Anna Leigh Waters continues Dominance Of Pro Pickleball Association Tour With 4th Straight Triple Crown

The Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) added a “hangover” event to its schedule in the wake of its record-setting 2025 Worlds event in Dallas, traveling to the home state of many of its pros in Florida for the 2025 Veolia Lakeland Open.

Click here for the PickleballTournaments.com home page for the event, where you can get tournament details, draw sheets, and results.

This was an “Open” event, meaning 1,000 points and day-by-day draws. The event was better attended than I would have guessed in the wake of Dallas, but we did see some last minute withdrawals (especially in Men’s Singles) that impacted the draws. This opened the door for some deep runs from unlikely players and teams, always a fun thing to cover on tour. We also saw some new and interesting partnerships in the second-to-last event of 2025 for the tour, as players either sought to mix things up, or to test run 2026 partnerships a bit early.

Let’s recap the action.

Men’s Pro Singles Recap

Three top players departed the draw at the eve of competition, giving some lucky losers unexpected main draw entry and other walkovers in the early rounds. It also drastically opened up those sections of the draw where Alshon, Vich, and Alshon once were. In their place we saw some surprise quarterfinalists; No. 18 Cason Campbell took advantage of John’s absence to cruise into the quarters (to be fair, he beat No. 10 Frazier in the 32s, so it’s not as if he had a cake walk). In Vich’s absence, No. 11 Rosco Bellamy caught fire, beat Vich’s lucky loser replacement Harrison Gold in the 16s, then absolutely trounced No. 4 Garnett 0,4 in the quarters.

The biggest run was from No. 41 Luca Mack, who advanced from Alshon’s quarter into the tournament semifinals with a slew of wins over top singles players on tour. He beat Protzek in the 64s, Michael Loyd 1,8 in the 32s, teenage sensation Shimabukuro in the 16s, and then a 3-game thriller over Zane Ford to shock the fans and make the medal rounds.

In the highly unlikely semifinals, we had No. 13 Noe Khlif (who took out No. 1 Federico Staksrud, newly re-ascended to the top of the PPA standings over Hunter Johnson thanks to his massive 3,000-point win at Worlds) losing to Bellamy 5,10, and No. 2 Hunter Johnson, who stayed out of harm’s way in terms of upsets this week, ending Luca Mack’s run 1,8 to set up a fun final.

In the final, Bellamy was seeking his first PPA gold, while Hunter was looking to re-take the top spot on tour. In the end, both men achieved these goals, as Bellamy took the final in three games while Johnson returned to No. 1. The final was marred by a curious call at the death of the third game, when a Bellamy shot clipped the net cord strung between two posts on championship court. The call was controversial enough that PPA head referee Don Stanley posted a quick video explaining the call, though frankly one call in an 11-3 deciding game really shouldn’t have been such a big deal.

One additional note: Frenchman Noe Khlif finished off his best tournament ever by claiming the bronze over Luca Mack; it’s Khlif’s first professional medal in any discipline.

Gold: Roscoe Bellamy. Silver: Hunter Johnson. Bronze: Noe Khlif.

Women’s Pro Singles Recap

The Women’s singles draw didn’t suffer the personnel losses that the Men’s side did, but one key withdrawal at the No. 3 seed opened up that portion of the draw for a deep run from an unlikely source: No. 32 Tammy Emmrich. The Belgian-American pro went three rounds into the draw before retiring in the quarters to Wang. No. 23 Canadian Victoria DiMuzio also had a deep run, with solid wins over tour regulars Angie Walker and Mary Brascia to get to the quarters, where she fell, as most do, to No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters.

ALW was pressed the round before by No 15 Salome Devidze, one of the few players with a head to head win over the teenager. In fact, the last loss for Waters on tour was in June 2024 to the Georgian international Devidze, so their round of 16 meeting was a bit more meaningful than normal. Devidze came out firing, driving serves deep and powering baseline-heavy rallies against the world’s top player, which lead to errors, winners, and an 11-3 game one win. Waters is used to overpowering her opponents with her ground strokes and rarely came into the net early, a strategy she quickly pivoted to in game two, reverting to more classic pickleball singles, driving and crashing the net and daring Devidze to thread the needle with her passing shots. With this new strategy, Waters seized the lead, kept it early, and eventually blew open a close game to take it 11-6 and force the decider. Game three was one-way traffic, an 11-1 win for the champ over a tiring Devidze, but perhaps this was an interesting match for the rest of the tour, who continue to look for ways to top Waters.

No. 8 Chao-Yi Wang was the unexpected interloper into the medal rounds, joining three top seeded regulars to the podium in No. 1 Waters, No. 4 Buckner, and No. 5 Jansen. Waters cruised past Buckner 4,6 in one semi, while Wang took out Jansen to earn just her second ever gold medal match on tour (her first since Nov 2024). In the final, Waters made fast work of Wang 3,1 to claim the title and continue her amazing winning streak in singles.

Gold: Anna Leigh Waters. Silver: Chao-Yi Wang. Bronze: Lea Jansen.

Mixed Pro Doubles Recap

This Mixed draw gave us some fun new pairings, and returned us to some successful pairings from years’ past. Newman paired up with Parenteau, a circa 2022 partnership that gave the two more than a few medals, and they made the quarters here before falling. Anna Bright had to find a new partner as her beau Patriquin took the weekend off; she paired up with hard-hitting Eric Oncins and cruised into the semis before losing to the No. 1 team. None could top the dominant No. 1 pair of Johns & Waters, who advanced to their 59th career final together.

