PPA Tour Pickleball National Championships recap: Hayden Patriquin, Anna Bright win second mixed doubles title together
The PPA Tour kicked off its 2026-27 season this week with one of the biggest events on the calendar — a 2,000 point slam in Cary, North Carolina, newly dubbed the Veolia Pickleball National Championships.
For players the event was an opportunity to make a significant jump in the new World Pickleball Rankings, which combine results from all three divisions — gender doubles, mixed doubles and singles.
For fans it was a chance to see some new — and old — partnerships in action for the first time since the PPA Tour wrapped up its spring season at the PPA Tour Finals in May (there has only been Major League Pickleball events in the months since prior to this week).
The biggest story of the week: Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters were upset in the mixed doubles semifinals by JW and Jorja Johnson, 4-11, 11-9, 11-6.
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It was the first loss for Johns/Waters since they were beaten by Hayden Patriquin/Anna Bright at the PPA Tour Mesa Cup in February, and the upset of the No. 1 seeds opened the door for Patriquin/Bright to swoop in on Sunday and win their second title as a partnership. The St. Louis Shock teammates defeated the Johnson siblings 11-9, 11-3, 11-7 in the final.
“This one means a ton,” said Bright. “We just came from a pretty painful loss in the MLP Finals in New York, so I’m really proud of us for bouncing back.”
Patriquin said the loss in New York “lit a fire under my butt,” and he played one of the best mixed matches of his career in Sunday’s final. There were several moments in Game 3 vs. the Johnsons where Patriquin came up with amazing defensive plays to keep rallies alive and ultimately close out the match.
Although the Johnsons didn’t cash in on the upset of Johns/Waters with a gold on Sunday, this week’s tournament was an encouraging result for a duo that didn’t quite play up to their standards in the spring.
After making finals consistently in 2024 and 2025, they only made one final out of nine events from January-May this year and lost their No. 2 ranking to Patriquin/Bright.
JW has been playing a much more aggressive style in mixed lately than we have seen in the past. He’s coming off an MLP season with the Dallas Flash in which he played mixed doubles with somebody other than Jorja Johnson for the first time since March of 2025, when he played a one-off PPA Tour event with Bright.
JW went 22-14 with Brooke Buckner for the Flash this season and often was taking more court than he had with his sister in the past. He seemed to carry over that mentality to this week, and it worked wonders for them. It will be interesting to see if the Johnsons can make a push to take back the No. 2 seed this fall.
Here’s a look at how the rest of the draws played out at the Pickleball National Championships:
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Men’s doubles: Ben Johns, Gabe Tardio pick up where they left off
Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio were 45-0 with 9 gold medals on the PPA Tour from January-May. They were pushed at times this week, but the end result was the same: Another title for the No. 1 seeds.
Their closest match came in the quarterfinals vs. Will Howells/CJ Klinger, with Johns/Tardio winning 11-3, 9-11, 11-5.
In Sunday’s final, they beat Christian Alshon/Andrei Daescu 11-8, 11-8, 5-11, 11-5.
Alshon and Daescu were playing together this week for the first time since 2025, when they won three gold medals, six silver medals and three bronze medals. But they made some changes this time around, putting Alshon on the left and Daescu on the right. A silver while pushing Johns/Tardio to four games in the final is a good start on their reunion tour.
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Men’s singles: Hunter Johnson gets back in the winner’s circle
Men’s singles remains arguably the toughest division in all of pickleball, with several players who could win the title any given week on the PPA Tour.
This week it was Hunter Johnson taking gold, earning his 9th singles title and first since March. His nine titles put him at No. 3 all time behind Ben Johns and Federico Staksrud.
He defeated Staksrud in Sunday’s final 7-11, 11-3, 11-0, after beating No. 1 seed Chris Haworth 11-9, 11-1 in the semifinals on Saturday.
“This is what you work for,” Johnson said after his win Sunday. “I played well all week and I’m just gonna keep my head down and work for that No. 1 spot.”
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Women’s doubles: Anna Leigh Waters/Anna Bright continue to dominate
After playing against each other in the MLP Finals last week, Anna Leigh Waters and Anna Bright were back on the same side of the net in North Carolina — a scary sight for the rest of the field.
In the first three rounds this week they outscored their opponents by a combined score of 66-7. Things got slightly tougher after that, but not much.
In the semifinals they faced Parris Todd/Rachel Rohrabacher, who played together twice this spring (winning one gold and one silver) and looked to be one of the main threats to the top seeds on paper. Waters/Bright cruised to an 11-3, 11-4 win.
Then in Sunday’s final they faced one of the only teams who have ever beaten them: Tyra Black and Jorja Johnson. But Waters/Bright looked as dominant as ever, winning 11-5, 11-6, 11-3.
Women’s singles: Waters cruises to another title
As dominant as Anna Leigh Waters was in women’s doubles, she was somehow even more impressive in women’s singles.
She pickled her opponent in four out of her first six games of the tournament, then beat Kaitlyn Christian 11-5, 11-1 in the semifinals and Kate Fahey 11-1, 11-9 in Sunday’s final.
It has now been more than 830 days since she lost a singles match.
