Chaos or order: Which style will prevail in pro pickleball in 2026?
Last Edited
Jan 29 2026
Category
News
We are entering interesting times at the top of pro pickleball. For a long time now, order has prevailed in the men’s doubles division.
Ben and Collin Johns were able to wear opponents down with a steady soft game diet. Drop, move forward, dink, wait for a mistake or a ball that Ben could attack. Rinse and repeat.
Even in mixed doubles, Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters play a mostly ordered game. Waters will speed up off the bounce sometimes, but it’s usually order first. “Boring” perhaps, but effective enough for Johns to rack up more than 50 men’s doubles gold medals and Johns and Waters to be the most dominant mixed doubles team in history. Not too shabby.
Earlier this month, during the PPA Tour Masters, we got to see Hayden Patriquin (who some argue is poised to take over as the most dominant men’s doubles player in the game) bring his approach – chaos you might say – to the final against Johns in both men's doubles and mixed doubles.
There has been chaos before. Christian Alshon and Andrei Daescu were able to make some waves in 2025 using a full-throttle shake & bake approach. But order was able to adapt and reassert its dominance in the second half of 2025.
Patriquin's partnerships with Alshon in men’s doubles and Anna Bright in mixed doubles makes it likely that he and Johns will be facing off a lot in 2026. And Patriquin brings a different form of chaos to those matches.
His athleticism, footwork, court vision and fearlessness set up what should be a very interesting test for Johns’ ordered play.
In this article we will take a closer look at how order might be challenged in each of the three doubles divisions -- men's, women's and mixed -- this year.
Mixed doubles
The mixed doubles final at the Masters was chaos’ most successful challenge to order at that tournament. Rather than engaging in an orderly dink exchange (as prior opponents, JW and Jorja Johnson, have often elected to do), any time Bright had a reasonable chance to attack, she did.
Specifically, she kept opening up the action against Waters. The idea – if I am reading the strategy correctly – was for Bright to open the action and then have Hayden step in to finish the exchange. It was one of the most chaotic mixed doubles finals I can remember seeing.
That sort of chaos is usually reserved for earlier round matches. And it almost worked. Patriquin and Bright forced the match to a Game 5 and got to within a few points from winning.
I expect that this approach will be their normal game plan against Johns and Waters. And it makes sense if you are the challengers. It's very difficult to outlast Johns and Waters playing a static, patient game. They simply grind until they get a ball they want. It’s like death by a thousand cuts.
The Johnsons have tried the order approach and had some success in the past, but the odds still favor Ben and ALW in an ordered contest.
I’m pretty sure that Patriquin and Bright will continue to open the action and then trust their hands to be able to put away enough rallies to carry them to victory.
Given the split nature of mixed doubles and the likelihood of a lot more Patriquin/Bright vs. Johns/Waters battles in 2026, I expect the mixed division to be a tossup between chaos and order moving forward.
Men's doubles
Men’s doubles presents a different challenge for the chaos strategy. The final at the Masters pitted Patriquin and Alshon against Johns and Gabe Tardio.
It’s a much more difficult hurdle to start a hands battle against Tardio than against Waters. Tardio has one of the best counterattacks in the game. Attacking him or Johns is a dangerous proposition.
Note: That's not a slight against Waters. She is the best women’s player this sport has ever seen and has amazing hands. The reality, however, is that pro men's players generally have a stronger counterattack than pro women's players. That is why you don't often see Waters attack the male opponents opposite her in mixed.
It is commonly thought that one of the reasons Ben and Collin split up last year was that Collin was more susceptible to speedups than a player like Tardio. Having Tardio to Johns' right makes it much harder for teams, even as good as Patriquin and Alshon, to use lots of speedups as a winning game plan.
Because successful speedups are harder in men’s doubles, I expect this division to be about 70/30 in favor of order over chaos this year.
Women’s doubles
If you’ve been following pro pickleball for a while, you know that women’s doubles has been in the hands of chaos for a bit now. Ever since players have been able to step off the line and rip balls without them going out, off-bounce attacks have become the norm.
The counter attacks are great, but the mechanics do not generally allow for easy put-away counters. The closest thing to an order approach in the women’s doubles division is the team of Jade and Jackie Kawamoto.
They rely on a mix of amazing defense and relentless dinking for their success. This works against pretty much everyone outside the top 3-4 teams. Even against those teams, the Kawamotos can give them fits.
But … chaos still reigns in the women’s doubles division. I do not see this changing until (if it’s even possible) a different counter shot comes into the women’s doubles game, making it harder to speed up off the bounce.
What this means to you
As a pro game spectator, expect more chaos in the Men’s and Mixed Doubles divisions in 2026 than in years past. As a player, you have most likely already seen chaos in action. Expect more of it.
Tony’s Better Pickleball Coaching Tip: Your best friend to get out of those chaotic spots in rec play? Don’t hit the ball. Trust that the size of court to net height ratio favors the ball going out. This is Framework in action and it is how you become a thinking pickleball player.
Want to know more about Framework? Start with the Three Pillars of Pickleball. You can get your FREE strategy guide here.
If you're looking for more insights into high-level pickleball, the Better Pickleball Academy has you covered. You’ll also gain access to their easy to use “BP Play Guides” including middle dinking patterns and more. Use code "KITCHEN26" at checkout for a special offer just for Kitchen community members (3 month for the price of 2).
Tony Roig is a nationally-recognized coach, Sr. Pro Player, developer of “Respect the X” on the In2Pickle YouTube channel, and the voice behind the Pickleball Therapy podcast. Visit BetterPickleball.com for information on coaching from Tony and the BP team through their Camps, Academy, and No. 1 online training program: The Pickleball System.
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