Tama Shimabukuro is only 15yrs old and had a breakthrough weekend in Atlanta.
PPA
The final regular season event of the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA)’s extended 2025-26 season has come and gone, and one of the season’s best events in the 2026 Veolia Atlanta Pickleball Championships was held last weekend at the Life Time Peachtree Corners facility in the Atlanta suburbs.
I have a soft spot for this event; it was the first professional pickleball event I ever attended (back in 2023) and is where I first met many of the players and league officials who remain with the tour today.
An interesting tidbit for this weekend’s event; thanks to the proximity of the upcoming MLP season’s start, a slew of international players who signed MLP deals for this coming summer have come in early to enter the event. It is a great opportunity for these top Asian and Australian pros to measure themselves up against the deepest field outside of Worlds on tour. There were 1,890 players total in this event across the Pros and Amateurs, a massive number.
Click here for the PickleballTournaments.com home page for the event, where you can get tournament details, draw sheets, and results.
Here is a quick recap of notable news items of import to the tour since we last discussed the PPA.
With that said, let’s recap the action.
Christopher Haworth solidified his hold on No. 1 with a win at the Atlanta Slam.
PPA
Ninety men (90) entered the singles qualifying in Atlanta, which I believe is a high water mark for any event that I can remember, an indication of the size and importance of the Atlanta event.
Early round upsets included No. 8 Goins losing to No. 35 Matthew Barlow with his tour finals spot in jeopardy, but his closest competitor (No. 9 Joseph) couldn’t capitalize, subsequently losing to Barlow himself and solidifying the San Clemente field. No. 36 Donald Young shocked No. 4 Alshon in the 32s, but then was shocked by No. 41 Luc Pham. No. 51 Cam Chaffin was on his way to beating No. 10 Frazier when Dylan retired, and Chaffin made a run to the 16s. The biggest early round upset was teenage sensation No. 22 Tama Shimabukuro, who beat No 9. Vich in the 32s and then shocked No. 2 Staksrud in the 16s 11-9 in the third. The final shock quarter finalist was No. 19 Rafael Lenhard, who tamed the Sacramento finalist Ford and cruised past JW Johnson to earn the quarters.
Just three of the top eight seeds made the quarters. Some normalcy returned as No. 1 Haworth, No. 3 Johnson, and No. 5 Garnett advanced to Saturday’s semi-finals, joined by 15-yr old Shimabukuro, who took out another top singles player in Khlif. Tama didn’t stop there, shocking the former No. 1 Hunter Johnson with an 11-1 third game whitewashing to make the final. There, he fell quickly to the top seeded Haworth 5,1 but the statement has been made.
Gold: Christopher Haworth. Silver: Tama Shimabukuro. Bronze: Connor Garnett.
The international presence was felt quickly in the Women’s singles draw, as No. 12 Australian Sahra Dennehy beat Victoria Simon, Japan’s Aiko Yoshitomi, and then shocked No. 5 Parenteau to make the quarters. No. 11 Kiora Kunimoto continues to impress, topping Hendershot, Padegimaite, and then No. 8 Truluck for a QF matchup against Buckner. Lastly, Judit Castillo got a very solid win over No. 5 Jansen to set up a quarters matchup against the top seed Anna Leigh Waters.
In the quarters, the top three seeds advanced as expected, including No. 2 Fahey ending the Australian Dennehy’s run, but the story was a Hawaiian teenage sensation getting a huge upset. No, not Shimabukuro; this time we’re talking about 18-yr old Kiora Kunimoto. She took out the 4th seed Buckner in three games to get to the semis and set up an all-teenage semi final with Anna Leigh Waters. In that semi, Kunimoto took a game off of Waters, which is notable for a player who has not lost on tour in two years, but another statement has been made for the next generation of players to watch for.
In the final, we got the 16th iteration of a singles match between the two top seeds Waters and Kate Fahey, and the 11th time they’ve met for gold. And, for the 16th time, we got a Waters victory. This time, Fahey kept game one close, losing 12-10 before Waters pulled away in game two.
