Waters Continues Triple Crown Dominance At Pro Pickleball Association Orange County Cup

Forbes

23-06-2025

This continues to be a common Sunday pose for No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters.
We took a break from the busy MLP slate to head to one of the player's favorite venues, that being Life Time San Clemente for the 2025 Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) Select Medical Orange County Cup. This is the 5th straight year the PPA is hosting this event at this venue, and as the host of the year end Tour Finals this is the PPA's 7th trip to this venue in its history.
If you're wondering why so many people want to live in Southern California, look no further than the weather for the week: Highs in the low 70s, Lows in the upper 60s, sunny, a little wind, no rain, no humidity. The overall player community agrees as well, and 1,700 players were entered into this event between the pros and amateurs.
Click here for the PickleballBrackets.com home page for the event, where you can get tournament details, draw sheets, and results.
This was a cup-level event, worth 1,500 points to the winners and involving a week-long progressive draw that saw qualifying start on Monday. The combination of additional points, Southern California location, a massive player base in the Los Angeles area, and great venue made for absolutely massive draws: Men's Singles had 77 qualifiers and Men's Doubles had 62 teams/124 doubles players. That may not be the high water mark for Men's singles, but that's by far the most I can recall seeing in the Doubles qualifier. Just amazing.
The crowds and facilities at Life Time San Clemente were fantastic all weekend.News and Noteworthy ahead of the Event
Here's a quick recap of notable news items of import to the tour or this event:
- 6/3/25: UPA's Paddle testing machine is stolen after the MLP Austin event. It is unclear if there's a backup built yet, but there could be a gap in onsite paddle testing this weekend.
- 5/29/25: UPA fines and suspends Quang Duong for playing in an unsanctioned (and clearly unapproved) event while traveling to Vietnam to support his new paddle sponsor. This will cost him $50k, one PPA event (this one in San Clemente), and most of the MLP Phoenix event.
- 5/27/25: Grayson Goldin officially signs with the UPA. Terms are not disclosed. He immediately slots in as the No. 17 seed in Men's Singles by virtue of past performance.
- 5/14/25: The PPA tour re-ups with Carvana to sign a new multi-year agreement to be the title sponsor of the tour.
With that said, let's recap the action.
Men's Pro Singles Recap
Hunter Johnson jumps for joy after his big win this weekend, which secures the No. 1 spot in the ... More year to date standings.
Despite the huge number of qualifiers, there weren't too many 'surprises' making it into the main draw. That's where normalcy stopped, as the first day of action brought us one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tour. Long-time singles No. 1 Ben Johns has suffered early losses before, but never in the round of 64 to a qualifier. Brazilian tennis convert Rafael Lenhard made his way through qualifying and topped Johns 11-6, 14-12 in the opening round to the shock of many (note: the match ended in controversy, with Lenhard taking what might have been a double bounce on match point, but one call doesn't change the gravity of the result).
Johns has clearly been stepping back from singles this year: San Clemente is the 10th PPA event of the season and Johns has only played singles in half of them so far. When he has played, he's had varying success: two gold medals (Feb 2025 in Mesa and May 2025 in Atlanta), and a couple of relatively understandable losses (Zane Ford at the Texas Open, and John Lucian Goins at Cape Coral). Lenhard has a few PPA appearances under his belt, and had a couple of notable wins in the past (Auggie Ge, Ryan Sherry, and Pablo Tellez), but this was very unexpected. Lenhard didn't rest on his laurels, going on a massive run to top Zane Navratil in the 32s and No. 13 Noe Khlif in an 11-7 third game in the round of 16 to make it to the quarters.
Other notable early round upsets included newly signed Richmond-based No. 40 Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez, who took out Augustus Ge in the 64s. Also, No. 46 James Ignatowich, who rarely plays singles on tour, ran through three singles specialists early in the week, downing No. 24 Mota Alhouni, No. 10 Zane Ford, and most impressively No. 5 Jaume Martinez Vich to advance to the quarters.
No. 12 Gabe Joseph survived a gauntlet of tough players to get to the quarters, beating Di Laura, Cason Campbell, and Dylan Frazier before falling to No. 1 Staksrud. Lastly, No. 17 Grayson Goldin, newly minted PPA signed pro, advanced with ease into the 16s before playing No. 3 Connor Garnett tough and losing in three.
In the quarters, some sanity returned. No. 1 Federico Staksrud sent Joseph packing in two. No. 8 Christian Alshon ended Lenhard's great run in two. No. 2 Hunter Johnson stopped Ignatowich's streak in two. Lastly, No. 3 Garnett beat the resurgent No. 9 Jack Sock in two close games 11-9, 12-10 to make for a top heavy semifinals. The top two seeds both dominated their semis to setup a No. 1 versus No. 2 Final on Sunday. There, Hunter Johnson made a forceful stake to the top spot on tour with a dominant 2,5 win. It is Hunter's 3rd singles title of the year, and most interestingly he is now tied with Staksrud for No. 1 on tour in year to date points.
