Anna Leigh Waters triple crowns again in the Vegas warmup event for Dallas Worlds.
PPA
This week, the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) headed to one of the most popular host cities in its tour history, Las Vegas, for the 2025 Rate Vegas Cup. This is the ninth time the tour has held an event in the city, and this particular October-based event at the Darlington Tennis Center was the site of the very first “Year End” big PPA tournament, back in October 2020. It’s safe to say this site, and this city, has a special place in the heart of the tour and its founders.
This weekend’s event was elevated to a “Cup” event in August, which bumped up the sponsorship dollars and bumped up the points at stake. It also increased the attendance factor, with practically the entire tour on hand competing for extended points.
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.
Men’s Pro Singles Recap
There was a healthy draw of Men’s Singles qualifiers in Vegas, drawing from multiple West Coast communities of players, but in a rarity it led to relatively few early round upsets. The highest seed into the round of 32 was No. 50 Spencer Smith, who defeated a lucky loser placeholder for the No. 9 seed to move on.
Ben Johns was in the draw, a rarity for the long-time No. 1 player (he’s entered Singles in just half of the 16 tournaments held this year), continuing a trend of playing mostly Cups and Slams and trying to gain enough points to qualify for the Tour Finals without the grind of singles at every event; unfortunately Johns ran into singles specialist Gabriel Joseph, losing in the round of 16 in a rematch of the second-ever held PPA singles tournament back in August of 2020.
Touring veteran No. 22 Marshall Brown had his best ever event, beating Frazier, Loyd, and Garnett to make the semis before falling. Unfortunately, he couldn’t claim his first pro medal, losing in the Bronze medal match. Christopher Haworth, defending PPA event champion in Virginia Beach and winner of last week’s LT Open, ran into No. 5 Vich in the round of 16 and had an early exit.
The story of the draw was the spirited run to the finals by No. 16 Roscoe Bellamy, who clearly likes playing in Vegas (last year he topped Ben Johns at a point on tour where that was far less common than it is today). He beat Benitez, Alshon, Joseph, and then No. 1 Hunter Johnson to make the finals. There, he ran out of gas, getting blitzed by No. 2 Federico Staksrud 3,2 to settle for the silver and to give Fed his third title of the season as he tries to hold onto the No. 2 spot on tour.
Gold: Federico Staksrud. Silver: Roscoe Bellamy. Bronze: Hunter Johnson.
Women’s Pro Singles Recap
Genie Bouchard with a career result, topping Kate Fahey to get to the finals in a full-strength field.
PPA
The top half of the Women’s singles draw went relatively chalk, with an early round highlight of No. 15 Lara Giltinan pressing the No. 1 seed Anna Leigh Waters 13-11 in a game before falling. Otherwise, it was business as usual for ALW, winning her quarter final 1,0 and cruising into the singles final.
The bottom half of the draw was robbed of its top players early, with a withdrawal of Todd and an early upset of Parenteau by the resurgent No. 11 Genie Bouchard. Now nearly into the top 10 after a rough beginning of her pro pickleball career, the former Wimbledon finalist took out Kong in the 32s, then upset Parenteau in a bit of “Canuck on Canuck” crime. She then outlasted Jorja Johnson 13-11 in the quarters to earn a rare semi-finals spot. There, she met newlywed No. 2 Kate Fahey in her first event back since her nuptials earlier this month. For much of this match, Bouchard couldn’t miss, winning game one 11-1 and going up on Fahey 10-1 in game two for a possible two game embarrassment. Fahey fought back from 1-10 down to take the second game 12-10 in an amazing display of defense, but then ran out of gas after such an emotional comeback, putting Bouchard in the final.
In the final Waters won in a relatively straightforward 5,5 match, but Genie made a statement about her place in the sport. She will look to build on two finals in two months heading into Worlds.
Gold: Anna Leigh Waters. Silver: Genie Bouchard. Bronze: Kate Fahey.
Mixed Pro Doubles Recap
After a couple of events where players broke away from their “regular” partners, most of the top teams were back and intact in Vegas, as the tour prepares for the massive Worlds super-slam coming up in two weeks. And, true to form, the cream rose to the top with most of the top seeds coming through the early rounds unscathed.
The unexpected interloper into the medal rounds this weekend was the team of Jessie Irvine and Gabriel Tardio, who have quietly worked their way up to the No. 5 seed on tour. The pair won gold back in August 2024, and have a few medals as a team, but went months this year without making a podium. The pair rebounded at the wood paddle event in Sacramento, but really turned things on this weekend, topping Alshon/Black in the quarters and then the Johnson siblings in the semis to present a fresh face for the top pair to compete against in the final.
