Top Women’s Pair Finally Beaten And teen Goins Wins Another At Pro Pickleball Association Las Vegas Open

Hurricane Tyra Black (R) goes for the put-away alongside partner Jorja Johnson (L) in their seminal semi-finals victory.

PPA tour

Now that the 2025 MLP season has come to a close, the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) can get back down to business of touring. First up, a relatively recent addition to the tour calendar, giving players an opportunity to head to Sin City to compete at the 2025 Walgreens Las Vegas Open. This event was held at the massive Las Vegas Convention Center, the same site that held last year’s World Pickleball Conference. This meant indoor lighting and roll-out courts, which have proven to be a bit problematic at events past, but we heard relatively few complaints this past weekend.

There was a competing PPA event this weekend in Fukuoka, Japan that drew a few regular tour players. Connor Garnett, Tyler Loong, and Allyce Jones traveled to Asia for the event and took home several medals, but otherwise the Las Vegas event was at full tour strength. We did get to see some new and interesting partnerships in Vegas.

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

News and Noteworthy ahead of the Event

There hasn’t been too much in the way of “tour news” on the PPA since their last event (Bristol in early August), since the UPA was focused on finishing off its “other” asset in the MLP. But a couple of nuggets released that are of note:

• On 8/6/25, the PPA announces a new streaming partnership with PlaySight, which stream up to 45 courts at each PPA event, with select matches having
  live scoring capabilities, including scoreboard overlays, bracket information, and player names.
• On 8/8/25: UPA and DUPR announce deals to use the Go-No-Go paddle testing machine to test paddles in amateur events for the first time at their sanctioned events. This will include DUPR’s events, UPA state events, PPA challenger,
  PPA events, and others.
• On 8/15/25, we ran into the first official deadline of the PPA 2026 contract negotiation window; this was the day that original “Tour Wars” players had until to sign the new 2026 “Gold Card” contracts, which guarantee access to the highest levels of prize money going forward. The Kitchen had a running list of known signees … which has subsequently been taken down. Jimmy Miller on Twitter/X was also publishing known signees (and some who were known to have declined the contracts), but stopped publishing names on 8/16 after the deadline. Between the available reporting, we saw many players reported as signed, but glaringly absent were the two #1 players Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters. So, it remains to be seen what happens next.

With that said, let’s recap the action.

Men’s Pro Singles Recap

There were several big storylines coming out of the Las Vegas Singles draw. First, No. 1 Federico Staksrud was upset in the round of 32, which paved the way for Hunter Johnson to ascend to be No. 1 in Singles for the first time. He becomes just the third ever man to hold the top spot in Singles on the PPA, following Ben Johns and Staksrud. Staksrud’s loss came at the hands of Alexander Crum, who also beat him earlier this year at the Atlanta Slam and thus is a big part of why Staksrud is no longer tops on tour.

No. 7 Jack Sock went on a massive run this weekend, powered by multiple wins over solid singles opponents (Freeman, Bellamy, and Khlif) before falling in the semis. Sock then tanked the Bronze medal match, losing 0,1 in less than 10 minutes, though to be fair his movement seemed highly impaired and he may have been nursing an injury. Nonetheless, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen less than enthusiastic effort from players in a Bronze medal match, a situation that hopefully changes if and when the tour goes back to prize money models where a 3rd place finish means more money.

Two newly signed PPA pros made their post-contract execution debuts as 50-something protected seeds; Jonathan Truong (brother of Alix Truong and DC area native) and, more notably, Christopher Haworth, 2024 Orange County cup Singles champion and the latest significant signee to the tour. Haworth ended up slotting in as the No. 52 seed, immediately taking out No. 14 Harvey and No. 18 Goldin before falling to Hunter in the round of 16. It’s just a matter of time before the dangerous Haworth makes a deeper run before running into the likes of Johnson.

Perhaps it was the dim lighting of the convention center, or perhaps it was the rollout courts, or perhaps it was post MLP fatigue, but several top players skipped singles in Vegas, including both Ben Johns and Christian Alshon. Furthermore, No. 5 seed Tyson McGuffin was upset early once again, this time going out against No. 32 Spartak Rahachou.

By Sunday, the defending PPA singles champ had navigated the top side of the draw, and No. 11 John Lucian Goins, all of 17 years of age, had made another singles final. He met up with Hunter Johnson and dominated, winning the gold medal 4,9 with a great show of length and athleticism. Johnson may be the new No. 1 on tour, but Goins is certainly making a statement of his own.

Gold: John Lucian Goins. Silver: Hunter Johnson. Bronze: Jaume Martinez Vich

Women’s Pro Singles Recap

As with the Men’s singles draw, the Women’s draw was missing several top names. No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters opted out of singles here, likely due to oft-repeated issues with rollout courts. Newly crowned MLP champion Parris Todd was also missing, as was Catherine Parenteau, a late withdrawal that gave a “lucky loser” spot at the No. 5 seed to Chloe Zigliara. She immediately made the most of the opportunity, downing the “other” Chloe on tour (Chloe Igleski) to advance one round before falling.

