PPA Tour Bristol Open: Draws, TV information and interesting partnerships
Last Edited
Aug 06 2025
Category
News
After almost two months off, the PPA Tour is back this week with the Bristol Open in Bristol, Tennessee.
It's the second year in a row the tour has had this event at the Bristol Sportsplex, a facility that has both indoor and outdoor courts.
As an Open, the tournament offers 1,000 ranking points to the winners and will be played as a modified traditional draw. That means singles (Wednesday), mixed doubles (Thursday) and gender doubles (Friday) will be played through the quarterfinal rounds on their designated days, then the semifinal matches for all divisions will be Saturday, followed by Championship Sunday.
The tour announced last week that all PPA events moving forward will be played with the LT Pro 48 Pickleball starting this week. The LifeTime ball is known to bounce a little higher, so that should result in teams being a little bit more aggressive with their attacks.
There are several new and interesting partnerships in the doubles divisions, so let's dive into this week's top storylines.
PPA Tour Bristol Open match schedule and TV information
PPA Tour Bristol Open draws
The Favorites
Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio -- They have played five tournaments together this season and won three of them, including the PPA Tour Orange County Cup in June.
Hayden Patriquin/Federico Staksrud -- They have four silver medals together this year, but haven't been able to get over the hump to win gold. Patriquin has been playing great in MLP this summer and Staksrud is Mr. Steady on the PPA Tour, so I expect them to be in the mix yet again.
Andrei Daescu/JW Johnson -- This is the most interesting partnership we've seen in awhile on the men's side. Here's how it came together: Several months ago Christian Alshon (Daescu's regular men's doubles partner) had planned on skipping this tournament because he didn't want to play multiple MLP events in a row, plus this event, and then go to the first event of the MLP playoffs in San Diego next week. At the time Johnson didn't have a partner lined up for this one, so he and Daescu agreed to play together. Alshon ultimately decided to play this event, but is only playing mixed doubles and men's singles, presumably because he couldn't find a men's partner on short notice. Daescu and Alshon will go back to playing together in future PPA events this season, and presumably Johnson will go back to playing with CJ Klinger. But it will be interesting to see how Daescu and Johnson pair together since they are both left-side players -- Daescu already won one gold this season playing the right side in a similar one-off situation with Ben Johns at the Cape Coral Open.
Read next: The top 20 men's pickleball players, ranked by anonymous pro
The Favorites
Anna Leigh Waters/Anna Bright -- They have won both tournaments they've played together this season since partnering up in April, and those wins have been in dominant fashion. They have yet to drop a single game, and I expect that trend to continue.
Jackie Kawamoto/Catherine Parenteau -- Both are great defensive players, the question will be whether they can find enough offense to take down Bright and Waters, who they would likely see in the semifinals if they make it that far. But a couple things could help them in that regard: The faster ball and potentially a new paddle for Parenteau -- the Selkirk Boomstick, which is set to be released later this month and is generating quite a bit of buzz for the firepower it offers. It will be interesting to see if she makes the switch and whether that can help her get over the hump vs. Waters, her former partner.
Tyra Black/Parris Todd -- They have played together five times this season and have won three bronze medals and one gold medal. It's worth noting that the gold medal came at the Texas Open, which was before Waters and Bright partnered up, so there's still a question of whether they could get past that team.
Jorja Johnson/Rachel Rohrabacher -- This team has a very high ceiling. Johnson has had a fantastic MLP season and Rohrabacher always seems to be in the mix on the women's side regardless of who she's playing with. She has medalled with three different partners so far this season -- Bright, Parenteau and Todd.
Read next: The top 20 women's pickleball players, ranked by anonymous pro
The Favorites
Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns -- They haven't been invincible this season, with two losses earlier this spring, but they have won the last two PPA events convincingly -- the Atlanta Pickleball Championships and the Orange County Cup.
Catherine Parenteau/Christian Alshon -- Alshon and Parenteau should be a top contender on paper, but they haven't had great results together so far this season, with losses in the Round of 32, Round of 16 and two quarterfinal exits. They do have one silver and one bronze, although the silver came at the Red Rock Open, a tournament that several top players skipped.
Jorja Johnson/JW Johnson -- They are consistently the best performing mixed team outside of Johns and Waters and they have one win this season over the top seed -- at the North Carolina Open in April. I expect them to be right there at the end of this tournament and if they play their top game, they can win.
Andrei Daescu/Anna Bright -- They have only played together twice previously on the PPA Tour, but have a gold medal over Johns and Waters to show for it at the 2024 Austin Showdown. The other time they played together didn't go as well, as they lost in the Round of 16 at the 2024 Virginia Beach Open in October.
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