The biggest story entering 2026 on the PPA Tour concerns how well Will Howells will do. Howells is, by most expert opinions, a top 10 player. He has dominated the APP Tour, but the top 30 players in the world (besides Howells) are all on the PPA Tour, so Howells’ APP record is of limited value. Indeed, Howells himself has referenced this fact. Living in Florida, he regularly practices with and against such top players as Federico Staksrud, Hayden Patriquin, Dylan Frazier, and Pablo Tellez; but, Will says, with a rueful smile, that they dismissively kid him about just being “an APP champ.”

 

Howells has played MLP the last two years, with major success. He was arguably the best player in MLP in 2024, and while 2025 was not quite as successful, he did go 52-22 in 2025. But again, there is some skepticism there, with people pointing to his being able to play mixed with Anna Leigh Waters. Digging further into the numbers, we do see Howells had a 13-7 record with Zane Navratil (before the Noe Khlif trade). No disrespect to Zane, but he is not a top 20 player, and thus Howells going 13-7 with Navratil is a pretty good record. Howells’ victories in MLP included defeats of all the top players, including Ben Johns.

 

We thus get to the real question: how good is Will Howells and how will he do on the PPA Tour? Before we get to my analysis, I did survey a number of knowledgeable pickleball people, asking them, “How many medals will Howells win in 2026?” Keep in mind that winning a PPA medal is HARD. In men’s doubles, you have to contend in most tournaments with the Big Four teams: some combination of Staksrud/Patriquin, Johns/Tardio, Alshon/Daescu, and Klinger/Johnson. Those eight players may switch up a little bit in 2026, but either way, those are four very tough teams. In mixed, it almost seems like the gold and silver and locked in for Waters/Johns and the Johnsons. You then have to battle teams like Bright/Patriquin or Pisnik/Daescu or Black/Alshon for bronze.

 

Here’s some responses of others, keeping in mind every single person thought Howells is a very good player: Tyler Loong predicts between one and five medals in 2026. Connor Pardoe has Howells at four. Erik Tice of The Dink predicts five. Alex Lantz of The Kitchen is at four. Jonathan Barth (Johnny5pointoh) was the low man at 2-3 medals.

 

So we seem to have somewhat of a consensus. For myself, I set the over/under for medals for 2026 at 4.5, so I agree with the consensus. PPA tournaments will run from January to May before a break for MLP. I think Howells will have some struggles out of the gate. I suspect the PPA regulars may try a little extra hard in these early tournaments to show the “new guy” it isn’t easy out here. That’s why I see Howells netting only a medal, maybe two before the summer break. When PPA starts up again after MLP, I look for Howells to have more success, and win around 3-4 medals after the break. He will also be building ranking points as the year goes on, and will thus get better seeding. Seeding can be very important, especially in the Round of 16 and quarterfinal matches. He may also be able to vary his partners and play some events with top 5 players, especially in tournaments where a top player sits out and their regular partner needs a one-time fill-in.

 

Looking at the individual events, Howells is likely to struggle in singles. The problem is that there are just SO MANY good singles players. Howells lost to Donald Young in the Life Time singles event, and Young has not been able to medal on the PPA Tour.

 

In men’s doubles, Howells will benefit from playing MLP with Noe Khlif. They have a comfort level together. Khlif is a very good player, but sits in that second ten, somewhere between 11 and 20. He has the ability to defeat players in the top 10, but not consistently. For Howells, playing left side he is going to have to be on his very top game. He is going against other top left-side players like Ben Johns, Andrei Daescu, and Hayden Patriquin. To win a medal means making a really good run. Howells/Khlif will typically have to beat teams like Bar/McGuffin or Oncins/Wright in the Round of 16, and then one of the top four teams in the quarters just to get to the semis. Further, to then get a medal, they have to beat another top four team in the bronze match! That is three big wins, after making sure they do not lose to the good pairs they will face in the Round of 32. A very tough task.

 

In mixed doubles, Howells will pair with Rachel Rohrabacher. Winning a medal in mixed means they need to beat teams like Bright/Patriquin, Black/Alshon, or Pisnik/Daescu. Depending on the draw, they may well have to defeat three teams of that level to score a bronze! Again, a very tough task.

 

Will Howells is a really good player. He’s a top 10 player and my end of 2025 rankings will reflect that. But medals on the PPA Tour are hard to come by and have to be earned. Winning four or five medals in a year is an accomplishment of note. The one thing I know for sure is that I will be watching Howells’ PPA journey closely. It will be a lot of fun to see how he does.

 

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