Chris Haworth, seen here winning his first PPA event back in June 2024, has firmly established himself amongst the sport’s singles elite with his win at the LT Open.
PPA
This past weekend, Life Time Fitness held the first ever LT Open, a singles-only showcase with a massive $250k purse and a $50k first prize for the champions. The event was held at Life Time’s fantastic Peachtree Corners facility outside of Atlanta, which is a regular stop on the PPA tour and a favorite site for the pros, with great facilities and a stadium court that guarantees big crowds and big noise.
There’s several unique factors with this event;
- While it is not an officially sanctioned PPA event, the tour has waived its exclusivity clause for its players to be able to participate, which makes sense given that Life Time is one of the tour’s biggest sponsors and hosts many of the tour’s biggest events. This means that for the first time in years we get the best PPA singles players playing along side the APP’s top players AND some of the best international players out there, all in one event.
- The players are playing with Life Time’s bullet of a ball, which is the standard on the PPA tour but will be an adjustment for those used to playing with Duras, Vulcans, or (especially) Franklins.
- This is singles only, and all matches are best 3/5 to 11, win by two. Meaning, there’s no rally scoring and no 15-20 minute matches.
Life Time’s theory is simple: they’re making a bet that Singles is the future of Pickleball from a viewing perspective, not unlike how singles is the dominant form of other racquet sports in existence (certainly Tennis, but also to large effect Squash, Table Tennis, Racquetball, Badminton, and variations of tennis).
The seeds were driven primarily by the PPA ranks, meaning that the non-regular PPA players were seeded well below their capabilities. The top APP Men’s singles stars (Howells, Boyer, Foster, Camron, Livornese, etc) were seeded in the 30-50 range, which was relatively unfair to those players and their capabilities.. The top Women’s APP stars seemed to fare better, with Jardim getting a top-8 seed and a bye, but the international stars who made the long trip (the likes of Ting Cheih Wei and Pei-Chuan Kao on the women’s side and Armaan Bhatia, Phuc Huynh on the Men’s side) were relatively under-seeded.
Frankly, there’s no great way to resolve this situation without a global ranking and global tour standardization, a situation that seems likely to continue as the two US-based pro tours both are embarking on separate international pushes in 2026.
Click here for the PickleballBrackets.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
The top eight seeds for this draw were:
- Federico Staksrud, No. 2 on PPA Tour
- Connor Garnett: No. 4 on PPA Tour
- Jaume Martinez Vich: No. 5 on PPA tour
- John Lucian Goins: No. 8 on PPA Tour
- Phuc Huynh: No. 17 on PPA Tour, No. 2 on PPA Asia tour
- Zane Ford: No. 14 on PPA tour
- Noe Khlif: No. 15 on PPA tour
- Christopher Haworth: No. 13 on PPA Tour
Note: these seeds had to be done prior to last week’s PPA event, where Haworth won the 1,500-point Virginia Beach Cup and leapfrogged several players seeded ahead of him in Atlanta. He should have been seeded at least 5th, but benefitted by being on the opposite side of the draw from Staksrud, the other real “favorite” to win in Atlanta. Interestingly, the PPA graphics on PickleballTV listed him as the No. 2 seed, which was clearly not his seed in the bracket I was sent ahead of the match by one of the players.
Here’s a recap of the notable matches by round.
In the 64s, Richard Livornese took out Max Wild in 5 games. India’s No. 1 Armaan Bhatia was upset by Indiana-based Kevin Ma in five. William Sobek was shocked by Grand Rapids-based Connor Mogle in three. Lastly, all three Alhouni brothers advanced out of the opening round.
In the 32s we got a ton of APP vs PPA matchups, which many neutrals had been looking forward to. No. 1 Staksrud held serve Livornese (ranked 10th on the APP) to advance in three. Two of the Alhouni brothers had to play each other in the 32s, with (of course) the match going to five games before Mota advanced over Mohaned (no word on how many line call disputes there were). New Yorker Max Green (ranked 12th on the APP) crushed Marshall Brown (ranked 40th on the PPA) 2,5,3. Dusty Boyer (No. 7 on the APP) beat newly signed PPA pro Alexander Crum in four. Christopher Haworth handled top PPA Asia pro Huynh 7,7,3 to move on. Ronan Camron (No. 4 on the APP) took out Max Freeman (No. 35 on PPA). Rafa Hewett shocked Greyson Goldin in four games to move into the round of 16. Lastly Will Howells got a retirement against fellow top APP pro Jack Foster (they’re ranked 4th and 2nd respectively on the APP) to move into the 16s and setup a juicy match-up against the teenage sensation John Lucian Goins.
In the 16s, Staksrud took out Ford in three straight. Mota Alhouni came from two games down to shock Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez in five. Similarly, Vich came from two games down to top Max Green. APP No. 7 Dusty Boyer took out PPA no. 15 Noe Khlif in four. Haworth ground out a 3-game win against Camron. APP No. 14 John Cangelosi moved past PPA No. 26 Rafa Hewitt in four. In perhaps the biggest upset of the round, No. 2 overall seed Connor Garnett was taken out by Donald Young in four. Lastly, in perhaps the biggest statement of the round, Will Howells (who was relatively vocal defending the talent on the APP tour prior to signing his own deal earlier this year) destroyed two-time PPA singles champ John Lucian Goins 3,1,3 to move into the quarters.