Gold: Hunter Johnson. Silver: Federico Staksrud. Bronze: Connor Garnett.
Women's Pro Singles Recap
It's always refreshing to see international players break into the hegemony of the current domestic US-heavy PPA pro tour, and certainly we got examples of that this weekend on the Women's side. Ting Chieh Wei, who hails from Taipei but who DUPR thinks lives in Baltimore, qualified into the main singles draw, then took out No. 13 Padegimaite and No. 24 Hones before falling to the top seed in the 16s. Yufei Long, who hails from Shenzhen, China and came to the US to play top-level Tennis, also made some noise here, qualifying and then taking out No. 21 Blatt and No. 14 Schaefer before stretching No. 3 Christian to three games.
The singles draw also saw some great results for newly signed PPA pros like Cailyn Campbell, who took out Phillips and then No. 8 Wang to get into the round of 16. Perhaps we're finally starting to see some signs of Women's singles turning more competitive, as we've now seen Men's singles be for some time, as Tennis converts continue to pour into the sport and find immediate success on the singles circuit.
After these early round upsets, the quarters were nearly to seed, with seven of the top eight players advancing as expected. No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters advanced past No. 6 Lea Jansen in two. No. 10 Judit Castillo got an excellent win over No. 3 Christian to move into the semis. Long time No. 2 Catherine Parenteau took out current No. 2 Kate Fahey in a topsy-turvy three game battle. Lastly in the match of the round, No. 5 Brooke Buckner outlasted No. 4 Parris Todd 13-11 in the third to move on.
In the semis, Parenteau turned back the clock and played a solid game to beat Buckner and return to the final for the first time in nearly a year. Castillo played one of the matches of her life but still fell to Waters in the other semi 7,9. In the final, Waters renewed her years-long rivalry against her former doubles partner and won with ease 6,1. It is her 52nd career PPA singles title.
Gold: Anna Leigh Waters. Silver: Catherine Parenteau. Bronze: Judit Castillo.
Mixed Pro Doubles Recap
Waters rips a backhand during their Mixed title run.
The Quarter finals of the pro draw featured the teams seeded 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th … and 28th. The outlier? Thanks to a big hole in the bottom half of the draw thanks to Dekel Bar's last minute injury issue, a lucky loser fed into the No. 7 seed, which opened up a pathway for the (probably under seeded) No. 28 team of Mari Humberg & CJ Klinger to make a huge run in this draw.
Fun fact: in the history of the PPA tour, there have been just 2 medals won by team containing a left-handed male, both by the same player. Tyler Loong won a silver in September 2021 (playing with Catherine Parenteau), and Loong won a bronze in December 2022 (playing with Anna Bright). None of the tour's other top lefties (Tellez, Hewitt, Ge, Klinger, Young, Emmrich, etc.) have ever medaled in Mixed. So, to have a lefty like Klinger have an opportunity is pretty rare. Why is it so tough for a Lefty male to win in Mixed? Primarily because it puts a huge onus on the skills of the now left-sided female player to maintain a cross court dink rally with her male opponent. It's no surprise that Humberg, whose slice backhand cross court dink strength makes her a natural left-sided player, would have success teaming up with a lefty male, who gets to naturally the right side and put both forehands in the middle of the court.
Klinger & Humberg did their part to try to break into this exclusive club, trouncing the No. 3 seeds Alshon & Tuionetoa 8,3 to get into the semis. There, they finally fell to the tough JW & Jorja team and then lost the bronze medal game in their gambit to add Klinger's name to the lefty record books.
In the final, the Johnsons, who guaranteed a medal in their 6th straight event playing together, met the bend-but-don't-break No. 1 seeds Ben Johns & Anna Leigh Waters, who were pushed in the semis but who advanced. In the final, Waters & Johns ran through Jorja and JW with relative ease 4,9,5 to claim their 50th Mixed Pro title together. This number got some attention this week; the next highest number of golds for a Mixed pair are:
- No. 2: Ben Johns & Simone Jardim: 12
- No. 3: Catherine Parenteau & Riley Newman with 5
- No 4: Jorja & JW Johnson: 3
- No. 5: three different pairs tied with 2 a piece (David & Wilson, Johns & Tuionetoa , and Kovalova & Wright).
In other words, Jorja & JW would likely need to win every Mixed Gold for the next two seasons straight to catch Waters & Johns.
