Federico Staksrud and Hayden Patriquin have been one of the most consistent men's doubles teams on the PPA Tour in 2025, playing together in 12 tournaments and winning seven medals. But until Sunday they had yet to find the winner's circle together this year.

They finally broke through in the biggest event of the season, claiming gold at the Pickleball World Championships in Dallas and earning the 3,000 ranking points that were up for grabs this week -- more points than any other event on the calendar.

Their run to Championship Sunday included an emotional win over No. 1 seed Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio (11-8, 11-5) in the semifinals on Saturday. They backed it up with a win over JW Johnson and CJ Klinger (8-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-8) in Sunday's final, giving Patriquin back-to-back men's doubles titles at this event after he won last year with Riley Newman.

"I feel like our bond is so tight," Patriquin said of the partnership with Staksrud. "There is a little age difference, but with pickleball that doesn't really matter. When we're back in Florida, we golf, we hang out, and think that's really important when we get on the court."

Their first win of the season comes on the heels of a major strategy decision that Staksrud and Patriquin made recently, putting Patriquin on the left and allowing him to take more court and create offense. Staksrud had almost exclusively played the left since they first started playing together last year.

"I don't care about how we win, I just want to win," Staksrud said afterward. "If that's me hitting one ball a match, so be it. I don't care. I'm so proud of this kid, how good he's gotten. When he started playing with me, I had to take the thirds on his side, and now he's taking the thirds from everywhere on the court. It's unbelievable.

"He's getting better and better. He's going to be the best player in the world."

This win will move Staksrud/Patriquin back ahead of Andrei Daescu and Christian Alshon for the No. 2 seed after that pair settled for bronze this weekend. Daescu/Alshon defeated Johns/Tardio 11-1, 13-11 in Sunday's bronze medal match. 

Women's doubles

No. 1 seed Anna Leigh Waters and Anna Bright won their third straight title and sixth overall on the season since they partnered together in the spring.

On Sunday they defeated No. 2 seed Catherine Parenteau/Parris Todd 11-2, 11-2, 11-5. Their toughest test of the week actually came in the quarterfinals, when No. 9 seed Kate Fahey and Tina Pisnik pushed them to three games. Waters/Bright ultimately ran away with that match in Game 3 (11-1).

Waters and Bright have been dominant ever since they were beaten in the semifinals in back-to-back tournaments in Las Vegas and Cincinnati late this summer.

“I honestly think it was really good for our partnership,” Waters said afterward. “Even when we lost those two matches, there was never a doubt that this isn’t the right partnership. It was just that we needed to figure some stuff out, and I really feel like that pushed us to figure those things out and ultimately improve.”

Jade Kawamoto and Rachel Rohrabacher withdrew from Sunday's bronze medal match, giving Jorja Johnson and Tyra Black the win by default.

Mixed doubles

No. 1 seed Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns won their eighth straight title and 12th of the year with an 11-7, 11-4, 11-7 sweep of No. 2 seed JW and Jorja Johnson. It was the sixth meeting between the two teams this year, and Waters/Johns now lead the season series 5-1.

Both Waters and Johns said after the match that they came into the day with an extra focus on executing each shot given the gusty and chilly conditions early in the day.

“The conditions were pretty tough,” Johns said. “The ball is cold, so it flies and doesn’t spin a lot. I felt like in Game 1, we went with a lot of drives to get some free errors, especially when we were all kind of getting into the rhythm of the wind and all that. And then in Games 2 and 3, I felt like it was more about getting to the line consistently. Just getting to the line more often than them was the biggest thing because I felt like once we got up to the line, we might have been a slight favorite up there.”

Anna Bright and Hayden Patriquin defeated Tyra Black and Christian Alshon 11-5, 11-8 for bronze. 

Men's singles

Federico Staksrud reclaimed the No. 1 singles ranking on tour this week with his second straight gold medal (he also won the Vegas Cup two weeks ago) and third in the past five PPA Tour events.

Staksrud defeated No. 13 seed Christopher Haworth 11-9, 11-1 on Sunday and now moves ahead of Hunter Johnson in the singles rankings.

After winning the Masters in January, Staksrud went about eight months without winning a title in singles, which for him is a lengthy drought. He credited his coach, Mike Wolf, for helping him battle through times when he wasn't playing his best.

“Coach Mike is a huge part of this because when you’re down, it’s easy to look for excuses and to start thinking of giving up," he said. "If you have people believing in you, it’s huge, and that’s what he did."

Women's singles

Anna Leigh Waters became the winningest player in PPA Tour history with her third gold medal of the day on Sunday, defeating Kate Fahey 11-4, 12-10.

The win gave Waters her 168th PPA Tour title, moving her one ahead of Ben Johns for most all-time. It was also her 38th Triple Crown (third in a row).

"I'm feeling so much gratitude, so much happiness," said Waters, who hasn't lost a singles match in more than 500 days. "This was a (3,000-point tournament), so if there's one tournament I wanted to Triple Crown, it was definitely this one."

Brooke Buckner defeated Kaitlyn Christian 11-1, 11-8 for bronze on Sunday.

Pardoe reflects on 100th PPA Tour tournament

PPA Tour Founder and CEO Connor Pardoe took a moment to celebrate the tour's 100th tournament during Saturday's semifinal action.

There were more than 3,500 players across all divisions this week and 55,000 spectators, making it the biggest pickleball celebration of the year with celebrity exhibitions, concerts and more activities along Pickleball Boulevard.

"I think we all knew where pickleball could head, but the fact that we got here so quick, everybody should be real proud. It's been a big team effort, and we're just really grateful to have all you guys here," Pardoe said. "The game is just really special. It's something that you can do with everybody, whether you're playing with your father or I play with my 6-year-old kids now. We feel like our job has just been like, 'How can we make the sport grow faster? How can we create a platform that is enjoyable for all you guys as fans?' I'm glad you guys have been able to join the journey with us, whether you guys were here from event one or now event 100. Our goal is to just get a little bit bigger and a little bit better every single week, and we'll keep celebrating tournaments with you guys."

Pardoe also reflected on how far the professional sport has come during a Pickleballtv interview on Saturday with Kamryn Blackwood and Matt Manasse. At the inaugural PPA Tour tournament in Mesa, Arizona, in February 2020, there were 600 players and 2,000 fans.

"Did I ever think we were going to get here? Absolutely. I was a big believer right from the beginning," said Pardoe. "I fell in love with pickleball like a lot of players, right? I started playing, started getting exposed to the game, loved it, wanted to play it as much as possible, and eventually had the vision of thinking, 'Hey, pickleball could become a professional sport.' But one thing's for sure, I didn't think that it was going to grow this fast, this quick, so five years has been pretty amazing."

This is now the third time the PPA Tour has hosted this event at Brookhaven Country Club, and it has gotten bigger each year.

"You look around and see this event that we do here, whether it was the first year or the third year, a couple times a day you kind of pinch yourself," Pardoe said. "You take a look around and you go, 'Holy cow! This is something that's pretty cool.'"