The last PPA tournament of 2025 was the Florida Dairy Farmers Daytona Beach Open; it may have been last, but it certainly was not least as the tournament featured great performances by some new faces and some veteran players.

 

Let’s go over the highlights of the last tournament of 2025.

 

 

It seems like every PPA tournament now has a breakthrough performance or two. Daytona Beach was no different. In women’s singles, Kat Stewart won the women’s singles qualifier and then defeated, among others, Liz Truluck and Kaitlyn Christian on her way to a silver medal. On the men’s side, Rafa Lenhard won the men’s singles qualifier and then beat #1 seed Federico Staksrud on his way to a bronze medal. Along the way, Lenhard played one of the most exciting matches of the year in the semis, with Gabe Joseph prevailing 8-11, 11-4, 14-12. Expect to see more of both Stewart and Lenhard in 2026.

 

 

 

While new players try to make a name for themselves, there are PPA veterans who are ready to defend their turf. In women’s singles, Catherine Parenteau ended Kat Stewart’s Cinderella run with an 11-4, 12-10 victory in the final. In mixed doubles, Jorja and JW Johnson showed why they are the clear #2 mixed team in the world. Veteran Jay Devilliers demonstrated that he is all the way back from the 2025 injury bug that plagued him earlier this year. Devilliers and fellow veteran Callie Smith snagged a bronze as the lowest seed to win a doubles medal in Daytona Beach, and Devilliers made the quarters with Tom Protzek, giving eventual champs JW Johnson and Augie Ge all they could handle.

 

 

 

It is always fun to see top players try a new partnership. This week, we had several to look at. First, in women’s doubles, Anna Leigh Waters and Jorja Johnson played together for the first time. They not only won gold, but thoroughly dominated. They won every game, and held opponents to less than 3.5 points per game. More to come on this partnership in a future column. In men’s doubles, MLP partners Augie Ge and JW Johnson tried out that MLP chemistry in a PPA event for the first time, and they struck gold. They defeated Riley Newman and Noe Khlif in an excellent five-game final.

 

 

 

The predictions for Daytona were both terrific and terrible. I badly missed on men’s doubles and both singles events. But, I hit the women’s doubles final exactly and was correct that the Johnsons would dominate mixed. I also hit my weekly longshot, correctly predicting that Callie Smith and Jay Devilliers would make a run to Sunday play as a longshot #11 seed. Devilliers is definitely back to high level play!

 

 

 

2025 was great, but 2026 promises to be even better. Look for new partnerships, new faces, and upsets, especially in men’s singles. We will be going over our 2025 predictions to see how we did, and giving out 2025 awards. Then, it is on to 2026 predictions. Check it all out on pickleball.com.

 

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