Repeat Gold Medalists Highlight Association Of Pickleball Players 2025 Great Lakes Open

Sofia Sewing (L) and Casey Diamond (R) took the Mixed title as Sewing won twice.

APP

The Association of Pickleball Players (APP) held its 8th pro event of the 2025 season this past weekend, with the tour heading to a new venue for professional pickleball. The tour visited the Greater Midland Tennis Center in Midland, Michigan for the 2025 Great Lakes Open. The host site is the Midwest’s largest indoor/outdoor tennis and pickleball facility and is located in a town known for its tennis background, and now joins the ranks of cities that have hosted major pro events.

Click here for the UTRSports.net home page for the event, where you can get tournament details, draw sheets, and results.

News and Noteworthy ahead of the Event

Here’s a quick recap of notable news items of import to the tour or this event:

With that said, let’s recap the action.

Men’s Pro Singles Recap

A combination of scheduling conflicts and absences meant that only half the current APP top 10 competed in this event, which opened the door for some new names to make waves on tour. The No. 1 seed went to Jack Foster, who despite being ranked No. 2 on tour heading into this event has never won a singles gold medal, a run that will unfortunately continue as Foster was upset by No. 42 ranked Andre Millet in the quarters. In fact, the only top 4 seed not to get upset prior to the semis was Ammar Wazir, seeded fourth and ranked 13th heading into the event. Just like on the PPA, the parity on the APP in the Men’s singles draws continues to grow.

In the semis, Wazir toppled Millet in three, while from the bottom half No. 18 ranked Dustin Boyer took out No 21 ranked William Sobek to secure the final and guarantee his first ever APP medal. In the final, Wazir took out Boyer 15-8, 18-16 for his first pro golf medal. Millet secured the bronze to make for two first-time medalists on the podium.

Gold: Ammar Wazir. Silver: Dustin Boyer. Bronze: Andre Millet.

Women’s Pro Singles Recap

The travel for the top women seemed to catch up to them in Singles, as No. 1 seed Sofia Sewing and No. 4 seed Domenika Turkovic, who played each other in the English Open singles final last week, both fell to No 5 seed Kat Stewart in successive rounds in Midland. This opened a pathway for Steward to return to her second straight gold medal match on tour from the top half. There she met No. 2 seed Bobbi Oshiro, who had matriculated into the final after getting a retirement from Jardim in the quarters and then a grinding win over No. 6 Walczak in the semis.

In the final, Stewart won her second straight Pro singles gold with a back-and-forth three game win over Oshiro. This was a rematch of the singles final from Newport Beach in early July, and Stewart topped Oshiro for the second successive gold medal match.

Gold: Kat Stewart. Silver: Bobbi Oshiro. Bronze: Sofia Sewing

Mixed Pro Doubles Recap

With both Munro and Howells out, the top seed in Mixed went to PNW’s Max Manthou and partner Christine Maddox. Which is fitting, since they won in Newport Beach and are on a roll as a team. They cruised into the quarters, but then ran into the silver medalists from California, No. 8 seeds Sofia Sewing & Casey Diamond, who avenged their loss from the first week of July to move on and send the top seeds home. Sewing & Diamond continued their run to the final, topping No. 4 Megan Fudge and Andre Millet in the semis.

The bottom half of the Mixed draw was led by the No. 2 seeds Jill Braverman and Richard Livornese Jr, who teamed up in July but fell in the Bronze medal match. In Michigan, they made it to the same juncture, again falling in the winner’s bracket semis but salvaging the bronze medal. Their run ended at the hands of Oshiro and partner Randy Blanco, who have two bronzes together but worked their way to the final.

In the gold medal match, Sewing & Diamond won 12-10, 11-1 and convincingly claimed their first Mixed pro golds on tour.

Gold: Diamond & Sewing. Silver: Blanco & Oshiro. Bronze: Livornese & Braverman.

