• Ben Johns is looking for his 120^th gold, 40^th doubles gold and 45^th mixed doubles gold.

• Collin Johns is looking for his 30^th gold (all in men’s doubles).

• Ben Johns’ 21st career PPA Triple Crown last week in North Carolina was his first in 2024. He had nine last year.

=== MEN’S SINGLES ===

#10 QUANG DUONG will leave Houston with his first PPA medal. The 18-year-old did not lose a game while beating top-seed Ben Johns and sixth-seed Jaume Martinez Vich to reach the final.

#2 FEDERICO STAKSRUD is seven-for-seven in reaching the finals this year. He has two gold medals, against Connor Garnett and Jaume Martinez Vich. His six career titles are second only to Ben Johns.

Bronze: #6 Jaume Martinez Vich vs #35 Donald Young (he beat #8 Jay Devilliers and #3 Connor Garnett)

=== WOMEN’S SINGLES ===

#19 SAMANTHA PARKER has earned her first PPA medal this weekend. On Thursday she beat top-seed Mary Brascia and four-seed Lacy Schneemann.

#2 LEA JANSEN is in her first PPA final since the Seattle Open last July. She dropped only one game during four wins on Thursday. Jansen has two bronze medals this year. Her two career gold medals were in the summer of 2021. 

Bronze: #4 Lacy Schneemann vs #6 Parris Todd.

=== MIXED DOUBLES ===

#11…

A subtle change is happening across the early portion of this PPA season. Championship doubles rallies are shorter this year. That’s using the statistics from the three PPA gold medal doubles matches in each of the first five tournaments of this year, compared to those same tournaments at the start of 2023. 

Using those two sets of 15 matches from 2023 and 2024, doubles rallies are more than one-shot-per-rally shorter this year, falling from 10.78 shots per rally to 9.64.

• Men’s Doubles: 10.57 shots per rally in 2023, 10.96 shots per rally in 2024, a 0.39 shots per rally increase.
• Women’s Doubles: 12.11 shots per rally in 2023, 9.14 shots per rally in 2024, a 2.97 shots per rally decrease.
• Mixed Doubles: 9.80 shots per rally in 2023, 8.70 shots per rally in 2024, a 1.10 shots per rally decrease.

In the Women’s Doubles finals, each of the five tournament finals in 2024 had fewer shots per rally than its counterpart in 2023.

This observation comes from a statistical sample size of more than 40,000 shots during nearly 4,000 rallies. 

What is causing this change? There are several variables, including tactics, the new Vulcan ball, new paddles, different players involved, etc. My intent is to add statistics to existing perception to…

Less than three years ago, Anna Leigh Waters won her first gold medal.

Sunday, she won her 100th. 

With another triple crown, this time at the North Carolina Cup, Waters stayed comfortably “on-brand” as the best, most-dominant, no-doubt-about-it, of-course-she-won-again, champion.

Because in women’s pickleball, there’s Waters and then after that, there’s “not-exactly.”

With her friends and family present, posing for pictures, Waters celebrated a milestone.

Her first title came in August of 2021. Titles 98, 99 and 100 were Sunday in Cary, N.C., the final an 11-4, 11-4 victory over the second-biggest winner in PPA Tour women’s history, Catherine Parenteau.

“I’m getting emotional,” she said. “I’m super-happy I got my 100th here. This is where I grew up. I could feel the support in the singles match.”

She won a mixed gold title earlier in the day with Ben Johns and teamed with Parenteau to earn the women’s doubles title as well.

And after the 100th, the clincher against Parenteau, she ran to her mother Leigh and gave her a big hug – the first in a receiving line of congratulations from friends and family who cheered her own throughout the day.

Waters was as good Sunday as she ‘s been for her entire career. Nothing…

The last time the PPA Tour was in action Anna Bright and Matt Wright were the big winners.

Bright won a pair of gold medals and was the player of the tournament in Austin, scoring a pair of wins in mixed doubles and in women’s doubles, beating the seemingly unbeatable Anna Leigh Waters twice in the same day.

Meanwhile, Matt Wright picked up his first gold in 2024 in Austin and headed to North Carolina back with regular partner James Ignatowich.

So what the heck happened in North Carolina?

Hard to say, but Bright lost twice on Thursday, Ignatowich lost twice and Wright lost once. All were No. 2 seeds and all are out of the tournament making Thursday’s North Carolina Cup look like March Madness in the first week of April.

Here’s what happened: 

• No. 14 seeded Augustus Ge and Jaume Martinez-Vich topped Wright and Ignatowich in the round of 16 in the men’s draw, 11-6, 11-9.
• No. 22-seeded Todd Fought and Maggie Brascia beat Bright and Ignatowich, 11-4, 11-7 in the round of 16 in the mixed doubles draw.
• No. 15-seeded Audrey Banada and Sarah Ansboury beat Bright and Rohrabacher, 11-7, 1-11, 12-10 in the round of 16 women’s draw.

“I feel solid after that for sure,” Ansboury said. “It just feels like it was how I can play. I obviously…

The most-prolific female winner on the PPA Tour has a chance to turn 100 this weekend in North Carolina.

Anna Leigh Waters, just 17 years old, has 97 gold medals in her PPA career. She would reach the century mark if she wins gold in singles, doubles and mixed doubles at the North Carolina Cup in Cary, N.C.

Waters is the No. 1 seed in all three disciplines, and after Thursday’s play, she’s into the quarterfinal in all three disciplines as well.

Waters turned pro in 2019, won her first gold on the PPA Tour in the 2021 at the August Takeya Showcase when she beat Catherine Parenteau for the singles title.  

And 2023 was her most-dominant season. 

Waters won 47 medals – all golds – and averaged 2.76 first-place finishes per tournament.

Last year in singles, Waters won gold in 14 of the 17 tournaments she entered. In doubles, she was undefeated, taking 17 golds. In mixed doubles, she won 16 times in 17 tournaments, all but one coming with Ben Johns. She went on a streak of 60-plus wins in a row with Parenteau from 2023-24, at one point winning nine tournaments in a row.

Waters started 2024 with 20 triple crowns. Now she now has 23 triple crowns.

Waters is playing alongside Catherine Parenteau in doubles and with Johns in mixed doubles in North…

A shift in tactics is underway in the PPA. Have you noticed it, especially lately? If you think you’ve been seeing more third shot drives, you are right, and the numbers back it up.

Let’s compare the statistics on third shots in the three PPA gold medal doubles matches in each of the first five tournaments of this year to those same tournaments at the start of 2023. (3×5=15 matches total each year)

• 2023: 2,006 total third shots, 768 third shot drives: 38 percent.
• 2024: 1,782 total third shots, 915 third shot drives: 51 percent. 

That 13 percent increase in third shot drives is paralleled across the men’s, women’s, and mixed doubles categories:

• Men’s Doubles: 49 percent drives in 2023, 56 percent drives in 2024, a 7 percent increase.
• Women’s Doubles: 32 percent drives in 2023, 47 percent drives in 2024, a 15 percent increase.
• Mixed Doubles: 36 percent drives in 2023, 52 percent drives in 2024, a 16 percent increase.

Here’s another way to look at it. In 2023, None of the 15 finals matches had a combined third shot drive percentage over 60 percent. In 2024, five of the 15 finals matches were over 60 percent. The players in the men’s doubles final at the Indoor USA Championships chose third shot drive a startling 76 percent of the…