PPA Worlds: A Recap

It was a monumental week at PPA World Championships, an event that had the feeling of the penultimate event of the season (and maybe should be in the future). There was an electric energy buzzing throughout the week; even the rain couldn’t dampen the excitement happening up and down Pickleball Blvd.

This progressive draw had a lot of twists and turns, and Championship Sunday that didn’t look like all the others. There’s so much to talk about, let’s get into it.

Men’s Singles

It’s worth starting with this event, as we saw #21 Michael Loyd take the PPA world by storm. He’s not new to the scene, but he made waves by knocking out Ben Johns early, in R16 11-3, 11-9. He then went on to beat #11 JW Johnson in QF 11-5, 12-10, then #5 Quang Duong 11-7, 11-9. As an APP-convert and Challenger player for the Frisco Pandas, does this bring him into the Premier-player conversation? Or was this just a fluke of a tournament?

The gold medal match was between Loyd and Staksrud (who took 3 games in semis to take down Hunter Johnson: 11-13, 11-3, 11-5). Quang Duong withdrew from the bronze match (presumably to save himself for mixed), giving the medal to Hunter. Watch Fed & Michael’s finals matchup here:

Women’s Singles

Yes, Anna Leigh was in Championship Sunday as usual, but some of the other usual players were knocked out early by some unsuspecting competitors. Dallas local Samantha Parker (#18) took down #2 Brooke Buckner in 3 games in R16, leaving space for #5 Salome Devidze (who Sam lost to in QF) to work through the bracket and win a bronze medal over Catherine Parenteau.

Worth a re-watch is Lea vs. Kate Fahey in QF that went to 3 games to Kate (11-4, 8-11, 14-12).

Catch ALW and Kate’s gold medal match here:

Men’s Doubles

Did you know a challenge can be challenged? And then that challenge of a challenge can be challenged to the CEO of PPA? Yeah, neither did we, but that’s exactly what happened in the men’s doubles semi-final matchup between Zane & Travis vs. Matt & Fed.

In game 3, with the score 9-9, Travis hit a lob that Fed countered as he (allegedly) pushed back from the kitchen line, winning the point and going to 10-9. Zane and Travis called a challenge that it should have been ruled a foot fault, which was confirmed and the score set back to 9-9. After popping over to the sideline to review footage on a phone, Fed and Matt challenged the challenge; the head ref reviewed the replay and determined it was not, in fact, a foot fault. Score back to 10-9. Zane marches up to the on-court ref, “I’m challenging to (CEO) Connor Pardoe” who came to the court to settle the mess. After a total of 45 minutes of back-and-forth challenges, Pardoe deferred to the head ref that it was NOT a foot fault, leaving the score 10-9 in favor of Fed & Matt. The next rally, Zane missed a dink and the game (and match) ended 11-9. [Watch the controversial exchange, part of which was trimmed from the video, but you get the idea]. Matt & Fed went on to win bronze after losing to Riley & Hayden in the semis.

Aside from this, #14 CJ and QD (who also played together in Vegas) went on an incredible run, starting with a takedown of the Johns bros in R16. They followed this with a win over #8 Ignatovich/Alshon before losing to Dekel & Pablo in semis.

Riley & Hayden (7) had quite a day: they took 3 games to beat Haworth & Goldin in R32, after which they beat Tyler & Connor (9), then 2-seed JW & Dylan AND 3-seed Matt & Fed to get to the gold medal match. Riley has had inconsistent partnerships this year, ever since the breakup with Matt Wright, but he found magic this time with (because of?) Hayden. The pair won gold in 3 games against Pablo & Dekel (11-4, 11-6, 11-8). Watch it here:

Women’s Doubles

“The Girlies” did it again! Anna Bright and Rachel ROAR-bacher defeated Anna Leigh and Catherine Parenteau in a CLEAN sweep: 3 straight games (11-4, 11-8, 11-6). That’s it, that’s the story in women’s doubles.

Alright, alright, there were some other interesting matches you may want to re-watch: Lucy & Callie had a good run, but fell to Lea & Tina Pisnik in QF. Hurricane Tyra & Allyce won bronze after taking down Etta Wright & Megan Dizon. They lost to AB/RR in semis, and beat out Lea & Tina to take home the medal.

Watch AB/RR take down ALW/CP in three:

Mixed Doubles

Would anyone in 2023 believe you if you told them Ben Johns would only be in one gold medal match at world championships? 2024 has certainly been surprising in that way, and it’s looking more and more clear that it’s Anna Leigh that carries the weight in this partnership. So is Ben just worn out? Or has the men’s field proven to be so tough that there’s a changing tide?

Quang Đường has been doing a “Tour de Partner” in mixed this year, and Anna Bright may just be the highest-ranked woman he’s partnered with (go ahead, fact check us). It paid off, as the pair made it to the bronze medal match where they fell to Rachel R. and Fed.

Watch the gold medal match here, where Ben & AL beat Christian & Etta in three straight:

And if you didn’t get a ticket to the sold-out Celebrity Showdown, it’s worth rewatching! Featuring Dirk Nowitzki, Jenna Bandy, Kris Humphries, John Isner, and more!

The kids are alright

Among the 3,500 participants at worlds were 13 brackets of junior players, some of whom also played adult and pro divisions.

Most notably, a pair of 14-year-old Ellas (Yeh and Cosma) took on Genie Bouchard and Kaitlyn Christian on center court, and absolutely held their own against the two former-tennis-playing superstars. Watch it here:

Later, Ella Yeh won gold in junior girls’ (13-14) singles, and junior girls’ (13-16) doubles, with partner Jayda Maldonado. In semi-finals for junior mixed doubles (13-16), 11-year-old Elsie Hendershot and her partner Braden Jacobsen pickled Yeh and her partner Rex Thais, who is also a dominant boys’ junior player. Hendershot & Jacobsen went on to win gold.

In the 8-12 age bracket, Jessie Irvine—lookalike Ella Evans and her partner, Utah native Leo Chun, won gold against the Chi sibs, Serena & Francis (11-5, 4-11, 11-8).

If you want to see how the future of pickleball is shaping up, carve out some time to watch some of theses junior players soar.

We want to thank everyone who came out to one of our events to meet us while we were at Worlds, or participated in one of our many giveaways! Also, a big shout-out to our sponsor, Vulcan, who hosted our Opening Night party, daily live pods, mini-clinics, meet & greets, and an epic VIP experience at the Closing Night party.

We’ll be releasing the live pods we did onsite over the coming days, but be sure to catch our interview with Lucy Kovalova, which we broadcast live on Instagram. Plus, follow us on IG to watch our newest favorite segment: Mean Tweets (should we do more?)

Next Up: PPA Milwaukee

Sick of pickleball yet? No? Good, because the next PPA tournament rolls into Milwaukee for pros’ last shot to qualify for finals in San Clemente in December.

Veolia Milwaukee Open is November 13 - 17 at Baird Center

Qualifiers start on Wednesday for this non-progressive event, and main draw starts with singles on Thursday, Nov 14th.

Veolia, sponsor and PPA sustainability partner, is hosting a river cleanup on Wednesday, Nov 13th, in partnership with a local nonprofit. Transportation is provided to and from the cleanup site.

If you’re planning to attend PPA Milwaukee, you can secure your tickets and registration at a discount using code KOTC.

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