The first tournament of 2026 was The Carvana Masters powered by Invited. It was much anticipated and did not disappoint. The whole week was basically a highlight, but let’s try to pick out the best and most notable performances to kick off 2026.

 

 

The PPA Tour has never had a shortage of teenage talent, with Anna Leigh Waters, Hayden Patriquin, Jorja Johnson, and Gabe Tardio being top five stars. But The Masters showed we have a new list of teenagers looking to make their mark soon. Kiora Kunimoto, age 17, showed her talent at singles. She previously gave Kate Fahey all she could handle in Las Vegas and this past week Kunimoto gave No. 4 seed Brooke Buckner all she could handle, with Buckner prevailing 11-9 in game three. It is only a matter of time before Kunimoto notches a signature win in singles.

 

For future doubles talent on the women’s side, watch out for 12-year-old Elsie Hendershot. Despite her youth, Hendershot has advanced pickleball skills. She needs to develop more power, but that will happen as she gets older. Fans are always looking for “the next Anna Leigh”; I would never put that pressure on any player, but if you made me pick someone, I would pick Hendershot.

 

 

On the men’s side, most impressive was the doubles team of 14-year-old Tama Shimabukuro and 15-year-old Andre Mercado. Despite their youth, Shimabukuro and Mercado have a fair amount of tournament experience. That experience was on display at The Masters when they played PPA veterans Anderson Scarpa and Greg Dow. Scarpa and Dow have played a lot of pro pickleball and know how to identify opponents’s weaknesses and exploit them. That experience showed in game one of this match, when Scarpa and Dow prevailed 11-6. But the teenagers proved they can make adjustments, as they came back to win game two 11-0. Game three was tight, with Scarpa and Dow pulling it out 11-8. Shimabukuro and Mercado played steady pickleball, rarely making an unforced error. But the most impressive part of their game was their patience. Most young players play too fast, trying to win every rally early on. It typically takes time to learn patience and to pick your spots, but Shimabukuro and Mercado showed excellent patience, which bodes well for their chance to progress.

 

 

In the predictions I did for 2026, one was that Chris Haworth would end 2026 as the No. 1 singles player. It looks like I will be right, except that Haworth will be No. 1 a lot sooner than the end of 2026. Haworth ended 2025 on a roll, and he continued that roll right into The Masters. On his way to a gold medal, Haworth did not lose a game, defeating such singles stars as Eric Oncins, Noe Khlif, Christian Alshon, and Jack Sock. There are so many good men’s singles players. It is hard to win more than just an occasional gold medal, but Haworth may change that equation. Despite men’s singles being super competitive, Haworth may just be so good that he can dominate.

 

 

 

The Carvana Masters was Jack Sock’s most successful overall tournament. Singles has been his best event and The Masters was no different as Sock won a silver medal. But perhaps more impressive was his doubles performance. Sock made the quarterfinals in both men’s doubles (with Pablo Tellez) and mixed doubles (with Mari Humberg). Sock’s doubles game had been slow to develop due to impatience and his not mastering the little things like dinking and countering. But, Sock showed much better patience at The Masters and it appears he is getting the benefit of better practice partners after moving to Phoenix. Sock has always been at the top athletically, and if he can continue to improve at the little things, he will repeat these good results.

 

 

 

Anna Leigh Waters has always experimented with different serves. We have seen the running serve, the cut serve, and this past week it was the lob serve. Waters has used the lob serve before, albeit very rarely. She trotted it out for most of the first game in one of her singles matches, and repeatedly used it throughout the week. Her women’s doubles partner, Anna Bright, also tried out the lob serve a few times. The lob serve forces the returning player to initiate the pace. Waters feeds off pace, so she is delighted to hit a soft lob serve and force the opponent to initiate the pace and allow Waters to counterattack. The only opponent to figure out the right response was veteran Lea Jansen, who responded by hitting a lob return, thereby depriving Waters of pace. Look for more and more women to use the lob serve, especially in singles. I doubt it will move over to the men’s game, as most men would be happy to punish a lob serve with a powerful forehand.

 

 

 

Men’s doubles has been dominated by The Big Four teams of Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio, CJ Klinger/JW Johnson, Federico Staksrud/Hayden Patriquin, and Christian Alshon/Andrei Daescu. In 2026, Patriquin has switched to partnering with Alshon, and Staksrud with Daescu, but the results were the same with The Big Four all again making the semifinals. Who will break this logjam? Will Howells and Noe Khlif showed a lot of potential with their partnership, while Dekel Bar and Jay Devilliers played like they are back to 100%. Eric Oncins and Dylan Frazier looked pretty good, and the new Jack Sock/Pablo Tellez pairing was exciting. Assuming those four partnerships continue, which one will be the first to break through to the semifinals? I will go with Oncins/Frazier, although all four have the ability to do it.

 

 

 

It’s a new year, and I have started off fairly hot with the predictions. I hit the men’s singles final exactly, with Haworth over Sock. As that is by far the toughest event to predict, that was a nice achievement. I also exactly hit the women’s doubles final with Waters/Bright over the Kawamotos. For the other three events, I correctly predicted the winners, Waters in women’s singles, Waters/Johns in mixed doubles, and Johns/Tardio in men’s doubles. This made me go 5-5 on picking winners, a success rate I am not likely to repeat very often.

 

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