PPA Mesa typically has the largest crowds on the PPA Tour, and the 2026 Carvana Mesa Cup presented by Cal-Am did not disappoint. Despite some unusually windy weather to start the week, Humana Championship Court was standing room only all week. Carvana Grandstand Court often had fans standing three and four rows deep to catch the action. The play did not disappoint as Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns both went into Sunday with a shot at a Triple Crown, but a big upset derailed both quests.

 

 

The mixed doubles partnership of Anna Bright and Hayden Patriquin has met with a lot of success. They had a record that was the envy of every other partnership with one exception, that of Waters and Johns. Waters/Johns had faced Bright/Patriquin six times and all six had ended the same way, with Waters/Johns walking away with the victory. In Mesa, Bright/Patriquin started with a close 11-8 game one win, and then won game two with an even closer score of 11-9. The pressure was on in game three, but the result was the same, with Bright/Patriquin pulling off the upset with a surprisingly easy 11-3 win. Bright and Patriquin join Jorja Johnson and JW Johnson as the only current partnerships with a win over Waters/Johns. With 10 months to go in 2026, will we see Waters/Johns fall again, or will we look back at Mesa as an aberration? The only sure thing is that the mixed doubles landscape just got a whole lot more interesting.

 

 

 

Anna Leigh Waters is head and shoulders above any other women’s singles player, but the landscape on the men’s side is a lot more muddled. Federico Staksrud and Hunter Johnson spent much of 2025 trading the top spot back and forth. Chris Haworth entered the picture midway through 2025 and worked his way up the ladder to the top five by the end of 2025. Going into 2026, the question was whether anyone could lay a clear claim to the top spot, or would it move between players as they traded gold medal performances.

 

In Mesa, things got even more muddled, if that was possible, by Ben Johns returning to the singles draw. He had fallen to a #10 seed, but with victories over Connor Garnett, Federico Staksrud, and Christian Alshon, Johns earned his way into the finals to face Haworth. Haworth stated his claim to the #1 spot by defeating Johns by a comfortable 11-6, 11-6 margin. While Haworth will not have the ranking points to take over the #1 spot, his game spoke for itself, as he certainly has the look of the best singles player in the world. By the end of 2026, I expect he will have the ranking points to match what our eyes tell us: Chris Haworth is the best singles player.

 

 

 

Pro pickleball singles is changing before our very eyes, but the change may be so subtle that not everyone is seeing it. If we go back just two years, the game was completely different, especially on the men’s side. In 2024, pretty much every player put an emphasis on getting to the kitchen line first and trying to win the point from the net. Ben Johns and Federico Staksrud exemplified this style, whereby when returning serve, they would immediately follow the return to the kitchen line. But, as paddles and the ball have sped up, the ability to win points from the baseline has emerged as a viable strategy.

 

With Johns taking quite a bit of time off from singles, it remained to be seen in Mesa if he would still play “old school” singles and come to the kitchen line incessantly. The question was answered in an early round match when Johns faced Max Freeman. In the first game, Freeman took an 8-4 lead, as Johns went to the kitchen line 20 of 30 points (.667). Johns’ strategy, playing 2024 style singles, was not working, and he was in danger of losing game one. But Johns’ reputation as one of the best strategists in the pro game was on display in this match, as he then came to the kitchen line only 17 of the next 50 points (.340). The result? Johns won game one 11-8 and game two 11-9 to move on.

 

 

The wisdom of Johns’ strategy in staying back more often than coming in is reflected when we look at pressure rates (how often a player comes to the kitchen line) of other top players. Hunter Johnson’s typical pressure rate is around .250, and Chris Haworth is only slightly higher, in the .275-.300 range. These numbers can vary some, depending on opponent. But the trend and the lesson is clear, that top players can succeed in men’s singles by staying back and employing powerful groundstrokes to pass the opponent at the net, a strategy that was virtually unused just two years ago. This trend is something to keep an eye on for the next time Johns enters a singles draw.

 

 

Anna Bright followed her mixed doubles gold by winning a second gold in women’s doubles with Anna Leigh Waters. They defeated nemesis Tyra Black/Jorja Johnson by a fairly comfortable score of 11-1, 13-11, 11-7. Bright and Waters have now avenged their only two losses of 2025, and they look more dominant with each passing tournament. When they play like they did in Mesa, it is easy to think they could sweep every women’s doubles tournament the rest of the way in 2026.

 

Perhaps most intriguing is the possibility that Bright and Waters could end up as MLP teammates in 2026. With the MLP Draft coming up on February 27, it is possible for the New Jersey 5s to draft Bright and pair her with Waters. If that happens, the 2026 MLP championship could be determined even before the season starts.

 

 

 

After every tournament, we spend a lot of time (correctly so) congratulating the winners of each event and analyzing those wins. But, an important quality in any player is putting forth maximum effort, especially when facing adversity. Therefore, beginning with this wrap up of Mesa, I want to single out a player whose effort struck me as notable, and worthy of attention. In Mesa, I will name Christian Alshon as my relentless competitor of the week. Alshon, alongside Hayden Patriquin, gave a great effort in the men’s doubles final against Gabe Tardio and Ben Johns. They lost in four games, but the match featured numerous great points.

 

 

What not everyone saw though was that after losing that tough gold medal match, Alshon was called to grandstand court for a bronze medal match against Matthew Barlow. Some players might have come up with a last minute injury to avoid playing, or would have perhaps understandably not been at their best energy level after facing Tardio and Johns. But not Alshon. He gave it 110%. Indeed, his pressure rate (frequency of coming to the kitchen line) was an amazing .800! The “book” on Barlow is that you want to come to the line, before he can do the same, and make Barlow win from the baseline. Alshon followed that startegy, despite no doubt being worn down from the doubles final. The result was a fairly easy 11-4, 11-5 win for Alshon.

 

 

For not just showing up, for not just playing hard, but for playing a hard charging style and coming to the kitchen line on 80% of the points, Christian Alshon gets the relentless competitor of the week award, and deservedly so.

 

Next up on the PPA Tour is the SXY Newport Beach Open. It begins March 2. As always, the tournament will be on Pickleballtv. Check out the action there and go to  pickleball.com at least once a day for all the pickleball news you want.

 

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