The PPA Tour comes home this week to the Dallas area and the Lapiplasty Pickleball World Championships. Beginning November 4, the largest pickleball tournament in the world will be dominating the news. We have the pro draws and can now see who is likely to claim the crown as world champion in each event.

1. Men’s doubles

Ben and Collin Johns reclaim the #1 seed, but their draw is not the easiest. Early on, it is expected they will face the new pairing of #14 seed CJ Klinger/Quang Duong in the Round of 16. Assuming they both reach that point, that matchup will feature experience v. youth, and strategy v. power.  Definitely must-see pickleball.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Ben Johns (@benjohns_pb)

 

The #2 seed goes to JW Johnson/Dylan Frazier, and they have a reasonable draw for a deep run. We also have familiar pairs such as #3 Matt Wright/Federico Staksrud, #5 Andrei Daescu/Gabe Tardio, and #6 Tyson McGuffin/Jaume Martinez Vich. We also have some newer pairings with #4 Pablo Tellez/Dekel Bar, #7 Riley Newman/Hayden Patriquin and #8 James Ignatowich/Christian Alshon.

With so many top teams, the matches in the Round of 16 and going forward will all have the look of medal round matches. For example, barring upsets, Newman/Patriquin will run into #9 Tyler Loong/Connor Garnett and McGuffin/JMV will play #11 Julian Arnold/Augie Ge.

Whoever wins the men’s doubles world championship will have to earn it.

2. Men’s singles

The men’s singles draw remains the event with the most upsets and the best chance for a lower seed to make a deep run. The top two seeds are, as usual, Fede Staksrud and Ben Johns, but both will have a struggle to make the final. In men’s singles, even the Round of 32 is a war.  Just look at these expected Round of 32 matches: #15 Yates Johnson v #21 Michael Loyd, #12 Roscoe Bellamy v #24 Tyler Loong, #14 Collin Shick v #18 Donald Young, #9 Jack Sock v #20 Cason Campbell, #18 Eric Roddy v #23 Noe Khlif, and #10 Pablo Tellez v #19 Grayson Goldin. All of those players have the talent to make the medal rounds, but they will first have to fight through tough competition from the first match forward.

Watch out for #5 Quang Duong in this one.  He’s been playing well, and he has a reasonably good draw.

3. Mixed doubles

The top seed goes as usual to Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters. It looks like they will face a strong test in the quarters, against #6 Riley Newman/Catherine Parenteau. That is a gold medal quality match.

The second seed goes to JW/Jorja Johnson. They have been playing very consistently, and have the advantage of playing together in MLP, so don’t bet against them making the final.

The #3 seed goes to James Ignatowich and Vivienne David, a new pair. They have been given a difficult draw, so an earlier than expected exit may be in the cards. At #4 is another new pair, Anna Bright and Quang Duong. Neither Ignatowich nor Bright have enjoyed the same success apart as they did together. Bright now tries to find that magic with Duong. If nothing else, you can expect Bright/Duong to come out firing. The #5 seed goes to Christian Alshon/Etta Wright. Alshon has been the second-best player in the world in 2024, and playing with the steady Wright should lead to success.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Christian Alshon (@tweenerking)

 

An interesting early round match is in the round of 32, where we expect #11 Maggie Brascia/Tyson McGuffin to face #18 Mary Brascia/Pablo Tellez.  My money is on a Brascia win in that one.

4. Women’s doubles

The top seed and heavy favorites are Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau. Everyone will be expecting and looking forward to a potential repeat final for them against #2 Anna Bright and Rachel Rohrabacher. If they play again, expect another great match as we had at the Rate Championships in Las Vegas.

Looking for an upset will be #3 Etta Wright/Meghan Dizon, #4 Lucy Kovalova/Callie Smith, and #5 Lea Jansen/Tina Pisnik.

Watch out for #11 Brooke Buckner/Zoey Wang. They have been playing above their seeding, but they face an expected tough match in the Round of 16 against #7 Allyce Jones/Hurricane Tyra Black.

5. Women’s singles 

The women’s singles draw has been getting much more difficult, with a number of players emerging to make the medal rounds and even win the gold. Anna Leigh Waters is the top seed and as usual will be tough to beat. But the Round of 16 is expected to see a lot of great matches, including #6 Kaitlyn Christian v #11 Lacy Schneemann, #4 Catherine Parenteau v #14 Jorja Johnson, #3 Lea Jansen v #13 Zoey Wang, #8 Parris Todd v #9 Kate Fahey, and #7 Mary Brascia v #10 Judit Castillo.

Brooke Buckner draws the second seed. She will be a threat to win it all, as usual.

 

 

 

 

 

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Two others to keep your eye on: #5 Salome Devidze has a reasonably easy draw, and #17 Genie Bouchard also has a good draw for a relatively low seed. Do not be surprised if one of them makes it to the medal rounds.

Predictions:

• The “kids” Klinger/Duong upset the Johns and make the final, losing to Daescu/Tardio in men’s doubles.
• Connor Garnett makes another solid run, but drops the final to Ben Johns in men’s singles.
• Ben/ALW do it again, over Alshon/Wright in mixed doubles.
• AB/RR turn Vegas around and defeat ALW/CP in women’s doubles.
• The unstoppable force that is ALW in singles does it again, defeating Devidze in the final of women’s singles.

 

Get your tickets now to see all the action. If you can’t be there in person, check out all the high-level play on Pickleballtv.

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