Lee Whitwell (L) had a huge weekend, shown here with her split-age partner Daria Walczak (R) on their way to the title.
APP
For the second year in a row, the Association of Pickleball Players (APP) traveled to Columbus, Ohio to hold one of the more unique events in the pro space: the 2025 Women’s Open, presented by the James. Hundreds of women signed up to compete in nearly 100 all-female divisions and $75K of prize money for this three day weekend hosted at the 22-court Columbus Pickle & Chill facility, one of the largest indoor clubs in the Midwest.
Click here for the UTRSports.net home page for the event, where you can get tournament details, draw sheets, and results.
With that said, let’s recap the action.
Women’s Pro Singles Recap
Sofia Sewing slams her way to her 6th singles title of 2025.
APP
No. 1 Sofia Sewing continued her assault on the APP Pro Singles draws, winning her 6th gold medal of the 2025 season by cruising through the draw and winning the title without losing a game. In the final, she dominated defending champ and No. 3 Shannon Pretorius 4,8 to complete a dominant win. Shout-out to Elina Geut, a Knoxville based former D1 tennis player who made her APP pro debut this weekend and who topped both the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds in earlier rounds before falling to Sewing in the semis.
Gold: Sofia Sewing. Silver: Shannon Pretorius. Bronze: Jessica Warren.
Women’s Pro Doubles Recap
Megan Fudge (L) and Jill Braverman (R) continue their dominance atop the Women’s Pro doubles ranks of the APP.
APP
The top seeds Megan Fudge & Jill Braverman defended their 2024 Women’s Open title with a hard fought title, getting stretched to three games in both the quarters and in the finals by the No. 3 seeds Sofia Sewing & Shelby Bates. Fudge & Braverman win their 5th Pro Doubles title together this year, and manage to dethrone Sewing & Bates, winners of the Women’s doubles title in the most recent pro event in Chicago.
Gold: Fudge & Braverman. Silver: Sewing & Bates. Bronze: Hendry & Harris
Women’s Pro Split-Age Doubles Recap
Daria Walczak scored the split-age partnership with the top-ranked Champions pro Lee Whitwell (whose doubles UTR-P actually eclipses Walczak’s) to take the Women’s split-age pro doubles title. However, it was no cakewalk through the draw, as the No. 1 seeds were pushed to a third game in both the semis (by No. 5 seeds Sewing & Lee) and in the final (by No. 6 seeds Bates & Endara).
Gold: Walczak & Whitwell. Silver: Bates & Endara. Bronze: Fudge & Simon.
AARP Champions/Masters Pro Competition Quick Recap
- Women’s Champions Pro Singles: Lee Whitwell took the latest in the season-long battle with Karin Ptaszek-Kochis, winning the title 14,9 in a rematch of the Chicago Open final in late August.
- Women’s Champions/Masters Pro Doubles: Whitwell and partner Angela Simon took the gold medal in a stacked 50+ field to give Whitwell three 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, the APP heads back to its Fort Lauderdale Headquarters for the 2025 APP Champions cup, a senior-only Tier 1 event, while the PPA heads to Virginia Beach for a cup-level event.
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: