The PPA Tour moves to Virginia Beach for the Mojo Energy Pouches Virginia Beach Open (say that five times fast). With the MLP Nations Cup and the Opendoor Pickleball World Championships on the horizon, many of the top players are opting to skip Virginia Beach. The result is five wide open draws with new partnerships and an opportunity for many players to make a deep run and a rare chance for a gold medal. No Anna Leigh Waters and no Ben Johns means it is anyone’s tournament to make a mark. Let’s look at each of the five events and see who may be able to take advantage of the open draws.

 

 

Men’s singles is usually wide open with lots of upsets, but in Virginia Beach, more than 20 players will enter with a legitimate chance to win the gold. Roscoe Bellamy comes off a win in Chicago, but back-to-back gold medals just does not seem to happen in men’s singles. Noe Khlif, Zane Ford, Jack Sock, and John Lucian Goins round out the top five seeds. Goins has a favorable draw and has been playing well, so look for him to have a good event.

 

Every tournament we see low seeds have good runs in men’s singles. Emilien Burnel made the semifinals in Chicago as a #55 seed. In Virginia Beach, I like #18 Connor Mogle and #20 Anouar Braham. Both have been playing well in singles, and both are capable of beating anyone. But do not rule out a deep run by one of the qualifiers. There are good singles players in the qualifier draw, and if there was ever a tournament where a qualifier could make noise, this is it.

 

 

The first thing every women’s singles player does when the draw comes out is to look to see when they would have to play Anna Leigh Waters. With Waters out for Virginia Beach, everyone else breathed a sigh of relief and then saw an opportunity for a medal. But Kate Fahey is there, as the #1 seed, and she is almost as dominating as Waters when Waters is out. It will be an uphill climb for anyone to beat her.

 

Brooke Buckner, Lea Jansen, Zoey Wang, and Catherine Parenteau have made the trip and round out the top five seeds. Of those, Buckner is the steadiest, but Parenteau looked good in Chicago, taking Fahey to three tough games in a loss. #6 Genie Bouchard returned to the singles court in Chicago and looked good early. #19 seed Sofia Sewing is always a threat, but has yet to string together a series of good matches at any PPA tournament. 

 

The women’s draw features a couple of interesting first round matches. #12 Mari Humberg plays #21 Estee Widdershoven, and #9 Cailyn Campbell takes on #20 Emma Nelson in a battle of teenagers.

 

For a longshot, watch out for Maria Ford coming out of the qualifier. She has been doing well week to week and her coming up with an upset or two in the main draw would not be a surprise.

 

 

All five events could feature some new names on the medal stand, but mixed doubles is perhaps the most wide open of the five. The top seed goes to the pairing of Tina Pisnik and Noe Khlif. Good players, but they are not overwhelming favorites to win by any means. The #2 seed is Meghan Dizon and Andrei Daescu. Daescu is the best player in the draw, so the question will be whether Dizon can hold up her end. At #3 is Kate Fahey and Eric Oncins. Fahey has really upped her doubles game; Oncins on the other hand has not played as well this fall as he had in the early part of 2026. If Oncins can up his game, he has the partner in Fahey he needs to win the event.

 

The #4 seed is Catherine Parenteau and Riley Newman. They have never played up to their combined talent, and in this draw, they are likely to see #42 Sofia Sewing and Casey Diamond, a pair that has given Parenteau and Newman trouble in the past.

 

At #5 is Mari Humberg and Augie Ge; at #6 is Alix Truong and Will Howells; at #7 is Zoey Wang and Roscoe Bellamy; and, at #8 is Lea Jansen and Jonathan Truong. Humberg and Ge have played a lot together, and that experience gives them an advantage.

 

 

Predicting a winner in women’s doubles requires a really good crystal ball. Every pairing is either completely new or nearly so. The #1 seed goes to Sofia Sewing and Catherine Parenteau. Parenteau has been playing good, steady pickleball. Sewing has been fine, but not quite as good as many of us expected in her first PPA season. Virginia Beach presents Sewing with her best opportunity to show she is a top player on the women’s side.

 

Challenging the top seed will be #2 Kate Fahey and Lea Jansen. As previously said, Fahey is playing her best ball ever, and right now, she is the best player in this draw. Jansen, on the other hand, has faded some from her prior high ranking and has not really had a good tournament for a while. Virginia Beach, playing with a hot Fahey, provides Jansen with her best chance in a long time to make a doubles final.

 

A new partnership at #3 is veteran Tina Pisnik with youngster Elsie Hendershot. This is a fun pairing. Pisnik will be steady, while Hendershot will bring the fire. At #4 is Meghan Dizon and Cailyn Campbell, another pairing of a steady veteran with a young power player. The rest of the top seeds are #5 Alix Truong and Layne Sleeth, #6 Brooke Buckner and Milan Rane, #7 Zoey Wang and Lucy Kovalova, and #8 Mari Humberg and Zoey Weil. The Humberg and Weil pairing is a new and interesting one. They will bring a lot of power on the court, and if they get hot, they could beat anyone.

 

 

The #1 seed goes to Eric Oncins and CJ Klinger. It may be a new pairing, but it should work fine. Klinger as a lefty fits well with the many players who like the left side, like Oncins. At #2 is Andrei Daescu and Will Howells. Daescu is the best player in the draw; how well this pair does falls on Howells. Howells, like Sofia Sewing, came to the PPA in 2026 with high expectations. An early injury set Howells back, and he has never seemed to really get his full game back since that injury. The pairing with Daescu and the open draw leave Howells with by far his best opportunity to win an event. The opportunity is there, can he convert?

 

The #3 seed is Noe Khlif and Riley Newman; they have played together before and should be solid. At #4 is a new pairing of Augie Ge and Armaan Bhatia. #5 is Roscoe Bellamy and Matt Wright, #6 is Yuta Funemizu and Nico Acevedo, #7 is John Lucian Goins and Pablo Tellez, and #8 is Jonathan Truong and Max Freeman. Watch out for Funemizu and Acevedo. Funemizu is a very good right side player. His game is underappreciated as he is so much better as a right side men’s doubles specialist than he is in any other lineup. Acevedo has made three straight finals or seminfinals in men’s doubles. I think Funemizu and Acevedo can win it all in Virginia Beach.

 

For an early round match to watch, check out the Round of 32 match between #15 Casey Diamond and Jack Sock and #18 Clayton Powell and Rafa Lenhard. Sock is always entertaining. Powell is relatively unknown, but is steadily improving. Also keep an eye on #20 Luca Mack and Anouar Braham; they have experience playing together and are better than their seed would indicate.

 

Virginia Beach should be a lot of fun to watch. The winners are hard to predict, other than perhaps Kate Fahey at women’s singles. All of the players will be looking to take advantage of the open draws and a shot to get a rare medal, even a gold one. All of the action will be on Pickleballtv.

 

Follow me on x @pickleball_jim for updates.