PPA Tour Indoor Championships – Fantasy Sit/Start Preview

We’re apparently still going to Minnesota in the dead of winter for the PPA International Indoor Championships, which means we get a slew of pros posting screenshots of the frigid temperature on social media. We get it. It is cold…Another tradition unlike any other for the PPA! 

One factor that could be overlooked for this tournament is the potential for a big let down weekend from some of the top players. Transitioning from beautiful Palm Springs, California with gorgeous weather to the grotesque negative Fahrenheit temperatures in Minnesota has to be as much of a reality check as it gets for touring pros.

These smaller events are an opportunity for the fringe contending players to get a shot at playing in bigger moments, but it also means that the top dogs need to remain focused, which is tough to do over a pretty grueling calendar year schedule. Ben Johns is not in Minnesota and Anna Leigh is not in the singles bracket so that should open up the draw significantly for other teams and players. 

Erik Tice also flagged that we should monitor the injury situations going into Minnesota. Jack Sock was not slated to play Minnesota but Hunter Johnson and Federico Staksrud are both dealing with injuries that make their status uncertain going into the week – they both played their early round doubles matches on Tuesday.

First Week Fantasy Recap 

If you are confused about how this season long fantasy works, here is the link to our original article that includes our 2026 Competition Structure, which somehow received less press coverage than MLP releasing its 2026 Competition Structure last week. Very rude. 

The worst part of this new season long fantasy pickleball is that it is way harder to calculate scoring from the tournament. We used to only have to capture points if teams won a medal, but that is no longer the case. There’s probably a bit too much overlap on our rosters when because we only have two fantasy teams’ worth of players because we each end up having several of the corresponding partners for players at the Masters – i.e. Anna Leigh vs. Anna Bright, Catherine vs. Rachel, Hayden vs. Christian etc. 

Aside from each of us benching the wrong players (Noe Khlif and Jack Sock in singles), the stacking of players was the biggest factor in the win. The Johnson siblings got upset in the quarterfinals, which would have given the win the other way. Instead, the Gabe/Ben and Kawamoto stacks swung the matchup big time. It wouldn’t have been possible for us to stack all the partners together with the snake draft format, but stacking more than we did was something we likely should have considered more. 

Start/Sits (Chris) 

The start/sit decisions are very easy this week for me in Minnesota. In fact, 3 of my women are not attending, the Kawamoto’s and Kate Fahey. That’s the danger that you get with picking the Kawamoto’s. Their finals appearance was a big factor in my victory last week, but now I’m one player short in my women’s lineup this week. 

As noted above, Ben Johns is not in attendance as he continues to be unable to see indoors (allegedly). Jay Devilliers is with Pablo Tellez this week so I’m sitting him as Eric Oncins and Dylan Frazier have a more favorable draw, and I’d rather take the upside for Frazier in men’s doubles without Ben in the field. Jessie/Jay have a clear path to the semis, but then will have to face Hayden/Anna, which theoretically caps Jay’s upside in mixed at a quarterfinal appearance anyway. 

I’m sitting Jack Sock and Anna Leigh in singles due to non-attendance. Concerningly, Brooke Buckner lost to Liz Truluck and almost lost in the quarters to Kiora Kunimoto. We’ll have to see if the Masters performance was an aberration or something more concerning. Parris Todd is also back, which was a surprise to me as I thought her suspension was for 2-events, but it is 1 PPA event and 1 MLP event. This is a good singles draw for Parris without ALW in the field. 

I will reluctantly be sitting Wyatt Stone again as my outside top 25 male. Wyatt has another strong partnership with fellow Austin-based resident, Dekel Bar, but I felt that the draws were more favorable for Will MacKinnon and Max Freeman. Riley Newman was taking far too much court in California with MacKinnon, and it’ll be interesting to see if they have worked some things out to allow Will to play with some more confidence on the left. Riley can’t be treating Will like he is Lindsey Newman. 

All of my outside the top 25 women are not in attendance so I won’t get any points there.

Start/Sits (Jer) 

After costing me the win last week, the Johnson’s go into hiding and decide to take a tournament off. This means that I sit them and do not have to consider benching them for their less than optimal performance at the Masters. 

I’m concerned about my singles roster. Hunter Johnson sounds like he has been dealing with a knee injury and Federico Staksrud got injured during his men’s doubles bronze medal match.

Kate Fahey is not in Minnesota, which means I have Kaitlyn Christian with the #1 seed and Catherine Parenteau in a wide open without Anna Leigh Waters field – Parenteau retired in game 2 against Jorja so who knows if she is even healthy. Christian had a weird Masters. She snuck by Milan Rane 11-9 in the third in the round of 16, took a game of ALW and then lost in the bronze to Liz Truluck, who is on notice as a potential contender after beating Buckner and Christian. 

Jack Sock is not in Minnesota and might be hurt anyway so AJ Koller gets the bump into the starting spot in a tough draw with the always intriguing Yuta Funemizu. Will Howells was in a good spot but then injured himself in his first round singles match so he is probably done for the week.

Cailyn Campbell is in a good place this week. She is partnering with Tina Pisnik and has a nice draw with Hard Eights connection partner, Riley Newman – it’s usually a good sign when newer players are securing better partners before the results are there because it means players are noticing the talent and are buying stock early. Elsie Hendershot is sitting because she is not playing Minnesota as well. 

Nothing is easy in singles these days for the men, but I liked what I saw from Tyson against Hunter Johnson at the Masters. He’ll get Max Freeman in the round of 32, which is a winnable match for him. Cailyn Campbell will get Milan Rane in her round of 32 match, which is also winnable but by no means is she favored.