The bottom half of the draw featured a semi between the No. 2 Johnson siblings team, who have made the medal rounds in 10 of the last 11 PPA events, and an intriguing team comprised of No. 6 Andrei Daescu and Rachel Rohrabacher, who had taken out the always-dangerous-in-mixed-doubles Christian Alshon, paired this week with Hurricane Tyra Black. The Johnsons had to dig deep, but advanced to the final.

The final between Johns & Waters and Johnson & Johnson (fun fact, whenever I type Johnson & Johnson into the Forbes blogging platform, it attempts to auto-link the NYSE stock price of the giant consumer goods company by the same name) was the seventh time the pairs have met in the final of a tournament just this year, something I’ve been highlighting in my Medal Tracking xls online. This time around, the two pairs played one of their closest matches yet, a 5-game grind before the top seeds claimed the title.

Gold: Waters & Johns. Silver: Johnson & Johnson. Bronze: Bright & Oncins.

Men’s Pro Doubles Recap

For as crazy as the Men’s Singles draw was in Lakeland, the Men’s Pro Doubles draw was as upset-free as possible. The round of 16 featured just a couple of minor upsets, and the quarter finalists were comprised of the top 7 seeds plus the No. 9 seeded team of Newman & Young (who benefitted by the withdrawal of the No. 6 team Vich & Devilliers). From there, the top four seeds all advanced with relative ease and two-game wins to force a super-Saturday between the four best teams in the sport.

In semi #1, No. Ben Johns & Gabriel Tardio, surprise semi-final losers at Worlds, regrouped and dominated No. 4 Staksrud & McGuffin 4,9 to return to the finals (they’ve now made 11 finals in their 12 tournaments together). In Semi #2, Daescu & Alshon mounted a stunning game-3 comeback to claim the match in shocking fashion over Johnson & Klinger to set up a 1-vs-2 final.

In the final, Johns & Tardio met Daescu & Alshon for gold for the fourth time since late August, and took the title with a working man’s three game effort 8,8,5.

This tournament is just the latest in a pattern in men’s Doubles we’ve been seeing lately; every medal (Gold, Silver, and Bronze) for the last six PPA events (save for the Wood-paddle event in Sacramento) has gone to one of the four top teams in the game right now (Johns/Tardio, Daescu/Alshon, Johnson/Klinger and Staksrud/Patriquin). One has to go back to Bristol to find an interloper to this exclusive club.

Gold: Johns & Tardio. Silver: Daescu & Alshon. Bronze: Johnson & Klinger

Women’s Pro Doubles Recap

The big story in Lakeland was the return of the Kawamoto sisters Jackie & Jade, who shocked the No. 1 pair of Waters & Bright in their last event playing together at the Cincinnati Masters on their way to winning their first ever Women’s Doubles gold medal, either together or partnered with others. Seeded 5th in Lakeland, the Kawamotos picked up right where they left off, cruising into the quarters, then topping the No. 3 seeds Jorja Johnson & Rohrabacher in three, then blasting No. 2 Black & Todd in the semis to swoop into the finals from the bottom half.

The top half went chalk, with the No. 1 seeds Anna Leigh Waters & Anna Bright, fresh off their cooking YouTube channel debut episode, cruised into the final without being seriously pushed along the way. The topped No. 8 Dizon & Callie Smith in the quarters, then the upstart No. 9 seeds Pisnik & Fahey in the semis to return to the finals and vie for their 14th gold medal together.

In the final, there was no repeat upset for the Indianapolis-based twins, as the dominant Waters/Bright combo stiffened up for a three-game dominant win 8,4,3.

With the win, Waters secured the Triple Crown for the weekend, which is amazing enough of an accomplishment itself, but it also represents her fourth straight Triple Crown on tour: she’s won all three disciplines at the Virginia Beach Cup, then the Vegas Rate cup, then at Worlds in Dallas, and now here in Lakeland. Sometimes there aren’t words to describe the level of dominance we’re seeing at present.

Gold: Waters & Bright. Silver: Kawamoto & Kawamoto . Bronze: Pisnik & Fahey.

Senior Pro Competition Quick Recap

• Men’s Senior Open Singles: Top Florida senior pro Tonio Paternostro cruised to a singles title, his first since the PPA was in Cape Coral last March.
• Men’s Senior Open Doubles: He may have retired from the Pros, but Steave Deakin keeps on humming in Seniors, winning his 11th Senior Doubles title with Altaf Merchant this season.
• Mixed Senior Open Doubles: Tonio Paternostro made it a double gold for the weekend, teaming with Kristi Dorman to take the Mixed gold. In the final, they topped Jean Halahan and tennis legend Ivan Lendl, which marks a first Senior pro medal for the hall of famer.

The Pro Pickleball Medal Tracker has now been updated with these results; check out this link online for a complete pro medal history for all tours and all pro events dating to the beginnings of all the major pro tours, plus pro events that predated 2020.

Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, the PPA has one more event on its 2025 calendar, in about a month’s time in Daytona Beach. In between we have a slew of international, collegiate, and challenger events across the US and Asia.

Any Head to Head or career match stats quoted in this article are courtesy of PickleWave. Visit picklewave.com for the premier source of Pro Pickleball data, including match replays, highlights, stats, and discussion. PickleWave has more than 22,000 matches in its database across all the pro tours.

Other resources I use frequently to cover Pickleball include: