The PPA Tour in the United States is and remains far and away the No. 1 pro pickleball tour on the planet, but the rest of the world is catching up, and that fact was highlighted last week at the PPA Tour Asia’s Panas Malaysia Cup. Stars from the US tour traveled to Malaysia for the event and played against top talent from Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and other Asian countries. What did we learn?

 

 

The PPA Tour continues to attract the top talent from around the world. A number of the stars traveled to Malaysia for the event. In addition to Ben Johns, Anna Bright, Christian Alshon, Kaitlyn Christian, and Tyson McGuffin, the contingent included players with Asian heritage such as Zoey Wang, Alix Truong, and Jonathan Truong. Toss in Brazil’s Eric Oncins, and we had a nice all-world contingent from the US Tour in Malaysia.

 

The US Tour players dominated, as expected, sweeping all five gold medals and adding a number of silver and bronze medals as well. Christian Alshon led the way for the men with a gold and two silvers. He and partner Ben Johns were upset in the men’s doubles final by Tyson McGuffin and Eric Oncins, 11-5, 13-15, 11-9. On the women’s side, Kaitlyn Christian made all three finals, losing only in mixed doubles.

 

 

 

As we have seen from prior PPA Asia tournaments, the Australian women continue to make great strides. The women’s doubles pair of Nicola Schoeman and Danni-Elle Townsend scored the biggest upset, defeating Anna Bright and Roos Van Reek in the quarterfinals, 11-6, 11-3. Schoeman and Townsend went on to finish second, losing in the final to Zoey Wang and Kaitlyn Christian, 11-6, 14-12.

 

Another Aussie woman winning in a big upset was Sahra Dennehy, who with partner Santhosh Narayanan took down Tyson McGuffin and Zoey Wang in the mixed doubles quarterfinals, 11-9, 11-2. They ultimately came up just short of a medal, losing in the bronze match to Alix and Jonathan Truong. Dennehy did add a bronze medal in women’s doubles.

 

 

 

The big question following an event like this is whether the PPA Asia players could compete on the PPA US tour, and if so, at what level of success? We did learn several things from the Malaysia Cup. First, the US-based players are not at their best in these events. It is a long flight to Malaysia. It was hot and humid there and the US-based players are at a bit of a disadvantage that would not be present in US events. Watching the play, I would say that as a broad generalization, the US-based players were playing at about 80-85% of their normal level of play.

 

Second, the draws in overseas events are much easier than a draw in a PPA event in the US. The draws were smaller and there are fewer top players. Look at a draw from tournaments in the US and they are really difficult. Round of 32 matches in the US are incredibly hard now, so to medal in a PPA Tour US event is a real accomplishment.

 

Third, in general, the non-US based players are more competitive at singles and on the women’s side. As is true of pickleball anywhere, players experience first success at singles and success at doubles takes longer. Doubles requires different and more difficult skills that take longer to develop. We know from the PPA Tour in the US that the men’s side is deeper than the women’s side and we could see that at the Malaysia Cup, as the non-US based players had a little more success in the women’s events than in the men’s events.

 

Two players stood out to me from the rest. First is Australian Danni-Elle Townsend. She showed doubles skills, being able to dink, speedup, and counter at a high level. She and partner Nicola Schoeman played a tough semifinal match at the Vietnam Open a month ago against Meghan Dizon and Alix Truong, losing 11-3, 7-11, 11-5. I think Townsend would be a borderline MLP Premier player. At 21 years old, she obviously can improve further.

 

The other player worth keeping an eye on is Hong Kit (Jack) Wong. In my column prefacing the Malaysia Cup, I said to watch out for Wong and that proved prescient. Wong took home a silver medal in men’s singles, losing the final to Christian Alshon 11-6, 14-12. He also finished fourth in men’s doubles. Wong is 27, so he does not have the youth advantage Townsend has. He would be a solid MLP Challenger level player at this point.

 

All in all, the players in Asia are making progress, without a doubt. Also there is no doubt that they will continue to improve and make strides against the US-based players. But, at the same time, the Malaysia Cup confirmed that the best players in the world are and continue to be in the US, playing the PPA Tour in America. If you want to be the best or see the best, that is still where you have to go.

 

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