Gold: Anna Leigh Waters. Silver: Kate Fahey. Bronze: Kaitlyn Christian.
PPA Mixed may be one of the hardest nuts to crack for new pros, since the teams are well established and obtaining partners is so challenging. And, one of the things we don’t talk enough about is the amazing run that Ben Johns is on in Mixed; he’s maintained the No. 1 ranking in Men’s Mixed Doubles since the day the PPA tour started in 2020. And it is not close: he maintains a nearly 10,000 ranking point lead over the 2nd ranked Mixed player (Patriquin). If Johns were to retire tomorrow, he’d likely keep this No. 1 ranking for an entire year as a result.
Waters & Johns continued their domination in Atlanta, never giving up more than 7 points in a game all week and taking the title 4,5,4 over the No. 3 seeds Bright & Patriquin. We’re likely to see all these semi finalists next weekend together again for the Tour finals.
Gold: Waters & Johns. Silver: Bright & Patriquin. Bronze: Parenteau & Tardio.
Gabriel Tardio rips a backhand winner during the Doubles final in Atlanta.
PPA
The Men’s doubles draw saw two of the regular Saturday/Sunday participants advance to the semis as expected from the top half (No. 1 Johns & Tardio and No. 4 Staksrud & Daescu), but the bottom half was shredded with upsets all week. Shimabukuro, not satisfied to just upset singles players, teamed with Yuta Funemizo to shock the 2nd seeded Alshon & Patriquin team early, then made a deep run before falling in the bronze medal match. Meanwhile, the No. 13 team of Garnett & Bellamy, two guys on the outside looking in for the Tour Finals Men’s field, played like they had nothing to lose, beating No. 3 JW & CJ in the round of 16 and then keeping the train rolling all the way to the final.
On Sunday, the top pair Johns & Tardio cruised to another gold medal over Garnett & Bellamy, however the finals run was huge for Connor. He leapfrogged multiple players ranked above him in the Race standings with the 1600 point finish and has earned qualification into the Tour Finals field.
Gold: Johns & Tardio. Silver: Garnett & Bellamy. Bronze: Staksrud & Daescu.
Of all the draws, Women’s Pro Doubles was the most chalk. There were few real upsets in the early rounds outside of the No. 44 pairing of Mihae Kwon & Nok Yiu Tang shocking a couple of teams of tour regulars before falling in the 16s. Seven of the top 8 seeds moved into the quarters as expected, and the semis featured the top four seeded teams and a likely preview of the back end of upcoming Tour Finals field.
In one semi, No. 1 Bright & Waters crushed No.3 Rohrabacher & Parenteau 4,1, likely leaving the pair questioning their methods ahead of San Clemente. In the other semi, Johnson & Black held on for a close two game win over No. 4 Fahey & Todd to set up a 1-v-2 final. In that final, Bright & Waters threw down a statement win, beating their rivals 3,4.0 to secure their 22nd career title together.
With this win, Waters sewed up yet another Triple Crown, her 44th on the PPA and her 16th with partners Bright & Johns in the doubles disciplines.
Gold: Bright & Waters. Silver: Black & Johnson. Bronze: Rohrabacher & Parenteau.
With the massive draws in Atlanta and the east coast proximity to Florida, we got a rare full slate of Senior Pro events.
The Pro Pickleball Medal Tracker spreadsheets have now been updated with these results. Click here for the Pro-only Medal Tracker, and click here for the Senior Pro Medal Tracker. These spreadsheets hold Medal winners for every pro event going back to the beginnings of the tours.
Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, this will be a busy week for the PPA & MLP. The MLP waiver wire ends this week; we haven’t seen any moves in a while but may this week. Then, we’ll have the Tour Finals partner draft and a preview of the big season-ending event before the tour’s top players head to San Clemente. Everyone gets a week off, then we dive straight into Major League Pickleball Week 1 in Dallas.
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 31,000 matches in its database across all the pro tours, and has started a fantastic new Bracket Challenge feature for Fantasy-style sports fans to try out.
Other resources I use frequently to cover Pickleball include:
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