PPA Tour North Carolina Open – 6 Takeaways – First Half Review

It’s only April but the new division of the schedule between PPAs and MLPs means that the first half of the year is already over on the tour side of things. There are a couple of PPA events that will be held in the summer in Atlanta and Orange County. However, the focus shifts to MLP the year will kick off in Orlando at the end of the month. 

Since MLP’s inception in 2021, we have never had the focus of pro pickleball fall almost entirely to the team aspect of the sport. We are optimistic that this separation of the two styles of events will be beneficial to pro pickleball as a whole. Things get lost from both the tour and the team side of the sport when we are constantly shifting focus between one another over the course of a calendar year. 

With the conclusion of the North Carolina event somewhat marking the end of the first half of the PPA season, we thought it would be a good time to bring some takeaways for all of 2025.   

1. Has Parity Finally Arrived to the PPA? –Parity is a finicky concept in pro sports. The essence of sports is tied to the idea of unpredictability. The essence of pro sports hinges on fans and fan bases believing that anything can happen. 

Conversely, star power is what drives eyeballs to any professional sport. There was a lot of hatred to the idea of super teams in the NBA, but the NBA would kill for the ratings that those Miami Heat and Golden State Warriors teams brought to basketball. Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic won almost every major for about 20 years but those were some of the greatest years of fan engagement that tennis has ever seen. The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers spend a ridiculous amount of money to build competitive teams, and all the networks do is hope that one of those big markets makes a deep playoff run. 

Like most everything in life, balance is the key. You need enough parity for fans to want to sit in front of a TV for 2 hours and see what the outcome of a game is. At the same time, you need enough stars for fans to cheer for and against. You need names that are recognizable because the connection with the athletes is what drives engagement. 

Recency bias is always in mind but 2025 has felt like the most chaotic set of results we have seen in professional pickleball over the past few years at the top of the food chain. In North Carolina, we saw Anna Leigh Waters fall in mixed and women’s doubles, which meant that Ben Johns also failed to win in mixed. ALW didn’t play singles but it was the first time ALW has not come away with a gold medal at a tournament since Austin last year. 

While the results have felt chaotic in 2025, it has felt like a controlled level of chaos, which is exactly what pro pickleball needs. 

People can be drawn into the rivalry narratives that we have seen over past couple of years – Johns vs. Newman/Wright and ALW/Parenteau vs. Bright/Rohrabacher. However, having some of the unexpected results from Texas and North Carolina sprinkled in a little more often is far more optimal from a viewership standpoint. Having most of the draw be a foregone conclusion prior to the final is not ideal long-term. 

In North Carolina, we had the Kawamotos take down Bright/Rohrbacher in 3 games before losing to the eventual champs, Jorja Johnson and Tyra Black, in the semi-finals. Tyra/Jorja beat ALW/CP in precisely the type of unpredictable match result that pro pickleball needs to see every once in a while. 

MLP was such a breath of fresh air to pro pickleball because it suddenly was not a foregone conclusion that Ben Johns would win every time he stepped onto the court. Now, Ben Johns has to work for every gold medal he wins in men’s doubles. Prior to her split with Catherine Parenteau, ALW wasn’t getting a free pass in women’s doubles anymore. If we could sprinkle in some mixed losses for the dreaded ALW/Ben duo, we are giving a reason for people to watch the entire tournament. 

It’s too early to say with 100% certainty that the results we saw in NC are a definite sign of things to come in latter half of 2025, especially with the super team creation of Bright and Waters. We are at the end of heavy stretch of tournaments for these players who have added yet another day to their playing schedule with the new semi-progressive draw and had some JOOLA pros come off a fairly lengthy tour of Asia. Most significantly, at least Bright and ALW must have been aware in some capacity that they were playing through a pending partnership breakup. 

Nevertheless, the level of pickleball continues to get better across the board. Christian Alshon/Andrei Daescu are undoubtedly a top 3 men’s doubles team, and they were upset 12-10 in the third by Eric Oncins/Dylan Frazier. There was a time not too long ago when Dylan/JW would be a virtual lock to lose to the Johns brothers in the gold medal match, and now JW is having trouble getting out of quarterfinals.

We have been desperately praying for more parity at these events and just when it feels like it has finally arrived, Bright and Waters may have taken some of that away. In our eyes, the hope is that we still have the stars of the sport remain at the top of the game but there are challengers constantly nipping at their heels. Random results every so often are fun but, as we know, it wouldn’t be all that interesting if teams like the Cleveland Guardians and Arizona Diamondbacks go at it in the World Series every year.

We want to see greatness. Just not too much of it. Is that a lot to ask for? 

2. What is next for Anna Leigh Waters? – In a rather unexpected plot twist, Catherine Parenteau announced on Monday afternoon that she and Anna Leigh Waters will no longer be playing together. Shortly after, it was reported by Pickleball.com that Anna Leigh Waters and Anna Bright would be teaming up together for the rest of 2025.  A subsequent interview of Catherine Parenteau by Hannah Johns of Pickleball.com revealed that Parenteau received the call from Waters about the breakup on Monday.

After over 2 years of near dominance, Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau are no more. 

The partnership opportunity with Anna Leigh Waters created a renaissance of sorts for Parenteau’s career and has allowed people to mostly forget about (if they were even aware) of the issues with her past partnership treatment that overshadowed her initial partnership with Anna Leigh at Nationals in 2022.  The breakup also marks the end for the made from scratch ‘Girlies’ duo that began after Rohrabacher’s surprise selection by the Orlando Squeeze in season 2 of the 2023 MLP season. It led to a meteoric rise for Rohrabacher, who had parlayed her partnership and relationship with Anna Bright into the #2 women’s doubles team in pickleball and probably the most popular partnership in all of pickleball.  

Now, Parenteau and Rohrabacher are left scrambling to replace what would be considered as close to irreplaceable partners, at least at this moment in time. 

The bigger story coming from all of this is the combined star power at the top of the women’s doubles game and what life will look like for the unquestioned best female in the pro game. 

Parenteau has represented a great partner for ALW over the past couple of years. She reinvented herself as primarily a beta, ball-maker who could let Anna Leigh cook on either the left or the right. Although the move was unexpected, it is not entirely shocking. Anna Leigh Waters wants to be the best and it does appear that Parenteau’s status at the top of the sport is diminishing (we had also thought this at the end of 2022 but here we are). Given their success, it is easy to question why the Waters family would choose to make the decision to move on, but it’s a move that feels Bill Belichickian in almost every way. 

One of Belichick’s biggest strengths as a coach and GM was his ability to move on from players before their time was up. He let other teams sign his players for big money and dictated decisions based on expected future performance rather than historical performance and emotional attachment. 

Anna Leigh Waters is dropping Parenteau for a player on the rise and at the top of the game, and she is doing it before Parenteau’s level of play drops to the point where they aren’t winning the vast majority of events. 

Anna Bright has been tapped on the shoulder by ALW to play the remainder of 2025 together and Bright has obliged. The two of them played a handful of events in 2023 when ALW was splitting time between Bright and Parenteau, and won gold every time out. Bright has been ALW’s #1 rival on the women’s side for the past couple of years and she has the versatility to play either side, even if she has primarily been a left-side women’s doubles player. 

It will be a major surprise if ALW and Anna Bright don’t completely dominate the women’s doubles scene for the rest of 2025. It’s not always as easy as putting to two best players together, but it sure feels like it should be that easy in this scenario. 

One other question this split brings up is whether Anna Leigh Waters has any thoughts of moving on from Ben Johns. They have not been completely wrecking the field in 2025 and there is one obvious candidate potentially waiting in the wings who offers immense upside for future success. Christian Alshon is coached by Leigh Waters and has been playing like a monster all year. However, a partnership with Alshon likely carries with it the unspoken complication that anyone following pro pickleball closely is keenly aware of.  It is unclear to us how intertwined the Waters family is with Christian Alshon at this very moment, but their proximity with one another seems like the biggest barrier to any future ALW/Alshon on-court partnership. 

Outside of Alshon, there would be no reason for Anna Leigh to move on from Ben, unless they weren’t getting along for some reason. There isn’t another player in mixed that would be able to bring the level that ALW is looking for outside of Ben Johns and Christian Alshon right now. And it’s still not a certainty that Alshon could bring the consistency that Ben Johns provides every tournament. 

Unfortunately for parity, it looks like the next chapter for Anna Leigh Waters is going to include a lot of winning, no matter who she plays with. 

*As an FYI, we will have more thoughts on Anna Bright’s decision in an article that will be posted tomorrow*

3. Flash Mob Girlies – The OG Girlies may be done before they were able to drop a 2^nd wave of merchandise, but the Dallas Flash women are on a roll and a half. 2025 has been a fruitful year for both Jorja Johnson and Hurricane Tyra Black. Dying partnership aside, the pair were able to take down ALW and Catherine Parenteau in 4 games in the North Carolina final on Sunday, and Jorja Johnson also secured a mixed gold over ALW/Ben Johns alongside her brother, JW. 

Tyra and Jorja have been two of the most intriguing talents in pro pickleball. Jorja, still in her teenage years, is representative of the youth movement in pickleball and brings that age related upside that may not have been as apparent when she started playing with her brother at APPs. While Black’s athleticism remains unmatched on the female side, her unconventional style combined with questions about her grind mentality left us wondering whether the potential would remain untapped. 

It is evident that both Johnson and Black have made significant strides in their games and the results have reflected that. 

Jorja has versatility to play both left and right side as demonstrated by their women’s run in North Carolina. However, since transitioning to primarily a right-sider in 2024, Jorja’s results have improved dramatically as she seems to be optimized as a right-side beast. These can be chicken/egg type of questions, but the consistency is often easier for players on the right side of the court. There’s less decisions to be made on the right and that has enabled Jorja to highlight her biggest strengths, which are her hands and firepower.  

The dramatic fall of JW Johnson in the 2024 MLP draft ironically might have been the best thing for Jorja Johnson. The money that Dallas had left to spend allowed them to secure Jorja Johnson as their first female in the draft but then uniquely pair her with a capable, left side female in Tyra Black. It’s the antithesis of every MLP situation that Vivienne David has ever found herself in. After Jorja’s finals run with the Hard Eights in 2022, she was drafted as a #1 left-side female based on her upside and high-end mixed results, but it became apparent that may not have been the role best suited for her. 

That’s not to say that without the Dallas Flash situation Jorja wouldn’t be where she is today, but it sure has not hurt her. Black has continued to get better through her natural talent to become a rare left-side female who can easily take a lot of court when necessary.  Black’s defence and hands alongside the continued improvement of Jorja’s consistency and unique ability to initiate offence from the right has been just what the doctor has ordered for both of them. 

The rare thing that Dallas was able to secure in the early-middle part of the 2024 draft were two women that still had lots of room to get better. Their growth has continued through 2025 as they have found their path to being elite players on their respective MLP sides while still being versatile enough to play the other side when needed. 

As we head into the start of the MLP season, Dallas has a huge edge on the rest of the field as they have two elite women who are still scratching the surface of what their ultimate ceiling is. 

4. Revisiting the Eric Oncins Trade – Eric Oncins is on the come up. The last two events have been a coming out party for the 2024 MLP Challenger champion. Oncins and Truong had a big run in mixed highlighted by a win and epic photo following their win against Catherine Parenteau/Christian Alshon in Texas. Oncins followed up that 4^th place finish in mixed with a bronze medal in men’s doubles with Dylan Frazier in North Carolina. It didn’t seem possible, but Oncins provided another post-match viral type moment against Christian Alshon as his extra celebration invited a middle finger directed his way from Alshon following their upset win over Daescu/Alshon. 

The MLP season hasn’t started, and the declarations are already being made regarding the trade for Noe Khlif and cash being a huge win for the Texas Ranchers. It’s hard to disagree with those declarations. As much as we still like Khlif’s steady Eddy ball-making game, it already looks like the upside of Oncins is proving itself to be elite level. 

We continue to learn more about the business of the sport and that trades are sometimes about more than what meets the eye in terms of compensation. We flagged this possibility in our trade reaction post to the Oncins trade. 

Our initial reaction to the trade was that we thought the upside gamble was understandable for the Ranchers. We had expressed concern with the trade from the standpoint that Miami was intimately familiar with both Khlif and Oncins and had seemingly chosen Khlif and some money over Oncins. The rumor mill is a dangerous thing, but it sounds like not only did Texas pay the max or close to the max to get Oncins, but there may be some behind the scenes business stuff that led to giving Oncins a better winning situation than what he had with a more thrifty Miami franchise. 

All of that is to say that there’s a very good chance our premise that Miami chose Khlif over Oncins was incorrect. Instead, a frugal Miami franchise may have chosen to do good by its potential star in the making and was able to recoup some cash as well as a solid Premier level starter in exchange.  

Leaving aside the dynamics that may have gone into the trade, the Oncins/Alshon experience could be a wild ride for Texas. The ceiling for their men is as high as any team in MLP from a men’s and mixed standpoint, but the obvious question is whether they are going to be able to gel together. 

Our expectation is that any bad blood will subside. There should be defined roles in men’s doubles for the two of them and the animosity Alshon has shown towards Oncins has come prior to them getting to know each other. As much as winning cures all that ails, the flip side is that if the Ranchers struggle at all, it could create tension within the team. It will be one of the top storylines to monitor as we head into the MLP season. 

5. The State of Modern Pickleball – More talent and faster paddles have changed the game of pickleball quite dramatically over the past few years. For all the talk about the modern game and the alleged death of dinking, the top level of the pro game is becoming much more difficult to break into, especially in men’s doubles. 

There has undoubtedly been a modernization in how the game is played, but it is not as easy as taking someone with other high level racquet talent and plopping them onto the pickleball court. It has become apparent that pickleball skills, including dinking, and experience may be needed more than ever to be able to compete at the top level. 

We are seeing players rise through the ranks quickly like Eric Oncins, Noe Khlif, Zane Ford and Quang Duong. However, it appears there may be an inflection point for how far the modernization of pickleball can go. 

At the end of 2024, Quang Duong was seen as the prime example of the modern way of pickleball. It’s possible that, by the end of 2025, we could be seeing Quang Duong as a prime example of a modern player who hasn’t adapted enough to pickleball rather than a pioneer of the new way the game is played. 

Duong’s doubles results have stagnated in 2025, and he has taken some tough losses along the way. He’s still playing with his extreme grip up at the kitchen line and plays as far off the line than any male in the pro game, except maybe Altaf Merchant. His rock ‘em, sock ‘em bash ball style was effective for much of 2024 but there’s a real question to be asked as to whether players have figured out how to play Duong. Currently, Quang is not dangerous to the top players who can neutralize his pace. 

Christian Alshon may be the embodiment of modern pickleball. Leigh Waters is making him dink 100 balls in a row yet there might not be anyone out there as dangerous on any given ball than Alshon at the kitchen. Nothing is safe. At the same time, he’s improved his hands substantially where he is no longer vulnerable to attacks at his body. 

Although Eric Oncins is playing a bash and crash style, he is doing old school things like using holding the line at the kitchen and using his length to take balls out of the air, which allows him to be dangerous to speed up anything semi-attackable. He has added a two-hand roll dink more recently, but his old school foundation allows him to optimize the modern aspects of his game. 

Zane Ford will be a fascinating test case. He’s very talented, playing with a fairly extreme grip and is playing more like a pickleball player up at the net than someone like Quang. The question for guys like Ford, whose foundation for play is tennis and modern pickleball, is whether they can, or even need to, bring in some of those old school concepts to be a truly elite player in the men’s game.  