No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters & Ben Johns uncharacteristically had some issues in the early rounds, dropping games in both the quarters and semis, but handled Tardio & Irvine in the final 2,10,7 to continue their dominance on tour. They have lost just twice in 2025 while continuing to rack up golds together.
Gold: Waters & Johns. Silver: Irvine & Tardio. Bronze: Johnson & Johnson.
Men’s Pro Doubles Recap
Ben Johns (R) and Gabriel Tardio (L) win what’s already being called the “Best Match of All time.”
PPA
The early rounds featured one huge shock: qualifiers and No. 40 seeds Luc Pham & teenager Will MacKinnon, two top LA-based amateurs, benefitted from two walkovers and then a shock win over No. 9 McGuffin & Fu to suddenly be playing the No. 1 seeds in the quarters. They fared well, losing 7,6 to Gabriel Tardio & Ben Johns in a match that had such a massive DUPR discrepancy as to be unforecastable. The qualifiers were joined in the quarters by No. 11 Loong & Garnett, who have been playing together for the better part of a year and are still grinding out results looking for a Tour Finals spot; they got a nice early round win over No. 6 Tellez & Bar to earn some well-needed points.
Matt Wright says, ‘Hold on to that retirement talk’ as he makes another deep run with partner Eric Oncins.
PPA
Lastly, the ageless Matt Wright and his partner Eric Oncins (young enough to be his son) continue to shock the tour with their results. This week, the pair (now up to No. 7 on tour) took out the long-time partners JW Johnson & Dylan Frazier, who seem to have buried the hatchet from their Dec 2024 breakup (and with Frazier realizing perhaps that he’s more suited to play the right after experimenting with multiple partners for most of 2025) to make another semis run.
The final ended up being one for the ages; another meeting between No. 1 Ben Johns & Gabriel Tardio and the now-No. 2 seeds Christian Alshon & Andrei Daescu. The Alshon/Daescu pairing has been fruitful; they’ve medaled in 9 of the year’s 17 events, including three golds and a H2H win over the top pair back in February. They certainly know how to play Johns & Tardio, who entered Vegas on a 5-tournament gold medal run. After 2.5 hours of amazing, highlight-reel play, it was the No. 1 seeds coming out on top, 12-10 in the fifth, in a match many are calling “the best ever played.” One thing is for certain; both Alshon and Daescu will be studying game tape all week in Dallas looking for two more points so they can beat the top pair at Worlds.
Gold: Johns & Tardio. Silver: Alshon & Daescu. Bronze: Staksrud & Patriquin.
Women’s Pro Doubles Recap
We’re beginning to really see consolidation of power atop the Women’s Pro Doubles draw, and Vegas was no different. Seven of the top Eight seeds made it into the quarters (only missing No. 7 Smith & Tuionetoa, who withdrew), and the top four seeds all advanced into the semis with two-game wins without being challenged.
The four semi-finalist teams have been frequent medalists over the course of the last few months, each forming a solid partnership that, on any given Sunday, can take each other out. But the No. 1 pair Anna Leigh Waters and Anna Bright continue to be a trouble spot for the all of these competitors to the top spot. In the semis, Waters & Bright trounced No. 4 Parenteau & Kawamoto 3,2. In the finals, they lost game one to No. 3 Parris Todd & Hurricane Tyra Black before stepping on the gas and running away with the title, their 5th in 7 tournaments played together in 2025.
With the title, Waters secures her (amazingly) 37th career Triple Crown on tour, just an unbelievable number that continues to climb. It’s her second triple in a row heading into Worlds, and she’s now just one career gold medal behind her mixed partner Ben Johns (166 to 165) and seems set to take over as Johns continues to struggle in Singles.
Gold: Waters & Bright. Silver: Todd & Black. Bronze: Parenteau & Kawamoto.
Senior Pro Competition Quick Recap
- Men’s Senior Open Singles: Mattias Johansson breaks Cooperman’s hold on the Singles titles, and wins for the first time on PPA tour since June.
- Men’s Senior Open Doubles: When they play, they win. Altaf Merchant & Steve Deakin take another title.
- Women’s Senior Open Doubles: Lila Rawlings/Tammie Steele took the title in the Senior Doubles event, which was held for the first time since June.
- Mixed Senior Open Doubles: Julie Johnson/Steve Deakin teamed up as they normally do and cruised to a Mixed Senior title.
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 UPA Worlds Bonanza 2025 is upon us. All the sport’s top players will be in Dallas starting this coming weekend for the 2025 MLP Cup, then the players pivot right into 2025 Worlds, a 3,000-point Super Slam that has now become the biggest tournament in the sport.
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: