The Carvana Mesa Cup proved to be one other large success on the PPA Tour. The crowds had been standing room solely beginning Thursday and lasted all through the weekend. Championship Sunday delivered in a giant means, with an enormous finals upset and drama all through the day.
Whereas the wind undoubtedly performed an element all through the week, the circumstances had been almost excellent for pickleball. With temperatures within the higher sixties, warming as much as the low eighties by Championship Sunday, that is the rationale the tour stops in Arizona in February.
Let’s get into the motion.
Anna Vivid and Hayden Patriquin Win Gold
A loopy statistic – previous to taking part in towards one another within the Mesa Cup, all six matches between Anna and Hayden towards Anna Leigh and Ben went the complete distance. All 4 semis went to a few video games and each finals went to 5 video games. The top outcome? Ben and Anna Leigh received.
The Carvana Mesa Cup was VERY totally different:
- Anna Vivid and Hayden beat Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns for the primary time – ✅
- The match was performed in three video games – ✅
- This was the fourth time Anna Vivid took down Anna Leigh and Ben (along with her fourth companion) – ✅
From begin to end, Hayden and Anna each performed superb. At occasions, Anna Leigh and Ben appeared a bit out of kinds, and Hayden and Anna had been in a position to get their first victory collectively over Anna Leigh and Ben. The ultimate scorelines was 11-8, 11-9, 11-3.
Notes:
- It had been 321 days since Ben and Anna Leigh final misplaced a match – April 6, 2025 – the 2025 PPA North Carolina Open to Jorja and JW Johnson
- I discussed this was the fourth time Anna Vivid beat Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns – listed here are the 4 occasions:
- February 22, 2026 – 2026 Mesa Cup Finals – Hayden Patriquin – 11-8, 11-9, 11-3
- February 22, 2025 – 2025 Mesa Cup Semis – Dekel Bar – 12-10, 7-11, 11-9
- March 17, 2024 – 2024 Austin Open Finals – Andrei Daescu – 11-3, 11-9, 11-3
- December 2, 2023 – PPA Excursions Finals Group Stage – James Ignatowich – 11-8, 11-8
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Anna Leigh Waters Earned Double Gold in Singles and Girls’s Doubles
Regardless of shedding her first match on Championship Sunday, Waters bounced again and received two gold medals in Mesa.
In her second match of the day, Anna Leigh performed with Anna Vivid, towards Jorja Johnson and Hurricane Tyra Black for the ladies’s doubles championship. Waters and Vivid received 11-1, 13-11, 11-7 within the finals.
Vivid and Waters had been dominant all through their time in Mesa, successful by a mixed rating of 101-27, or 11.2-2 per recreation. They even double pickled Tina Pisnik and Lacy Schneemann within the semifinals.
In singles, Anna Leigh was almost as dominant as she was in doubles. In her 5 matches, the rating was a mixed 110-21, or a mean of 11-2.1 per recreation. Each Kiora Kunimoto and Zoey Wang managed to attain 4 factors in a single recreation, which tied for the most important quantity of factors given up in a single recreation by ALW, when she was in Mesa.
Within the finals, Anna Leigh confronted Kate Fahey, and beat her 11-3, 11-1, to take the title.
Gabe and Ben Gained Males’s Doubles
Gabe Tardio and Ben Johns proceed to earn gold medals in 2026. The duo misplaced Worlds to Hayden and Christian Alshon, however since then, they haven’t misplaced a match.
Lakeland – Gold
Masters – Gold
Cape Coral – Gold
Mesa – Gold
Of observe, Jonathan Truong and Wyatt Stone scared Ben and Gabe a bit within the Spherical of 16. Ben and Gabe had been in a position to intestine out a 12-10, 11-9 victory.
Within the finals, Ben and Gabe bought off to a sluggish begin towards Hayden Patriquin and Christian Alshon, shedding 8-11. Nevertheless, they picked up their vitality thereafter, successful the following three video games, 11-6, 11-8, 13-11.
We proceed speaking about “the massive 4” in males’s doubles, however is it actually “Ben and Gabe” after which “the opposite three”? It’s beginning to really feel like that.
Chris Haworth Earned His Second Gold in 2026 in Singles
Haworth has now moved as much as the third ranked males’s singles participant on the PPA Tour, behind solely Hunter Johnson and Federico Staksrud.
The previous Oklahoma State Cowboy needed to beat some good competitors on the way in which to the finals. He beat Jace Morris, Spartak Rahachou, Jay Devilliers, John Lucian Goins, and Matt Barlow.
Within the finals, Haworth confronted off towards Ben Johns, who hadn’t performed singles in fairly some time. The final time Johns performed singles was Worlds, the place he misplaced to Alex Crum within the Spherical of 32.
Haworth was in a position to take residence the victory, 11-6, 11-6 towards Ben. In truth, Chris did not lose a recreation all week in Mesa. His presence on the internet, and his exact groundstrokes had been an excessive amount of for the competitors this week.
Haworth is now chasing the #1 seed, and is barely selecting up PPA Factors as a result of he signed with the PPA within the second half of the 2025 yr. In the meantime, Federico and Hunter are simply trying to preserve their factors, and never drop any from occasion to occasion.
Matt Barlow Got here out of Qualifiers To Make the Semis
The comparatively unknown Matthew Barlow just isn’t UPA signed, and needed to make it via qualifiers to make the primary draw. He made fast work of his qualifier opponents, successful three matches, pickling his opponent in two video games.
In the primary draw, Barlow beat the next gamers to make the semis:
- Rd128 – (57) Wil Shaffer – 11-2, 11-9
- Rd64 – (6) Roscoe Bellamy – September 11, 11-9, 11-2
- Rd32 – (30) Mota Alhouni – 7-11, 11-9, 11-4
- Rd16 – (21) Matt Burkhardt (Fortunate Loser) – 11-4, 11-1
- Quarterfinals – (1) Hunter Johnson – 11-9, 3-11, 11-5
Within the semis, Barlow misplaced to (4) Chris Haworth after which misplaced the bronze match to (3) Christian Alshon. This was an ideal run for the Omahan, beating two prime 10 gamers on the earth.
Medal Outcomes
Girls’s Singles
🥇 Anna Leigh Waters
🥈 Kate Fahey
🥉 Brooke Buckner
Males’s Singles
🥇 Chris Haworth
🥈 Ben Johns
🥉 Christian Alshon
Combined Doubles
🥇 Anna Vivid/Hayden Patriquin
🥈 Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns
🥉 Hurricane Tyra Black/Andrei Daescu
Girls’s Doubles
🥇 Anna Vivid/Anna Leigh Waters
🥈 Jorja Johnson/Hurricane Tyra Black
🥉 Lacy Schneemann/Tina Pisnik
Males’s Doubles
🥇 Gabe Tardio/Ben Johns
🥈 Christian Alshon/Hayden Patriquin
🥉 Federico Staksrud/Andrei Daescu
