The last regular season stop on the PPA Tour was in Wisconsin for the PPA Milwaukee Open. It ended with Championship Sunday, and some new and old gold medal winners. The last few spots for the CIBC PPA Finals were determined.

Let’s review the highlights from a great week of pickleball.

 

1. Hunter hoists the trophy. Hunter Johnson defeated Federico Staksrud for his second PPA gold medal in singles. Johnson has been on a hot streak, and his latest finals appearance finally paid off with the top prize. Johnson won by the somewhat odd score of 11-4, 0-11, 11-3. The bronze went to the #30 seed Adam Harvey.

 

 

2. A great women’s doubles final. Jade Kawamoto entered this last regular season tournament needing a good run to get enough points to make the PPA Finals. She and her sister Jackie Kawamoto did just that and more. They made the final and gave top seeds Anna Bright and Rachel Rohrabacher everything they could handle. In a back and forth five game final, the top seeds finally won out 4-11, 11-6, 11-7, 10-12, 11-7. This was the latest in what has been a series of thrilling women’s doubles finals.

 

 

3. Bright bags another, while Tardio comes close. Gabe Tardio and Federico Staksrud combined to win the men’s doubles final. They easily defeated CJ Klinger/James Ignatowich 11-5, 11-2, 11-3.  That set up for an exciting mixed doubles final, where Tardio and Jessie Irvine faced Anna Bright and Dylan Frazier. Both Bright and Tardio were seeking a second gold medal on the day. Bright was the one to get it, winning 11-13, 11-6, 11-9, 11-2.

 

 

4. Kate continues to be great. Kate Fahey showed again that she is the best singles player not named Anna Leigh Waters, as she won another gold over first time finals entrant Zoey Wang. Fahey and Wang played a very competitive match that went down to the wire. Fahey emerged victorious, by a score of 11-5, 5-11, 11-9.

 

 

5. Maybe I’m not so bad at predictions. In my pickleball.com column before the tournament, I guessed the winner and runner up of each event. I hit Fahey over Wang, Bright/Rohrabacher over the Kawamotos, hit on Staskrud/Tardio as winners, correctly picked Staksrud and Hunter Johnson in the men’s singles final (although I had Staskrud winning), but completely whiffed on the mixed doubles final. Picking winners of PPA events when Waters is not playing is not easy, so it was a good week (for a change).

 

The PPA regular season is now over. The MLP playoff finals will take center stage this weekend from Orlando. The final four teams are all very good, so the competition should be the highest. After that, we go to San Clemente and the CIBC PPA Finals. The finals will feature the best of the best.

 

Come back to pickleball.com for preview columns on each event and summaries afterward. We will also be doing our 2024 in review column and predictions for 2025.

 

Remember to tune in to Pickleballtv for all the action and hope to see you in person at one of these great events.

 

Follow me on Twitter/X @pickleball_jim