2026 PPA Tour Finals recap: Ben Johns, Anna Leigh Waters complete near perfect spring seasons
Last Edited
May 11 2026
Category
News
Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns have each played in nine PPA Tour events in 2026.
Between women's doubles, men's doubles and mixed doubles -- which they play together -- they were a combined 136-1 in those tournaments, with their only loss coming in mixed to Anna Bright/Hayden Patriquin at the Mesa Cup.
They put the exclamation point on an incredible run this spring with clean sweeps in the doubles divisions on Sunday at the PPA Tour Finals, which is the tour's season-ending championship before Major League Pickleball gets started later this month.
Here's how their records shook out in their 2026 events:
Men's doubles -- Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio: 45-0, 9 gold medals (10 if you count the PPA Tour Asia Hanoi Cup).
Women's doubles -- Anna Leigh Waters/Anna Bright: 45-0, 9 gold medals (10 if you count the PPA Tour Asia Hanoi Cup).
Mixed doubles -- Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns: 46-1, 7 gold medals, 1 silver medal (8 golds if you count the PPA Tour Asia Hanoi Cup).
The PPA Tour will now take an extended break before returning for the 2026-27 season in late August. Moving forward, the tour will operate on a fall-spring season (culminating in the Finals in May), while MLP will take over during the summer months.
Here's a look at what went down in each division at this year's PPA Finals:
Men's doubles
Johns/Tardio went 3-0 in pool play to cruise to the semifinals, where they met Hayden Patriquin/Christian Alshon.
Patriquin/Alshon have been the second-best team in men's doubles since they teamed up at the start of 2026, but they dropped a match in pool play to Andrei Daescu/Federico Staksrud.
That meant Patriquin/Alshon ended up on the same side of the bracket as Johns/Tardio. Their semifinal match was an absolute grind-fest, with extended dinking rallies almost every point -- usually between Alshon and Tardio.
The match lasted more than an hour, with Johns/Tardio ultimately prevailing 11-8, 11-9. They then cruised in Sunday's final against Daescu/Staksrud -- 11-8, 11-3, 11-0 -- to cap off their undefeated run in 2026.
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Women's doubles
It was a similar story in women's doubles, with Waters/Bright dominating just like they have throughout 2026.
They went 3-0 in pool play with a +44 point differential, which is extremely impressive considering only the top-ranked players qualified for this event.
In the semifinals they beat Tina Pisnik/Lacy Schneemann 11-2, 11-5, then beat Parris Todd/Rachel Rohrabacher 11-7, 11-6, 11-2 in Sunday's final.
Todd/Rohrabacher are planning to play together when the 2026-27 PPA Tour season kicks off in the fall, and this week is just the latest example of them playing well together.
They won gold a few weeks ago at the Sacramento Open (which Waters/Bright didn't play), and also have a silver together this year.
This week also concludes what has been a very good run for Todd individually. In women's doubles in 2026, she has one gold and five silver medals (with four different partners)
Mixed doubles
Ever since the loss to Bright/Patriquin at the Mesa Cup, Waters/Johns have been as good as ever.
They had another close match with Bright/Patriquin in the semifinals this week (which they won 11-0, 7-11, 11-8), but then cruised in Sunday's final -- 11-5, 11-5, 11-5 over Christian Alshon/Rachel Rohrabacher.
After the match, Waters shouted out her mom and coach, Leigh Waters, for the support throughout a busy spring season.
"I wouldn’t be here without her," Waters said. "She helps me on the court, she helps me off the court and she helps me to be a better person. I look up to her every day.”
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Women's singles
Because Waters pulled out of singles this week (at the Atlanta Pickleball Championships a week ago, she was wearing knee braces on both knees and admitted that she wasn't 100% healthy), that opened the door for the rest of the women's field.
Kate Fahey took advantage of the opportunity, going undefeated in pool play and handily defeating Judit Castillo (11-3, 11-8) in the semifinals and Brooke Buckner (11-0, 11-9) in the finals.
"(This season) has been a lot of highs and a lot of lows, so I’m just incredibly grateful to be here," Fahey said. "I’ve had a lot of my friends on my bench this week, and it just means so much to have that support. It has been an amazing week.”
Men's singles
Chris Haworth hasn't won every tournament in 2026, but he's won all of the big ones -- The Masters, Mesa Cup, Greater Zion Cup and Atlanta Pickleball Championships.
He continued that trend by winning the Finals, and he did it despite a loss in pool play to Connor Garnett (who has been playing great the past two weeks).
The loss in pool play meant that Haworth had to face No. 2 Staksrud in the semifinals, which is always a tough matchup. Haworth was able to get the win 11-5, 4-11, 11-0 to advance to the final, where he beat John Lucian Goins 11-2, 11-8.
Haworth became the No. 1 player in the world with the win at the Greater Zion Cup, and now he has pulled away in the 52-week rolling points standings (both this week and Atlanta were worth 2,000 points).
That means he will have a strong hold on the No. 1 seed when the PPA Tour returns in late August.
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