The PPA Tour heads from one desert to a different this week, with the Price Las Vegas Open happening September 28 via October 4 on the Darling Tennis Middle.
That is the second Open of the 2026-27 PPA Tour season, that means 1,000 PPA factors can be found to the winner in every division.
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Not like final week’s Arizona Open, the place a number of high gamers skipped, the Las Vegas area is far nearer to full energy. Anna Vibrant, Hayden Patriquin and Gabe Tardio are all again, which suggests a number of of the Tour’s most established partnerships return as effectively.
Listed here are the largest storylines to look at, adopted by a breakdown of all 5 professional brackets.
5 Storylines to Watch
1. Anna Leigh Waters Can Attain 200 Profession Titles
Anna Leigh Waters is not enjoying singles this week, however she enters Las Vegas simply two titles away from 200 profession PPA Tour titles.
That makes the trail fairly easy: win girls’s doubles with Anna Vibrant and blended doubles with Ben Johns, and Waters leaves Las Vegas at 200.
These are additionally two partnerships with loads of historical past at this venue. Waters and Johns have gained blended doubles in Las Vegas 4 straight years, whereas Waters and Vibrant are the defending girls’s doubles champions.
2. Vibrant, Patriquin and Tardio Are Again
Three main names lacking from Mesa return this week.
Vibrant is again alongside Waters in girls’s doubles and Patriquin in blended doubles. Tardio reunites with Johns in males’s doubles and companions Tyra Black in blended.
That instantly makes the doubles fields significantly stronger than they had been in Arizona.
3. Girls’s Singles Is Broad Open
With Waters not enjoying singles, someone else is assured to go away Las Vegas with the title.
Kate Fahey is the No. 1 seed, adopted by Kaitlyn Christian, Lea Jansen and Zoey Wang. Genie Bouchard, final yr’s runner-up, can be again because the No. 7 seed – however she hasn’t performed on the PPA Tour in almost 5 months. Will she be rusty?
Anytime Waters sits out singles, the chance for the remainder of the sphere turns into dramatically larger.
4. Can the Mesa Breakouts Do It Once more?
Final week’s Arizona Open gave a number of lower-seeded gamers their largest PPA outcomes.
Jalina Ingram made noise in girls’s singles. Kiora Kunimoto and Elliott Schupp broke via in blended doubles. Nico Acevedo and Yuta Funemizu reached the lads’s doubles last because the No. 15 seed earlier than dropping a wild championship match to Christian Alshon and Andrei Daescu.
Kunimoto and Schupp are again collectively this week. Acevedo is teaming up with Jaume Martinez Vich.
Now we get to see whether or not these Mesa runs had been one-week surprises or the start of one thing larger.
5. Johns/Tardio vs. Alshon/Daescu, Half Two?
Christian Alshon and Andrei Daescu arrive in Las Vegas contemporary off their males’s doubles title in Mesa.
Additionally they have some unfinished enterprise at Darling Tennis Middle.
Final yr’s Las Vegas last in opposition to Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio lasted two hours and 28 minutes, with Johns and Tardio ultimately successful 12-10 in Sport 5.
Johns/Tardio are the No. 1 seed this week.
Alshon/Daescu are No. 2.
A rematch can be a fairly good solution to shut out the weekend.
Climate Outlook
The primary couple days might carry some thunderstorms, however the larger story will seemingly be the warmth. Temperatures are anticipated to climb into the mid-90s later within the week earlier than approaching or exceeding 100 levels over the weekend. Apparently leaving Mesa doesn’t imply leaving the desert warmth behind.
Easy methods to Watch the Price Las Vegas Open
All instances are Pacific
The PPA Tour’s broadcast schedule begins Thursday with the Spherical of 16.
Thursday, October 1 — Spherical of 16
- 2pm-10pm — PickleballTV
Friday, October 2 — Quarterfinals
- 2pm-10pm — PickleballTV
Saturday, October 3 — Semifinals
Sunday, October 4 — Championships
- 10am-3pm — PickleballTV
- 10am-2pm — Tennis Channel and PickleballTV
Girls’s Singles
Prime Storylines
- Fahey will get the No. 1 seed and already is aware of easy methods to win right here. She captured the Las Vegas singles title in 2024.
- Genie Bouchard is a harmful No. 7 seed after reaching the ultimate right here final yr.
- Jalina Ingram is coming off a powerful exhibiting in Mesa and will see Fahey within the quarters, however she has to get via No. 5 seed Kiora Kunimoto first.
- Regulate Zoey Weil and Isabella Dunlap, who each sit in Zoey Wang’s part of the draw.
- Sofia Stitching might get Kaitlyn Christian within the Spherical of 16. That is a matchup I’m excited for.
Predictions
Semifinalists: (1) Kate Fahey, (8) Isabella Dunlap, (23) Sofia Stitching, (3) Lea Jansen
Champion: Kate Fahey defeats Sofia Stitching within the finals
Males’s Singles
Prime Storylines
- Can Haworth go back-to-back? He enters with momentum and a comparatively favorable path early.
- Probably the most attention-grabbing potential matchup within the quarterfinals is Christian Alshon vs. Ben Johns.
- We might get one other Staksrud-Hunter Johnson semifinal after the 2 performed an incredible match in Mesa.
- Roscoe Bellamy made the ultimate right here final yr and is all the time harmful in singles.
- The WPR bye system is at it once more in Vegas – (19) Ben Johns and (20) Eric Oncins each get double byes into the Spherical of 16 regardless of being low seeds – how lengthy will this final?
Predictions
Semifinalists: (1) Chris Haworth, (4) Christian Alshon, (2) Federico Staksrud, (3) Hunter Johnson
Champion: Chris Haworth over Federico Staksrud in a rematch of the Arizona Open
Blended Doubles
Prime Storylines
- Waters and Johns have dominated this event, successful Las Vegas 4 straight years.
- Vibrant and Patriquin return because the No. 2 seed after each skipped Mesa.
- Mesa breakout group Kiora Kunimoto/Elliott Schupp is simply the No. 34 seed and will run into Vibrant/Patriquin early.
- Sofia Stitching/Casey Diamond are one other low seed that I would not wish to see early – and that’s precisely what Jack Sock and Lea Jansen are going to do within the Spherical of 64.
Predictions
Semifinalists: (1) Waters/Johns, (4) Black/Tardio, (7) Fahey/Staksrud, (3) Pisnik/AlshonChampion: ALW and Ben make it 5 in a row in Vegas over Fahey and Staksrud
Girls’s Doubles
Prime Storylines
- The Annas are again. Waters and Vibrant instantly return to the highest seed.
- Black/Parenteau feels just like the clearest challenger to Waters and Vibrant, however they may run into some hassle with the No. 5 seed, Sofia Stitching/Tina Pisnik, who have already got loads of chemistry from MLP..
- Schneemann/Fahey vs. Jansen/Irvine could possibly be the most effective quarterfinals of the week.
- Rachel Rohrabacher obtained married this previous weekend, so she is sitting this one out, alongside together with her regular companion, Parris Todd.
Predictions
Semifinalists: (1) Waters/Vibrant, (4) Wei/Dizon, (5) Stitching/Pisnik, (3) Schneemann/Fahey
Champion: The Annas bear Stitching and Pisnik within the finals
Males’s Doubles
Prime Storylines
- Johns/Tardio return as defending champions and the No. 1 seed.
- Alshon/Daescu are rolling. They gained Mesa and look extraordinarily snug with Alshon dedicated to the left facet.
- Pablo Tellez/Will Howells are one other group able to making a deep run, regardless of the double digit seed.
- Elliott Schupp/John Lucian Goins are a younger group value monitoring within the early rounds.
Predictions
Semifinalists: (1) Johns/Tardio, (4) Oncins/Clinger, (2) Patriquin/Staksrud, (3) Alshon/Daescu
Champion: Ben and Gabe defeat Hayden and Fed within the finals