Gold: Waters & Johns. Silver: Johnson & Johnson. Bronze: Bright & Patriquin
Men's Pro Doubles Recap
Gabe Tardio was a rock on the right side this weekend.
The Men's Doubles draw here had some fun story lines. Riley Newman's injury clearly persists, so Matt Wright picked up Roscoe Bellamy last minute, and immediately lost as to No. 41 Jonathan Truong and Sammy Lee, putting a 40+ seeded team into the 16s.
However, the best story by far was the run by Riley Inn & Luke Williams. The Seattle-based duo initially lost in the final round of qualifying, but a last-minute withdrawal by the original No. 5 seeds Frazier & Bar enabled Inn & Williams to get into the draw as 'Lucky Losers.' They did not disappoint, beating two PPA vets in No. 31 Alhouni & Whittaker to open the event, then topping two more PPA vets in No. 12 Loong & Smith to shockingly advance to the quarter finals. It is a testament to the depth of the Men's game right now that a team that initially didn't make it out of qualifying (they lost in the final round of qualifying to Jordan Chrysostom & James Kaoma) could make a run to the quarters. Once you get outside of the top touring teams, there's very little difference between a team seeded in the teens to one in the 30s, and in some cases to a qualifier.
By the time the quarters rolled around, the cream had risen to the top, with just one to seed failing to advance as expected. Thanks to their excellent run of form since joining together, Ben Johns has re-ascended to be the No. 1 ranked player in doubles, and secured the top seed in the tournament with Tardio; they had to face none other than Ben's brother Collin in the quarters. Collin was dropped as Ben's regular doubles partner last December, was dropped as his MLP partner last week, and ended up on the losing side of their matchup here, with the top seeds moving on 5,8. The other three top seeded teams moved on as expected, setting up a star-studded Saturday and Sunday for the fans.
In the semis, Johns & Tardio cooled the 'next big thing' team of Alshon & Daescu 8,6, while No. 2 Staksrud & Patriquin cruised past Johnson & Klinger 6,10 to set up a dream final of the two top teams. In that final, the pairs had a back and forth, 1.5 hour five-game battle that certainly had its fair share of body bags, speed-ups, and well-executed dink battles. In the end, No. 1 Johns & Tardio win (10),7,8,(4),3. It is their 3rd title in 5 tournaments together (the other two were finals losses), which have helped them regain No. 1 and counter the naysayers who claimed that the tour has caught up to Johns in doubles.
Gold: Johns & Tardio. Silver: Staksrud & Patriquin. Bronze: Johnson & Klinger.
Women's Pro Doubles Recap
As with the Men's Doubles draw, the early week storyline for the Women's Doubles draw was the amazing run of Ting Chieh Wei & Yufei Long. Both Wei and Long, who have cut their teeth on the PPA Asia tour, got some wins in Singles as well, but their run in Doubles was most notable. After qualifying and winning the main draw opener over Ruhl & Brown, they shocked the No. 4 seeds Schneemann & Jorja Johnson. The next day they didn't let up, topping the veteran No. 14 team of Koop & Truong to get to the quarters of their first PPA event.
The early loss of the No. 4 seed opened up a surprise spot in the semis for the interesting No 10. team of Mari Humberg & Megan Dizon. Humberg was just re-acquired by the New Jersey 5's MLP team … likely to send Dizon to the bench, yet they're paired together here and had a solid run, beating Fahey & Pisnik along the way.
In the semis though, Humberg & Dizon ran into the No. 1 seeds Anna Leigh Waters & Anna Bright, who (lest we forget) have never lost a match playing together. They headed into this event with eight tournaments played together, eight gold medals, and a 32-0 record against all comers. The storyline for the rest of 2025's season in Women's doubles is simple: will these two lose this year? Meanwhile, the No. 2 seeds Parenteau & Rohrabacher, teamed up due to being collectively dropped by both sides of the top pair, cruised into the final with a dominant performance throughout the week.
In the final, Parenteau & Rohrabacher showed some incremental progress since their last meeting in Atlanta, but still lost in three 2,8,8. Waters & Bright improve to 37-0 as a team and put more distance at the top of the table.
More importantly, with the win, Waters secures a triple crown for the weekend. It is her astounding 35th career PPA Triple crown. She now owns 154 career gold medals on tour, just two back from Ben Johns for most in history.
Gold: Waters & Bright. Silver: Parenteau & Rohrabacher. Bronze: Black & Todd.
Senior Open Competition Quick Recap
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 tour stays right in San Clemente for a few days off before the 6th event of the MLP season starts on Thursday. All six Challenger teams will be in action alongside a good chunk of the Premier.
Next up for the PPA? They're on hiatus until mid-August with the Bristol Open.
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: