PPA Tour Orange County Cup 2025 – 7 Takeaways – The Level of Pro Pickle Has Never Been Higher

It has been a refreshing change of pace to have had a break from PPAs. It meant that the PPA Orange County Cup in San Clemente, one of the PPA’s marquee events, was also a refreshing change of pace from the focus of the MLP season. As much as we are proponents of team-based pickleball, it feels like we should have some degree of tour-style events. The best-on-best competition is captivating when it isn’t the same best-on-best week in and week out.

While it remains difficult for us to see how we can get a larger group of people bought into following pro pickleball for essentially 12 months of the year, it is good for current pickleball fans to get an idea of how things are when the focus of pickleball is team vs. tour-based play. We’d be very interested to see what the livestream numbers have been like for MLP compared to the PPA this year. 

The consensus we can gauge from social media is that there is a preference for the tour-based events. However, we can no longer compare YouTube streaming numbers, which previously made it quite straightforward to gauge fan interest between the PPA, MLP, the APP, Nationals, US Open, and whatever other random pickleball was being streamed online. Live viewership numbers could very well be the best metric for measuring fan interest. Unfortunately, we are not privy to those numbers, so we are left to wildly speculate!

Honestly, there weren’t many big takeaways we had from the weekend outside of the more obvious stuff – Anna Leigh is really good, singles is volatile, there’s a top 4 of men’s doubles. There were a number of small things that we thought were worth noting, though, so that’s what the majority of the takeaways are for this week. 

1. The Level of Pro Pickle Has Never Been Higher It is not a revolutionary statement to proclaim that the level of pro pickleball has never been higher. This is what happens to sports as time goes on. More players start playing, technology and training improve, evolution occurs. All that jazz. At one of the biggest PPAs of the year, it is so clearly evident that pro pickleball has seen a major shift, even in the past calendar year, in terms of how good the level is. Singles is one thing, but the lack of free wins coming in these doubles draws is something to behold.

Yes, Gabe Tardio/Ben Johns won another gold medal (although, they lost in the finals in Atlanta). And Anna Leigh Waters triple-crowned yet again, which included another win with Ben Johns at her side. Even though we had a Championship Sunday that featured 3 of the 5 matches with mostly foregone conclusions, each day of the tournament showed that wins are less and less easy to come by for the best players in the sport.

There is a very clear top 4 grouping of men’s doubles teams on the PPA – Tardio/Johns, Patriquin/Staksrud, Klinger/Johnson, Alshon/Daescu. While that top 4 has established itself as a cut above the rest, we were not that far off a semi-final without 2 of those top 4 teams. 

Alshon/Daescu were pushed until about halfway through game 3 by the enigmatic DJ Young and Eric Oncins. CJ Klinger/JW Johnson had to grind for every point in a quarterfinal victory over Noe Khlif/Tyson McGuffin.It feels like any 4 of those teams could win a gold medal at any given tournament right now, but they also aren’t immune from suffering an earlier round loss against a tier 2 or tier 3 team.

We got to see how much better Anna Bright and Anna Leigh Waters are than Rachel Rohrbacher and Catherine Parenteau, once again. At the same time, the women’s depth continues to improve. 

The UPA Trailblazers, Yufei Long and Jamie Wei, had a major upset against Lacy Schneemann/Jorja Johnson and then followed it up with a solid win over Andrea Koop/Alix Truong. No matter how many unforced errors were made, the fact that two players that the UPA brought over as part of its Asian Trailblazers program were able to take down a legitimate top threat and another legitimate pro team shows how much better pickleball is.

Kaitlyn Christian and Milan Rane also took Parris Todd and Hurricane Tyra Black to a tight 3^rd game.

It really feels like things are more competitive than ever on the @PPAtour. 10 of the 24 doubles matchups from today went 3 games, and that does include the upsets from Long/Wei and Inn/Williams

— NML Pickleball (@NmlPickleball) June 20, 2025

The thing is, we are seeing the improvement of pickleball across the board in every area of the sport. The junior PPA events feature some very high-level play. Go to your local tournament and watch the 4.0 bracket, and it is not the 4.0 play that you used to know.

It is a byproduct of the evolution of the sport that every level is going to improve on an incremental level, and it is most apparent in not only the depth of play at the pro level but also the level of play. It is incredible to see how the sport has grown in so many ways, and this latest PPA might be the best example of how much better pro pickleball is than it ever has been.

2. The Johnsons Are Somehow Flying Under the Radar – When you don’t win gold medals, it is easy to fly under the radar. Unfortunately for JW and Jorja Johnson, Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns are a gauntlet, and that mountain is a tough one to overcome. The combination of two of the most elite hands for their respective genders, along with improved consistency from Jorja, has thrust the Johnsons into the clear #2 mixed team in pro pickleball. 

Despite the level of pro pickleball being higher than ever, the Johnsons as a mixed duo are losing less than they ever have before.

3. CJ Klinger Might be Figuring Out Mixed – There might not be a player whose stock has risen more in the last year than CJ Klinger. It has been a slow burn improvement over his pickleball career, but CJ is officially an elite men’s doubles player. Full stop.

The mixed results, on the other hand, have not seen as rapid of an improvement in that time. We have never seen a lefty male create a top mixed team. The dearth of lefties in the game, combined with the difficulty of finding a female that is comfortable playing on the left in mixed, has not been a good formula for the lefty men.

Mari Humberg has been CJ’s steady PPA partner since she officially signed with the UPA, and they finally had a big run in mixed together in San Clemente. Not only is Klinger covering the court and playing bigger than he ever has, but his decision-making in mixed was much better this past week. He’s also got a couple of shots up his sleeves that no one else in pro pickleball has.

We’ll have to see if Klinger and Humberg can be a more consistent threat at PPAs going forward, but San Clemente was a very good start.

4. Speaking of Mari Humberg – It was the best tournament for Mari Humberg by far in 2025. She made it to the semi-finals in mixed as well as in women’s doubles with her new 5’s teammate, Meghan Dizon. Their women’s run was aided by a Long/Wei upset of Schneemann/Johnson, but that’s how the draws shake out sometimes. They had a tight win over Pisnik/Fahey and ended up losing in the semis to the, for now, unbeatable Annas.

We had Humberg as stock down after the last PPA in Atlanta and had questions about whether the field has figured her game out. One tournament is one tournament, but she sure just does things on the court that other women can’t do, including having higher-end finishing power. Maybe a little MLP Premier boost here for Humberg? Either way, it was an encouraging event for Mari Humberg.

5. Zane Ford Crashing Out – Beyond some notable freakout-type events from Zane Ford in his first year on the PPA Tour, including his San Clemente “crash out” that was picked up by outlets like TMZ and The Daily Mail, there is some recent stuff with Ford’s results that could be reason for doubting his upward trajectory.

We had wondered earlier in the year whether his style and extreme grip were optimal for the highest level of doubles success. He’s still a young guy with a lot of natural talent, but we can’t help wonder if there is a lower long-term ceiling for guys trying to play the way Zane Ford is. 

6. Judit Castillo Balling Out – Before moving over to the PPA full-time, the singles results hadn’t been great for Castillo. In the quick rally scoring world of the APP, she wasn’t a dominant force by any means. After almost losing to Jessie Irvine, 13-11 in the third, earlier in the week, she came back strong with a win over Kaitlyn Christian and a relatively tight loss to Anna Leigh Waters. She then took bronze over Brooke Buckner in 3, 12-10 in the third. Notably, Castillo had a nice mixed win with Wyatt Stone over Chao Yi Wang and Pablo Tellez. 

All in all, a very strong week for a player that we have had growing doubts about. 

7. Garnett’s Grit and Grind – It would seem impossible to have a straight games quarterfinal victory after being down 9-2 and 10-0 in singles, but Connor Garnett did it against Jack Sock.

We wrote about the Utah Black Diamonds and their never say die attitude recently, so it shouldn’t be as surprising that Garnett simply won’t quit. 

The doubles game remains limited with his more extreme grip at the kitchen and inability to create offense out of the air, but he maximizes what he can get with his skill set because of how he can fight in all 3 disciplines.  Garnett and Travis Rettenmaier had a strong quarterfinal run in men’s and even took a game off Alshon/Daescu. 

It was another good event for the leader of Twoey Nation. 

Agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments or email us at nmlpickleball@gmail.com! You can also follow us on X, Instagram and Facebook @nmlpickleball