With no Waters in the draw, Kate Fahey took the No. 1 seed and was immediately tested, having to face off against the always-tough Salome Devidze in the quarters. Fahey advanced after being stretched to three games, then defeated No. 17 Layne Sleeth in the semis to earn a Sunday final. Sleeth took advantage of a shredded portion of the draw, as No. 4 Jansen fell early and Sleeth got a solid upset early round win over No. 7 Brascia to earn her semis spot. Meanwhile, the bottom half went chalk, with the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds facing off for a baseline battle. No. 2 Kaitlyn Christian got the better of No. 3 Brooke Buckner to move on.

In the final, Fahey and Christian played about as close of a match as one can ask for, going three games and each game being 11-9. Fahey took game one 11-9, but Christian got the next two for the three-game win and the title. It is her third PPA gold medal, her second in a “full strength” PPA event.

Gold: Kaitlyn Christian. Silver: Kate Fahey. Bronze: Brooke Buckner.

Mixed Pro Doubles Recap

Death, Taxes, and the top Mixed team of Johns and Waters winning a PPA Mixed Pro doubles title. These are the certainties of life. The top pair won their 52nd career Mixed title in Vegas, topping the interesting-looking pairing of No. 6 seeds Hayden Patriquin and Hurricane Tyra Black in the finals.

Black has had a ton of recent success in Women’s doubles, but less so in Mixed, where her last medal came back in February while playing with the Mixed doubles savant Alshon. She’s played a big chunk of 2025 with James Ignatowich to little success, and has bounced around partners here and there, playing tournaments with Freeman, Vich, and even lefty Auggie Ge. Meanwhile, Patriquin has been bouncing around female partners as if he was at a speed-dating event, playing the last few PPA tournaments with (in descending order) Black, Todd, Bright, Fahey, Rohrabacher, and Jorja Johnson. Hayden and Jorja combined to take a Mixed gold back in December 2024, in an event missing Waters & Johns, but otherwise Hayden’s struggled to medal in mixed. Could a Patriquin-Black team be the pathway forward?

Gold: Waters & Johns. Silver: Black & Patriquin. Bronze: Bright & Staksrud

Men’s Pro Doubles Recap

The new No. 1 Men’s Doubles Team of Ben Johns & Gabriel Tardio played their seventh tournament together since committing full-time to their new partnership in February of 2025. For the seventh time, they made the gold medal match, and for the fifth time they won gold together as Johns has begun to re-separate himself from the No. 2 ranked doubles player on tour.

In the final, they topped the No. 3 seeds Andrei Daescu & Christian Alshon, notable since this was a rematch of the first gold medal final featuring the new top pairing, one that Daescu & Alshon won rather easily. At the time, there was scuttlebutt in the interwebs about how perhaps Johns made the wrong choice, that maybe a Johns-Daescu or a Johns-Alshon was the better partnership. There’s little talk to that end now, as the pair seems to be growing more comfortable with each passing tournament. they took the final 10,(10),3,2, seeming to gel and to “figure out” their opponents as the match went on.

Gold: Johns & Tardio. Silver: Daescu & Alshon. Bronze: Patriquin & Staksrud.

Women’s Pro Doubles Recap

The biggest news on tour, and perhaps one of the biggest competition-related items of the 2025 season, was the semi-finals defeat of top seeds Anna Leigh Waters & Anna Bright. The pair entered the event as the no-doubt No. 1 team in the sport and were undefeated as a team, 43-0 across ten tournaments and ten gold medals together.

Then, they ran into the Dallas Flash pairing of Jorja Johnson & Hurricane Tyra Black, who just finished off a grueling MLP season playing together and who gained dozens of match cycles perfecting their partnership. The duo went 21-4 in the 2025 MLP regular season (26-6 including the BCO and playoffs) and clearly found a pathway to down the sport’s top pair. After losing the first game of their semi-final match 11-5, the pair raced out to an 8-0 lead in game two by being aggressive out of the air and just out-playing the No. 1 seeds, leading to a decisive game three. Game three was the same playbook as Game 2; Black & Jorja ran out to another huge lead in game 3, and Waters/Bright couldn’t come back. Final score: (5),6,3.

Their work wasn’t done yet though; the pair may have vanquished the queens, but still had to finish off the title. In the final, they topped No. 2 Parris Todd & Catherine Parenteau in four games for the title. Can this be a new rival to the inner circle of pro pickleball?

Gold: Johnson & Black. Silver: Todd & Parenteau. Bronze: Waters & Bright.

Senior Open Competition Quick Recap

• Men’s Senior Open Singles: Josh Cooperman won his 6th Senior Pro singles title in the last seven PPA events with a well-earned come from behind win over Tam Nong.
• Men’s Senior Open Doubles: Altaf Merchant & Steve Deakin continue to be the Kings of Senior Pro doubles on the PPA tour, winning their fourth title in a row and 8th of the 2025 season.
• Mixed Senior Open Doubles: Joshua Cooperman & Jennifer Osur Douglas won the Mixed RR group to give Cooperman a Vegas double gold 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, next up for the PPA is a Challenger event this coming weekend in Orlando, then a 1,500-level Cup event the second weekend of September in Cincinnati.

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: