Waters Hits 200 Career Titles With Triple Crown At Pro Pickleball Association Chicago Cup

Men’s Pro Singles Recap

Most of the top eight was in this draw, which also included some WPR assisted players like Ben Johns, JW Johnson, and the like, who benefitted from just a one round bye instead of a two-round bye in Open events. Johns wasn’t long for the event, withdrawing before playing his round of 16 match (this is a common occurrence so far this season, where players report that they’re being auto-added to draws and have to manually remove themselves, and often forget to do so).

The big story of this draw was the superb play of Emilien Burnel, the French D-1 tennis player turned aspiring pickleball player, who advanced out of qualifying, then beat (in order) Hunter Johnson, Mota Alhouni, JW Johnson, and Cam Chaffin to get to the semis of the event. No. 1 Haworth waxed him 0,1 there, but that was a serious run by Burnel playing in (I believe) his first ever PPA event.

From the bottom half, No. 2 Staksrud was taken out 7,0 by two-time winner John Lucian Goins in the quarters, but Goins fell in a barn burning 3-game marathon against No. 4 Roscoe Bellamy in the semis. In the final, Bellamy cruised past a frustrated and error-prone Haworth 4,5 to claim his 2nd career gold.

Gold: Roscoe Bellamy. Silver: Christopher Haworth.

Women’s Pro Singles Recap

A near full-strength women’s singles field featured a few edge-case upsets into the quarters, but no major runs from unknowns. No. 12 Isabella Dunlap took out both Rane and Jansen before falling to No. 4 Brooke Buckner in the quarters. Allyce Jones, who rarely plays singles these days and was seeded No. 39, beat No. 6 Chao-Yi Wang but then fell at the next juncture to No. 10 Liz Truluck, giving her a spot in the quarters. The noteworthy social media match of the early rounds was No. 31 Maria Ford taking out No. 11 Genie Bouchard, who refused to shake hands at the net post-game over line call issues. Side note: it’s been months since we saw Bouchard at an event; how was she seeded 11th here?

The semis and final were chalk as the two top singles players (No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters and No. 2 Kate Fahey) blasted their way into the final, where they’ve met for gold no less than 13 times in their careers. Meeting No. 14 went the same way the first 13 had gone: a win for Waters, who gets career win No. 199 and

Gold: Anna Leigh Waters. Silver: Kate Fahey.

Mixed Pro Doubles Recap

Early round upsets in the Mixed pro seem to possibly portend the inevitable replacement of veterans with youth in the pro game. No. 9 Newman & Parenteau were beaten by Freeman & Campbell, No. 8 Bar & Irvine lost early (albeit to fellow veteran players Koller & Jansen). Perhaps most meaningfully, No. 4 Rohrabacher & Daescu, one of the four marquee Mixed teams at present, were taken out by the very youthful team of Klinger & Kunimoto.

From there, the tournament ran its expected course. No. 1 Johns & Waters were mostly untroubled into the final, while the bottom-half semi final featured a surprisingly one-sided win for the Johnson siblings over the increasingly strong looking No. 2 Bright & Patriquin team. In the final, Waters & Johns made fast work to win 4,4 and give Anna Leigh her 200th career PPA gold medal.

Gold: Waters & Johns. Silver: Johnson & Johnson.

Men’s Pro Doubles Recap

With his normal partner Gabriel Tardio taking off for Australia early, Ben Johns teamed up with none other than Jack Sock for this event, and it quickly went south. The pair, as the No. 2 seeds, were ousted in their first round of action by the unheralded No. 27 Anouar Braham and Bruno Falletti. Perhaps Braham & Falletti needed more “herald,” because this win spurred them on a huge run to the semis from the bottom half of the draw. They were eventually ousted by last week’s semi-finalists, No. 14 Nico Acevedo & Jaume Martinez Vich, who once again blitzed the field with solid wins all week to find themselves in an unexpected final.

In the final, Vich (who was making his 21st appearance in a PPA final but still seeking his first ever gold, a dubious category that he leads the tour in as we published in late September) faced off against the top seeds Federico Staksrud & birthday boy Hayden Patriquin (who celebrated his 21st all last week in Vegas). After surviving a 3-game semi final against Klinger & Oncins, Hayden and Fed dominated Acevedo & Vich 1,6, overpowering them with a pedal-to-the-medal approach of blasting everything that came their way. Still, two silvers for Acevedo in the last three PPA events, both as double-digit seeds, portends well for his future.

Gold: Staksrud & Patriquin. Silver: Vich & Acevedo.

Women’s Pro Doubles Recap

A very chalky draw saw just two upsets into the round of 16, and all eight top seeds advancing into the quarters. No. 6 Fahey & Rane upset No. 4 Sewing & Johnson, playing together for the first time, but could go no further as No. 2 Catherine Parenteau & Hurricane Tyra Black were dialed in from the early rounds onward in Chicago.

The top seeds Bright & Waters moved into the final as they normally do, having survived a quarter final meeting with the always-dangerous Kawamoto sisters, who’ve been absent on tour for some time with their day jobs keeping them busy. They survived a solid challenge from No. 3 newlywed Rohrabacher & Tina Pisnik to make it a 1-vs-2 final.

In the final, played just after Waters had secured her 200th title, Parenteau & Black came out on fire and blasted the top pair 11-2 in game one. Champions always make adjustments though, and this was no different, as Bright & Waters turned around the match and won the next two games 3,4 to give Waters her 201th title.

This also gave Waters a Triple Crown for the weekend, her 45th on tour but her first one since Atlanta in May.

Gold: Bright & Waters. Silver: Black & Parenteau.

Senior Pro Competition Quick Recap

Both competing Senior Pro leagues (CSP and USLPL) had events going on this weekend, one in St. Louis and the other in Columbus, which drained the PPA event of nearly all its normal senior pro competitors. They did manage to hold one draw: Men’s Singles.

• Men’s Senior Open Singles: Josh Cooperman won the 5-man round robin singles competition for gold.

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, next weekend is a busy one all around. The PPA is holding two major events: a Tier 1/Open event in Virginia Beach and a Cup level competition in Australia that’s drawing a slew of top PPA players, much to the chagrin of Virginia fans who bought tickets hoping to see the tour’s top draws.

I’ll be in Virginia Beach this week, Thursday I believe, if anyone wants to meet up and chat.

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.