In the quarters, No. 1 seed Staksrud held serve and eliminated the last of the Alhouini brothers. No. 4 seed Vich set down Boyer in four, ending the top APP player’s run and setting up a chalk semi from the top half of the draw. In the bottom half, Haworth eased past Cangelosi in three games to continue his march towards the title. The final quarter final was perhaps the most shocking; Donald Young got his second major win in as many rounds by topping Will Howells in four games to earn the semis.
In the first semi, No. 1 Staksrud improved to 11-1 all time against No. 3 Vich, topping the Spaniard in four. In the bottom semi, Heyworth held serve against the former tennis pro Young, sending him home in three games. In the final, Staksrud got up two games to one on Heyworth before the Sooner turned the tide and blew the Argentine away in games four and five 11-1 each to take the title and the massive check that comes with it.
Gold: Christopher Haworth. Silver: Federico Staksrud. Bronze: Cancelled (time).
Women’s Pro Singles Recap
Lea Jansen took on all comers to take the inaugural LT Open title.
PPA
The top 8 seeds for this draw (as best as I can tell from PickleballTournament’s bracketing software online, which does not include seeds) were, in order:
- Parris Todd; No. 4 on PPA
- Lea Jansen: No. 5 on PPA
- Kaitlyn Christian: No. 3 on PPA
- Salome Devidze: No. 12 on PPA
- Judit Castillo: No. 10 on PPA
- Dominique Schaefer: No. 15 on PPA
- Simone Jardim: No. 9 on APP
- Liz Trulock: No. 13 on PPA
No, I have no idea why Christian is not seeded No. 1 here, given that she’s got nearly 2,000 more PPA points than Parris, unless the PickleballTournaments.com page is rendering with the top seed of the event in the middle of the bracket page. Either that or the seeds are randomized intra grouping but accurate. The rest of the PPA players all seem jumbled as well (Salome ahead of Judit?). How did they pick Jardim to be the lone APP player with a seed, and not one of several APP regulars who are currently ranked above her like Oshiro or Stewart? Unknown.
Here’s the notable matches by round. The Women’s Pro draw did not need qualifiers as less than 64 players entered. The play-in round featured mostly low-level pros that have not had notable results in the past. The action picked up in the first full round of 32 of Friday afternoon.
In the round of 32, No. 1 Parris Todd blew by APP touring pro Harris 2,5,0. Hannah Blatt got a nice win over Canadian international Jada Bui in four. Devidze ground out a 4-game win over APP tour veteran Grigoriu. Top PPA Asia player Pei-Chuan Kao topped PPA up and comer Mya Bui in three. PPA Challenger regular Lara Giltinan upset 5th ranked APP pro Amanda Hendry in four.
In the round of 16, No. 1 seed Todd cruised past Taiwan star Ting Chieh Wei in three straight. Hannah Blatt got her second marquee win in a row, ousting the No. 5 seed Judit Castillo in five games for the first major upset of the event. No. 7 Devidze cruised past Chinese Taipei top pro Pei-Chuan Kao in three after a close first game. Lastly, Vegas resident and new PPA signee Giltinan got an injury forfeit against the legendary Simone Jardim to move into the quarters.
In the quarters, top seed Parris Todd set down APP No. 2 Katerina Stewart in three straight to hold serve into the semis. Likewise, 3rd seed Kaitlyn Christian ended Blatt’s upset run in three straight to setup a chalk semi final from the top side. From the bottom half, Jansen was pressed by the highest-entered APP pro Oshiro but advanced. Finally, Devidze ended the Cinderella run of Giltinan, but needed to go five grueling games to do so, to give the Ladies side a Chalk semi with all four top seeds.
In the first semi, Parris Todd showed why these games are 3 out of 5 by losing the first two to fellow top-4 PPA pro Kaitlyn Christian before roaring back to sweep the rest and sweep into the final with a massive comeback win. In the bottom semi, Jansen had her typically long and grinding match against Devidze, coming out on top to play for the big check. In the final, both ladies came in already gassed after 5-game semis, but it was Jansen whose fitness showed out, beating her long-time rival in four for the title. This is a great moment for Jansen, who outright quit Singles in July 2023 and who had to fight all the way back up the rankings after not playing for months.
Gold: Lea Jansen. Silver: Parris Todd. Bronze: cancelled (time)
You’ll note that both Bronze medal matches were cancelled: that’s because the choice to play both the semis and the finals on Sunday backfired on the tournament. Both ladies semi finals went long, the finals went long, and by the time Lea Jansen finally took the title the stands were relatively empty around 7pm EST late Sunday. I’ll bet next time the tournament figures out a way to play the semis on Saturday and not get jammed up on Sunday afternoon.
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. For this non-affiliated event, see the “Non PPA-APP” tab.
Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, the PPA broadcasting crew and the semi-finalists from Atlanta hopped a plane and are headed to Sin city for the 2025 Rate Vegas Cup, a 1,500 point event that serves as a nice warm-up for next month’s UPA Worlds in Dallas.
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: