 59 George Rangelov took out No. 8 Roscoe Bellamy in the 64s as well. Lastly, rapping singles specialist No. 58 Alexander Crum topped No. 5 Connor Garnett in the first round, which meant three of the tournament’s top 8 seeds did not make it out of the round of 64. Teenager Connor Chaffin beat two higher seeds, including No. 9 Zane Ford, before falling to JW Johnson in the 16s. Lastly, Collin Shick popped up for the first time in two years, driving over from a break in his med school training in Chapel Hill to beat Dylan Frazier in the opener before falling.

In the quarters, all four top seeds advanced, with only No. 4 Alshon needing a third game to vanquish his opponent (No. 28 JW Johnson, who we hopefully see more of on the singles circuit with the new WPR rules). In the semis, No. 3 Hunter Johnson ran away from No. 1 Haworth 9,1 and No. 2 Federico Staksrud handled No. 4 Christian Alshon to give us a fun MLP finals DreamBreaker rematch in the final. In the final, the two players split the first two games before Hunter blasted Fed in the 3rd 11-0 to claim the first gold of the season.

Gold: Hunter Johnson. Silver: Federico Staksrud.

Women’s Pro Singles Recap

The tour got its first look at Sofia Sewing, who dominated in singles on the APP for most of 2025 and into 2026 before signing a UPA contract ahead of the MLP season. She came into this draw seeded 45th out of 46 entrants and promptly ran to the quarters, beating Ampon, No. 9 Truluck, and No. 8 Kunimoto in succession. She was joined in the quarters by another double-digit seed in No. 26 Keilly Ullery, who we last saw doing singles specialist duties for the Atlanta Bouncers. Ullery beat Alex Walker and Dunlop before moving past an exhausted No. 5 Lea Jansen, who struggled badly in the North Carolina heat. Lastly ALW beat two tour veterans Jones & Irvine by a combined score of 44-1 in her first two matches, proving that she’s picking up right where she left off from MLP.

In the quarters, as with the Men, all four top seeds advanced. At one end of the spectrum of the QF round, No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters destroyed her 3rd straight opponent, beating No. 10 Castillo 1,0. At the other end? An unbelievable three game match between No. 3 Christian and No. 7 Parenteau where Kaitlyn advanced in the third game 18-16. Newcomer Sewing fell to No. 2 Fahey 3,7, and Ullery took the first game against No. 4 Brooke Buckner but couldn’t hold on, losing in three.

ALW continued her rampage through the draw in the semis, crushing Christian 5,1 to secure a finals berth. There, she’ll meet No. 2 Kate Fahey, who cruised past Buckner 3,4 to set up, just like the Men’s singles draw, a MLP Finals DreamBreaker rematch between the sports two best singles players. In the final, Waters blasted Fahey 11-1 in the first before Fahey found her footing to make the second game close 11-9 before falling. Waters wins the gold giving up a combined 18 total points across 5 matches and 10 games.

Gold: Anna Leigh Waters. Silver: Kate Fahey.

Mixed Pro Doubles Recap

There were not too many upsets of note in the Mixed draw. No. 10 Newman & Parenteau were the only non-top 8 seed to get to the quarters, topping No. 7 Pisnik/Oncins in the round of 16. Riley Newman and Catherine Parenteau combined own a combined 66 Mixed Doubles medals between them, 13 of them gold, and they’re just the 10th seed here, a sign of the times. A special note mentioning Cam Chaffin again; he and Brooke Buckner as the 43rd seeds won two rounds then took Ben & ALW to 6,5 before losing to finish a very solid event for the teenager.

In the quarters, all four top seeds advanced as expected, then the fireworks started. No. 1 Waters & Johns, who have been about as dominant as can be in Mixed over the years, took a shock loss in the Semis to Jorja & JW Johnson (4),9,6. From the bottom half, the all St. Louis Shock pair of Bright & Patriquin crushed Alshon & Rohrabacher 5,2, and Christian had some “words of wisdom” to offer at the net at the end of the match. Is this more beef for the database?? In the final, Bright and Patriquin cruised past the Johnson siblings in three straight-forward games to tighten the race at the top.

Gold: Bright & Patriquin. Silver: Johnson & Johnson.

Men’s Pro Doubles Recap

Our first look at the top pairings in Men’s Doubles (discussed more in-depth in my 2026-27 season preview article last week) gave us a star-studded quarter final round with all the new top pairings playing well together their first time out. The only surprise team into the quarters was the No. 34 ranked team of Haworth and Chaffin, who took out the No. 8 seeds Newman & Bhatia and then another upstart team in Mercado & Dagnall to face off against the juggernaut Alshon/Daescu team.

In the quarters, top seeds Johns & Tardio struggled to get past the new-look Howells & Klinger team, going to 3 games before advancing. Similarly, the re-partnering of Staksrud & Patriquin needed a third game to get past Oncins & Khlif. Daescu & Alshon looked dominant winning 3,1, and the scary looking team of Johnson & Shimabukuro laid down a statement getting to the semis in their first event together.

In the semis, we got a precursor to the parity we may see on tour this season, as Johns/Tardio & Staksrud/Patriquin played one of the better games you’ll see on tour, with the top seeds winning game one 15-13 before advancing to the final. In the other semi, Daescu & Alshon needed a third game to fend off the shot-maker Tama & JW.

In the final, we got the two top seeds facing off, and No. 1 Ben Johns/Gabriel Tardio picked up right where they left off, topping No. 2 Christian Alshon & Andrei Daescu in four

Gold: Johns/Tardio. Silver: Alshon/Daescu

Women’s Pro Doubles Recap

Perhaps thanks to the lack of partner jumbling, the Women’s Pro Doubles draw was very chalky this weekend. The only top-8 seed not to advance to the quarters as expected was the Jones/Wei 8th seed team, who withdrew ahead of the event.

In the quarters, PPA newcomer Sewing and her new partner Parenteau pushed the No. 3 seeds Rohrabacher & Todd but fell in two, a good portend for their chances this season. Top seeds Waters & Bright Blasted Truong & Sleeth 0,1 to move on. Fahey and Jansen, seeded 6th but clearly a dangerous team, ousted the no. 4 seeds Pisnik & Schneemann to make the semis. Both top pairs won their semis in two games to give the fans a 1v2 final.

In the final, No. 1 Waters & Bright finished off a dominant tourney back, after being primary adversaries in MLP all season. They topped No. 2 Hurricane Tyra Black & Jorja Johnson 5,6,3 for the title, giving both Waters and Bright doubles for the weekend.

Gold: Waters/Bright. Silver: Black/Johnson

Senior Pro Competition Quick Recap

• Men’s Senior Open Singles: Tyler Refling took out Cooperman for the Singles title; it is his first senior pro gold and just his second senior medal.
• Men’s Senior Open Doubles: Altaf Merchant/Steve Deakin took yet another PPA senior pro title, their 23rd together since the beginning of 2024.
• Mixed Senior Open Doubles: Julie Johnson took time away from berating her daughter’s opponents on the court long enough to take the Mixed doubles title with regular partner Steve Deakin. This gives Deakin the NC Double.

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, there’s no fewer than three (3) PPA international events next weekend (Brescia, Italy, Kuala Lumpur, and Vancouver), then the tour heads to Mesa’s massive Arizona Athletic Grounds for the 2026 Veolia Arizona Open in two weeks’ time.

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.