Men’s Pro Doubles Recap

Richard Livornese & Tanner Tomassi (ranked 5th and 7th on tour) were unlikely top seeds here, in the absence of the tour’s top doubles players this weekend. The pair took full advantage and ground their way in the final from the top half, setting down Wazir & Blanco in the semis with a come-from-behind win. Manthou was missing his regular partner Lange (on MLP duty), but paired with Ben Newell as the No. 2 seed and fared well before falling in the semis to No. 3 seeds Aiden Schenk & Clayton Powell.

In the final, Livornese & Tomassi repeated as gold medalists in Men’s Pro Doubles, beating Schenk & Powell 5,9. It’s Schenk & Powell’s first medal together since Sacramento, and their best showing on tour.

Gold: Livornese & Tomassi. Silver: Schenk & Powell. Bronze: xxx.

Women’s Pro Doubles Recap

The top seeds and defending APP gold medalists Megan Fudge & Jill Braverman attempted to give this event some normalcy and get a top seed at least into the gold medal match, but alas they were toppled in the semis by a team to watch for going forward, No. 4 Sofia Sewing & Bobbi Oshiro. Meanwhile, the upstart team of Kelsey Matthews & Allie Reichert (who had zero rankings points entering this event) took out three seeded teams to make the final in a shock from the bottom half, ensuring both players of their first professional medals in any competition.

In the final, Sewing & Oshiro proved to be too much for Matthews & Reichert, winning 5,0, but the statement had been made. Sewing, who has made her name as a singles specialist so far this year, won both doubles titles and puts her name firmly in the “Triple Crown Threat” category.

Gold: Sewing & Oshiro. Silver: Matthews & Reichert. Bronze: Fudge & Braverman.

AARP Champions Pro Competition Quick Recap

• Men’s Champions Pro Singles: Youssef Bouzidi won his 3rd singles gold of the season with a win over former No. 1 Johansson
• Women’s Champions Pro Singles: Lee Whitwell won her first APP Champions singles medal in a dozen tries, beating Sarah Bowman in the final.
• Men’s Champions Pro Doubles: Virginia’s Youssef Bouzidi, who has burst onto the Champions tour this year in singles, served notice that he can play some doubles too, pairing with Joe Derisi to take the doubles gold.
• Women’s Champions Pro Doubles: Lee Whitwell teamed with Teresa Tam to claim the doubles title.
• Mixed Champions Pro Doubles: A fourth straight APP Champions Mixed Pro doubles title for Lee Whitwell & Jamie Oncins was the only thing standing in the way of Bouzidi’s triple crown.

With the Mixed title on Sunday, Whitwell secured the Champions Pro Triple Crown in Midland. This is the first senior Triple Crown on tour since Marcello Jardim did it last October in Dallas, and it is the 12th senior Triple Crown in the APP’s tour history. See the “Sr. Triple Crowns” tab on my Medal Tracking xls (link at bottom of article) to see all triple crowns in pro history.

AARP Masters Pro Competition Quick Recap

• Men’s Masters Pro Singles: Howard Mendel got two-thirds of the way to a triple crown with a title in singles.
• Men’s Masters Pro Doubles: Dan Granot earned his first Masters Pro Double gold, teaming with Howard Mendel to take the title as the top seed.
• Women’s Masters Pro Doubles: Anna Shirley & Yannet Brister went undefeated in the 5-team round robin for gold.
• Mixed Masters Pro Doubles: Dan Granot & Anna Shirley teamed up to take the Mixed Masters title, giving both players dual golds for the weekend.

The Pro Pickleball Medal Tracker has now been updated with these results; check out this link online for a complete pro medal history for all tours and all pro events dating to the beginnings of all the major pro tours, plus pro events that predated 2020.

Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule MLP finals are this weekend in NYC. Next up for the APP? The tour returns to its roots with the 2025 Chicago Open held the last weekend of August in the town where the tour was founded.

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 22,000 matches in its database across all the pro tours.

Other resources I use frequently to cover Pickleball include: