All eyes of the pickleball world will be on Brookhaven Country Club in Texas as it hosts the Jenius Bank Pickleball World Championships starting on Monday.

 

The world’s biggest and best pickleball tournament will have well over 3,500 participants, and the pros will take center stage in a tournament with 3,000 ranking points on the line.

 

Every match will be crucial because of those ranking points, so the action should be fast and furious. Here is the rundown of each pro event:

 

 

Gabe Tardio and Ben Johns are top seeded and enter on a massive hot streak. They have won six PPA titles in a row. They were taken to five games in Las Vegas by Christian Alshon and Andrei Daescu. Those teams are seeded one-two, and no one would be surprised if we see a rematch in Texas. Tardio/Johns will likely have to fight through #6 Jay Devilliers/Riley Newman in the quarters. Devilliers/Newman have played well together and will not be an easy out. The likely semifinal opponent would be #3 Federico Staksrud/Hayden Patriquin. Staksrud/Patriquin have some pretty good teams in their section of the bracket, so an upset is possible there. An interesting Round of 16 matchup in that section is #5 Eric Oncins/Matt Wright vs. #9 AJ Koller/Dekel Bar. Koller is always underrated, and Bar was playing like a top 10 player the first half of 2025 before an injury setback. If Bar is 100%, that team is capable of a deep run.

 

In the bottom half of the draw, Alshon/Daescu have a relatively easy draw. I expect them to comfortably make the semifinals. The #4 seed is CJ Klinger/JW Johnson. Klinger/Johnson are likely to face the winner of an interesting Round of 16 match between #7 Noe Khlif/Dylan Frazier and #10 DJ Young/Pablo Tellez.

 

For lower seeds worth keeping an eye on, check out #17 Jack Sock/Blaine Hovenier. They have a reasonable draw, and while Sock still struggles with his kitchen game, Sock and Hovenier could overpower some teams with fast play.

 

Finally, a really interesting Round of 64 match pits #20 Grayson Goldin/Brandon French against the #42 seed, 15-year-old-Andre Mercado and 16-year-old Andrew Caldarella. A number of teenagers played well at Las Vegas, so we could well see an upset there by the youngsters.

 

 

 

Anna Leigh Waters and Anna Bright found their footing in Las Vegas and reclaimed the gold medal stand after a couple of unexpected losses. They face a difficult draw at Worlds. They will first be challenged in the quarters by the winner of a Round of 16 match between #7 Jessie Irvine/Lea Jansen vs. #9 Tina Pisnik/Kate Fahey.

 

But the big challenge is likely the semifinal, where #3 seed Jorja Johnson/Tyra Black are likely to await. Johnson/Black is the team with the best chance to knock out Waters/Bright. To defeat Waters/Bright, you have to play elite defense and be able to counter aggressively. Waters and Bright speed up constantly and try to run over opponents with lots of power and offense, even when it involves some injudicious speedups. Johnson and Black have the ability to counter a bad speedup with an aggressive counter. They also keep getting one more ball back defensively, putting pressure on the opponent to make shot after shot. Even then, Waters/Bright are still the favorites and will likely win if they play to their strengths.

 

In the bottom half of the draw, Catherine Parenteau/Parris Todd get the #2 seed and the advantage of being on the opposite end of the draw from Waters/Bright. #4 seed Jade Kawamoto/Rachel Rohrabacher will have a good shot at winning the bottom half of the draw. Other possibilities are #5 Lacy Schneemann/Meghan Dizon and #8 Callie Smith/Etta Tuionetoa.

 

The likely semifinal match between Waters/Bright and Johnson/Black is probably going to determine the winner of the event. Both teams are clearly better than any of the teams in the bottom half of the draw. It will be no surprise at all if that semifinal match is judged to be the best match of the whole tournament.

 

 

 

Can anyone topple #1 seed Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns? They have looked nearly unbeatable this year. They were pushed hard in Las Vegas by Rachel Rohrabacher/Andrei Daescu, needing to pull out game three 11-9 for the win. Rohrabacher/Daescu return in this event as the #6 seed, and they would play Waters/Johns if both make the quarters. Also in the top half of the draw are #3 seed Anna Bright/Hayden Patriquin, #8 Parris Todd/Federico Staksrud, and #10 Etta Tuionetoa/Eric Oncins. Bright/Patriquin are good enough to beat anyone. Staksrud has long underperformed in mixed doubles compared to his great success in the other events. Oncins has been playing very good men’s doubles and is looking for a signature mixed doubles win.