The extreme grip that Quang and, to a certain extent Ford, use make it very difficult to protect their body off speed-ups or attack out of the air on the backhand side. There are other players out there like Riley Newman and Yuta Funemizu using super extreme grips to try to protect their body with the forehand counter, which is interesting but likely creates another set of issues to address. 

What we’ll continue to monitor is whether these guys who can’t counter and attack in standard ways can hold up at the highest level of men’s doubles. When you look at the list of the top ranked men’s doubles players, not a single one of those players is unable to execute this basic principle of pickleball, except for Riley Newman who has seen his stock fall precipitously over the past two years. There’s a lot of other stuff these guys do that make them elite, but it does seem that some of these basic principles of pickleball may be an absolute necessity to be on top in the modern game.  These modern “game changers” of pickleball may find themselves plateauing if they refuse to adapt. 

6. Which females are going to breakout in 2025? – With the PPA winding down and MLP winding up, this is where we start to see the breakthroughs happening in pro pickleball. The opportunity to compete against the best on the biggest stage presents itself far earlier for newer players in the MLP format. We saw it in 2023 with Rachel Rohrabacher and we saw it in 2024 with Kate Fahey and Mari Humberg. 

In looking at the PPA doubles rankings for 2025, the list is stacked with known commodities. It speaks to what we noted earlier with the increased quantity of talent making it harder to breakthrough than ever in pro pickleball. Conversely, the women’s game is still riper for new talent to break-in because the talent pool isn’t nearly as deep as the men’s side. 

It is inevitable that we will at least see a breakout player or two on the female side in 2025. It would be a statistical anomaly if that didn’t happen at some point this calendar year. 

What is interesting on the women’s side is that, while it should be easier for new players to break in, we really haven’t seen that many new players burst on the scene over the past year to a year and a half. We noted Kate Fahey and Mari Humberg above. Outside of that, Chao Yi Wang has somewhat broken through but the higher end results have not really come in either mixed or women’s doubles for her. 

We have a number of mostly unknown names that were newly drafted to Premier for MLP – Victoria DiMuzio (Atlanta), Genie Bouchard (Phoenix), Mehvish Safdar (Utah), Mya Bui (Miami), Samantha Parker (Orlando), Helena Spiridis (New York), Helena Jansen (Texas) and some other players that we haven’t listed. 

The problem with this exclusivity business is that the second and third class PPA signed players have suffered from not getting enough reps in. They win a match against a bad team or play a tough match against a relatively equal team, and then they lose handily to a top team. The cycle repeats itself the next tournament. It has not been conducive for the growth of talent on the PPA as the lack of tournament reps for those players insulates the old guard from newer talent. 

The PPA has recently implemented its Challenger Tour in an effort to combat how hard it is for new players to come onto the scene. Helena Jansen had a good run in a recent PPA Challenger event and it’s going to be important to players of Jansen’s calibre to grind those reps at crummy events rather than accept the inevitable 0-1 and 1-1 days that come with being a lower class PPA signed pro. 

Victoria DiMuzio and Mehvish Safdar have had the benefit of playing with some higher end partners already in 2025. In a small sample size, though, neither of them jump off the page for us as future elite stars of the sport. We’ll remain intrigued on Mya Bui as her raw tools look to be elite. Genie Bouchard doesn’t appear to be practicing again. 2025 has been another year of basically no notable doubles results for Samantha Parker. Helena Jansen is seeing some singles results, but she also has more PPA experience under her belt than some of these newer players listed. 

All of that is to say is that, from our perspective, things don’t look super promising for the new wave of female talent. We’re inevitably going to be wrong on some of these early assessments, but we also think it is notable that we haven’t had anyone show flashes of being on the verge of a breakout since probably Mari Humberg and Chao Yi Wang before the 2024 MLP draft and Kate Fahey after the 2024 MLP draft. 

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