PPA Tour will kick off 2025 with stacked fields at The Masters
Last Edited
Dec 31 2024
Category
News
The PPA Tour will kick off the new year next week with its most iconic tournament on the calendar – The Masters in Palm Springs, California.
The visuals alone make this tournament stand out, with pros required to wear all white and the courts at Mission Hills Country Club painted all green.
The Masters is also the first Slam of the season, offering 2,000 ranking points toward the season-long race. That means the fields are stacked with all the top talent and plenty of new partnerships as players look to get their 2025 campaign off to a strong start.
Speaking of new partnerships: You may have heard earlier this month that Ben Johns and Collin Johns had split up. Well, that’s apparently not the case (yet). The brothers will team up in men’s doubles for what is believed to be their final tournament together.
We also could see some pros switching equipment this tournament. The full list of paddle brands approved for use in PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball events was circulated last week. Some notable brands were not on the list, meaning pros signed with those brands will have to use different paddles.
JOOLA also announced last week that it will be coming out with a new Pro Series line of paddles this spring. It will be interesting to see if any JOOLA-signed pros are using prototypes.
Read next: USA Pickleball announces 'sunset' date for some power paddles
The tournament gets started on Jan. 6 with pro qualifying, then it will be a progressive draw (one round per day in each division) from Tuesday through Sunday.
The broadcast schedule and draws will be released later this week on the PPA Tour website. Check back with The Kitchen for expert predictions later this week as well.
Looking to catch the action in person? Tickets can be purchased here.
Now let’s take a closer look at some of the notable entries in each division:
Men’s doubles: Ben Johns and Collin Johns saddle up for one last ride
Defending champion: Ben Johns/Collin Johns
Notable pairings:
Ben Johns/Collin Johns
JW Johnson/Gabe Tardio
James Ignatowich/CJ Klinger
Andrei Daescu/Christian Alshon
Federico Staksrud/Hayden Patriquin
Matt Wright/Quang Duong
Riley Newman/Ivan Jakovljevic
Dekel Bar/Tyson McGuffin
Dylan Frazier/Pablo Tellez
Despite announcing earlier this month that they would be ending their partnership, Ben and Collin will still play together in this event. It was reported Monday that this will be their final event together.
Johnson and Tardio were believed to be consistent partners heading into 2025 until news of Ben and Collin splitting up sent the rumor mill into a tizzy. Many thought Tardio was an obvious choice for Ben going forward. But either Ben didn’t ask him or Tardio said no, at least for this event.
Daescu and Alshon is another team that could make a deep run, as is Staksrud and Patriquin, who won three times together in the last half of 2024. Jakovljevic is a lefty who has made some decent runs in the past, so it will be interesting to see how he does with a top 10 player in Newman.
Women’s doubles: Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau look to continue winning ways
Defending champion: Anna Leigh Waters/Catherine Parenteau
Notable pairings:
Anna Leigh Waters/Catherine Parenteau
Anna Bright/Rachel Rohrabacher
Etta Wright/Vivienne David
Parris Todd/Callie Smith
Jackie Kawamoto/Vivian Glozman
Lucy Kovalova/Lea Jansen
Allyce Jones/Jessie Irvine
Tyra Black/Jorja Johnson
Mary Brascia/Maggie Brascia
Women’s doubles gave us arguably the best rivalry in the sport in the last half of 2024, as Bright and Rohrabacher defeated Waters and Parenteau in multiple finals. Waters and Parenteau still have a clear edge on the field, but the gap is shrinking by the month.
Dallas Flash teammates Johnson and Black also asserted themselves in the second half of 2024 and are coming off of a silver medal in Daytona two weeks ago.
Mixed doubles: Can anybody catch Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns?
Defending champion: Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns
Notable pairings:
Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns
JW Johnson/Jorja Johnson
Anna Bright/Hayden Patriquin
James Ignatowich/Rachel Rohrabacher
Dekel Bar/Tina Pisnik
Federico Staksrud/Catherine Parenteau
Andrei Daescu/Lea Jansen
Tyra Black/Christian Alshon
Gabe Tardio/Jessie Irvine
Riley Newman/Vivian Glozman
Tyson McGuffin/Lacy Schneeman
There’s a lot of moving parts on that list once you get past the top team. St. Louis Shock teammates Bright and Patriquin have a proven track record together in MLP – can they make a push for the top spot this year on the PPA Tour?
Another MLP pair – D.C. teammates Ignatowich and Rohrabacher – also could be dangerous if Ignatowich is playing well (he wasn’t the last time we saw him at the PPA Tour Finals in San Clemente). The Johnson siblings also pose a threat.
Perhaps the most intriguing partnership is Staksrud and Parenteau. Staksrud had a great year in 2024 in men’s doubles and men’s singles, but didn’t see the same success in mixed, with one silver and two bronze. Can Parenteau be the missing piece to make him a threat to win gold in all three events?
Men’s singles: Can Federico Staksrud back up his stellar 2024 season?
Defending champion: Dylan Frazier
Notables:
Federico Staksrud
Christian Alshon
Quang Duong
Connor Garnett
Hunter Johnson
JW Johnson
Jaume Martinez Vich
Tyson McGuffin
Jack Sock
Notably absent: Ben Johns
With this being a slam, you would expect all of the top players to be in the field. But Johns has apparently opted to not play singles in this tournament. Could he be sitting out more singles events this year to focus on doubles?
If so, that would be a big development for Staksrud, who proved in 2024 that he could beat everybody except Johns. He’ll still have to deal with several top players, including Alshon and Duong, who are coming off of injuries that hobbled them in the last half of the year.
Hunter Johnson also is playing great right now and is riding high after a gold at the PPA Tour Finals.
Could this also be the year we see Jack Sock make more deep runs? He didn’t take the pickleball world by storm like many thought he would in 20204, but he ’s got a year of pro pickleball under his belt now and has had almost two months off to recharge.
Women’s singles: Will Anna Leigh Waters be tested?
Defending champion: Anna Leigh Waters
Notables:
Anna Leigh Waters
Parris Todd
Catherine Parenteau
Kaitlyn Christian
Brooke Buckner
Lea Jansen
Kate Fahey
Mary Brascia
Waters won 12 golds last season and was rarely tested. Will this be the year a women’s singles player closes the gap, like we saw in women’s doubles in 2024? Or will AL stay head and shoulders above the pack?
Fahey emerged as the most likely challenger in the second half of the season, winning three golds, three silvers and one bronze medal.
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