The PPA Tour moves to southern Utah for the Greater Zion Cup at Black Desert Resort. The tournament begins Monday, with the beautiful venue hosting the event for the first time. The weather is expected to be warm, with no wind, perfect for high-level pickleball.

 

 

Anna Leigh Waters has dominated women’s pickleball for the last several years, but she is showing she has yet another gear. Lately, she wins a Triple Crown more often than not. She is entered again in singles, women’s doubles (with Anna Bright), and mixed doubles (with Ben Johns), and is a clear favorite in each event. In singles, she is as usual an odds-on favorite to not only win, but it would be an upset if she even loses a game. In 2026, she is allowing opponents an average of only a little more than three points per game.

 

In women’s doubles, Waters and Bright seem to have hit their stride, and now win almost as convincingly as Waters does in singles. Their toughest opponents in 2025, the Kawamotos and Jorja Johnson/Tyra Black, have not proven to be threats in 2026. Can anyone give them a serious push in Utah?

 

Finally, in mixed doubles, Waters and Johns have been beaten in 2026, but more often than not do get the gold. At Black Desert, the two biggest threats to Waters/Johns are #2 seed Jorja/JW Johnson and #3 Anna Bright/Hayden Patriquin. But, the #2 and #3 seeds are both on the opposite end of the draw and thus at worst, Waters/Johns will only have to face one of them. And, as we saw at the Veolia Texas Open, there is always a chance of an early round upset to these rivals, while Waters/Johns appear immune to early round losses.

 

 

 

Championship Sunday always features great pickleball, but my favorite days at a PPA tournament are the Tuesday-Friday matches, as so many of them are close, hard-fought matches that can easily go either way. In Utah, the mixed doubles draw is filled with great early matches. In the Round of 64, on Tuesday, check out #23 Lacy Schneemann/Jonathan Truong taking on #56 Rachel Rettger/Nicolas Acevedo. Acevedo was picked by shrewd MLP general manager Johnny Goldberg for the Miami Pickleball Club. Is Acevedo the latest longshot pick by Goldberg to prove he is an up and coming star? Next, check out #10 Jessie Irvine/Dekel Bar v #51 Elsie Hendershot/Cam Chaffin; the combined ages of youngsters Hendershot and Chaffin is less than the age of either Irvine or Bar. Another must see match is #31 Maggie Brascia and Tama Shimabukuro v #33 Lingwei Kong/Martin Emmrich. Shimabukuro is the hot name among the many up and coming teenagers joining the PPA Tour in 2026, and he continues to hunt breakthrough wins in doubles to go with his early success at singles.

 

 

 

The women’s doubles draw also features a lot of fun Round of 32 matches. First up, look at #10 Mari Humberg/Brooke Buckner v #19 Elsie Hendershot/Lingwei Kong. Humberg has been having success with a variety of partners and this time pairs with the veteran Buckner. On the other side, Kong has been improving and teams with young Hendershot to try for the upset. Hendershot is going to be a top 10 player one day, the only question is when. Another good one is #15 Zoey Weil/Liz Truluck v #18 Ella Yeh/Kiora Kunimoto. This match features a lot of singles talent, so expect some fast paced, hard-hitting action. Kunimoto is another teenager who has had good early success at singles but has not added much doubles success, as yet. Finally, another fun one is #9 Allyce Jones/Jamie Wei taking on youngsters #24 Cailyn Campbell/Emma Nelson. Campbell has been getting better results, in line with her talent, while on the other side of the net, Jones continues to set the standard for 110% effort.

 

 

The toughest event to forecast has long been men’s doubles. Indeed, we look at the Round of 64 and see many matches that are considered tossups. #28 JW Johnson takes on #34 Tyson McGuffin in a battle of well-known players. #23 Rafa Hewett plays up and coming #46 Armaan Bhatia, and, #17 Cason Campbell plays #44 Cam Chaffin. In the Round of 32, look for #25 Tama Shimabukuro to play #5 Connor Garnett, a match which will feature incredible effort and athleticism on every point.

 

The top three seeds are #1 Hunter Johnson, #2 Federico Staksrud, and #3 Chris Haworth. They have all had a lot of recent success, and have created a little more predictability to men’s singles. Johnson and Haworth are both in the top half of the draw, while Staksrud is on what appears to be the easier lower half of the draw. But as usual, there are a host of tough singles players in the draw who will seek to knock off the top three.

 

 

In the three doubles events, 24 teams make the quarterfinals. Typically, the average is for over 80% of the top eight seeds to occupy those final eight spots. In Utah, which non-top eight seeds can make a run to the quarters? And in singles, while it is a little less predictable, who can potentially knock off the top three and grab a medal?

 

This week, I like #11 Pablo Tellez and Jack Sock as my first longshot to make the quarters or better. Sock has gone from overrated to underrated in the last three years, and is now making good progress on his doubles game. Tellez is always capable of top level play, so the Tellez/Sock team is capable of beating anyone.

 

In women’s doubles, #11 Callie Smith and Lea Jansen have a good draw and are a solid veteran team. They tend to sometimes get in trouble when Smith plays left side, but if they can focus and play steady, they have the ability to play with everyone.

 

Finally, in men’s singles, I look for #7 Jack Sock to challenge for a medal. He has a good draw and he is always a threat to beat anyone he plays in singles.

 

Hope to see you in Utah. If you cannot be there in person, make sure you watch Pickleballtv, especially for those tough early round matches.

 

Follow me on X @pickleball_jim for updates.