Ben Johns, Anna Bright headline PPA Tour Asia Malaysia Cup
Last Edited
Sep 22 2025
Category
News
The inaugural PPA Tour Asia season is in its home stretch, with just two events remaining on the calendar. And this week's Malaysia Cup promises to be the biggest event yet for the Asia tour, with several big-name players who are based in the U.S. making the trip over.
The tournament starts Wednesday and runs through Sunday, with ranking points on the line that will count for players' PPA Tour totals.
There are several interesting and unusual partnerships in each division, so let's dive into the draws:
Men's doubles
Ben Johns and Christian Alshon are the No. 1 seed and the heavy favorites. They have played against each other 47 times on the PPA Tour and in Major League Pickleball, but they've never been on the same side of the court.
Other partnerships involving players that U.S. fans might recognize:
Tyson McGuffin/Eric Oncins
Jonathan Truong/Grayson Goldin
Thomas Yu/Len Yang
Vanshik Kapadia/Rob Nunnery
Zane Navratil/Armaan Bhatia
Naveen Beasley/Harsh Mehta
Women's doubles
Anna Bright and No. 1 Dutch player Roos van Reek will team up as the No. 1 seed in a bracket that is heavier on the international side than the men's doubles draw.
Chao Yi Wang/Caitlyn Christian (No. 2 seed) and Trang Huynh-McClain/Leah Tauber are the only two all-American duos in the field. Other top seeds:
Ting Chieh Wei/Alix Truong
Yu-chieh Hsieh/Liz Truluck
Pei Chuan Kao/Hannah Blatt
Mixed doubles
Johns and Bright -- also two players who are normally on the opposite side of the net in mixed doubles -- will team up for just the second time ever.
In their first and only tournament together, they finished second at the PPA Tour LA Open in April 2024. They are the favorites this week, but there are several intriguing challengers, including:
Jonathan Truong/Alix Truong
Grayson Goldin/Hannah Blatt
Christian Alshon/Kaitlyn Christian
Zane Navratil/Roos van Reek
Tyson McGuffin/Chao Yi Wang
Armaan Bhatia/Liz Truluck
Men's singles
Johns is skipping singles, so the top seed is Alshon, who has three PPA Tour titles in singles this season and is coming off a win at the Cincinnati Showcase.
He has Goldin (No. 3) on his side of the draw, while McGuffin (No. 2) is on the opposite side of the bracket.
Women's singles
Kaitlyn Christian, who is No. 2 in the PPA Tour points standings in women's singles this season, is the top seed. The other likely contenders are Chao Yi Wang (No. 2), Liz Truluck (No. 3) and Hannah Blatt (No. 4).
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