 

In the bottom half of the draw, Jorja and JW Johnson look to win as the #2 seed. #5 Jessie Irvine/Gabe Tardio won a silver in Las Vegas and will challenge the Johnsons in the quarters. Also in the bottom half are #4 Tyra Black/Christian Alshon and #7 Catherine Parenteau/Dekel Bar. Alshon has been better at men’s doubles than mixed in 2025, but he has a top partner in Tyra Black. Black has arguably been the second best woman player in 2025, so if that duo can ever hit their potential, they could win gold. Will it happen in Texas?

 

 

 

Men’s singles remains the toughest event to predict, and it is no different at Worlds. In the Round of 64, #25 Yates Johnson will play #36 Mota Alhouni. What a great match, and it is a first round match! Yates Johnson has taken his game to a higher level with his new RPM paddle, while Mota Alhouni had a great run at the recent Life Time singles tournament. These are two players capable of beating anyone in the draw, but one will go home after the first round.

 

Hunter Jonson has the top seed, even though since he ascended to the top ranking in singles, he has won exactly zero gold medals. But he stays at the top of the rankings due to his consistently high finishes. In the quarters, he is going to face the winner of a Round of 16 match between #10 Gabe Joseph and #6 Jack Sock. Both Joseph and Sock are quite capable of winning it all, so that is a gold medal quality match taking place in the Round of 16. Yet another reason to tune in to Pickleballtv every day of the tournament.

 

The top half of the draw is littered with other potential event winners, including #3 Christian Alshon, #8 John Lucian Goins, and #13 Chris Haworth.  This is why you need to flip that coin, as it is the best way to predict winners in men’s singles.

 

In the bottom half of the draw, the #2 seed goes to Federico Staksrud. Connor Garnett gets the #4 seed, and he has the easiest route of any of the top four seeds to the semifinals. Other strong players in the bottom half include #5 Jaume Martinez Vich, #7 Ben Johns, #9 Michael Loyd, and #10 Roscoe Bellamy. It is interesting how Johns has fallen to #7 and almost an afterthought in men’s singles now. Will the prestige of winning at Worlds motivate him to up his singles game and be a threat to win it all again?

 

 

 

Women’s singles is all about #1 seed Anna Leigh Waters and the question if anyone can ever beat her. Or maybe the question should be can anyone win a game? She is not just winning every match, but she is steamrolling opponents. It is the rare opponent who can even get to six points in a single game. She has an easy draw in this one, and she is unlikely to face anyone capable of challenging her until the semifinals.

 

Waters’ semifinal opponent will likely come from #3 Kaitlyn Christian, #5 Lea Jansen, or #12 Salome Devidze. Jansen probably has the best chance of upsetting Waters due to her superior net game, but can Jansen beat first Devidze and then Christian?

 

In the bottom half of the draw, the #2 seed goes to Kate Fahey. The bottom half of the draw has the deeper talent and thus will feature some really good early matches. #6 Brooke Buckner is likely to face #9 Genie Bouchard in the Round of 16. The winner of that match will likely play #4 Parris Todd. Another good Round of 16 match is #7 Catherine Parenteau vs. #11 Judit Castillo. Whoever emerges from that bottom half of the draw will really have earned their place in the final.

 

 

 

Pickleball is coming to Polymarket, but it is not yet up on the site, so we won’t have any best bets for this event, just predictions.

 

In men’s doubles, if Staksrud and Patriquin can get through some tough early matches, I think they have a decent chance to take down Tardio and Johns. They would play in the semis, so it would be best of three games, not five. I think Staksrud and Patriquin have a much better chance to win two of three than three of five. Patriquin’s ceiling is super high, but his inconsistency would hurt over five games. So let’s go with some upsets and take Alshon/Daescu over Staksrud/Patriquin in the finals.

 

In women’s doubles, I will take another upset and Johnson/Black to beat the Anna’s in the semis, and then win gold over Parenteau/Todd.

 

For mixed doubles, I will go with Waters/Johns over the Johnsons.

 

In men’s singles, I flipped my coin about 50 times and came up with Chris Haworth over Connor Garnett.

 

Finally, in women’s singles, I can’t bet against ALW, so I will go with Waters over Todd.

 

What a great week it should be in Texas for Worlds. There will be gold medal level matches every day, so don’t miss a minute on Pickleballtv.

 

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