Las Vegas Lights Up: Waters Chases Career Title No. 200 as the PPA Tour Returns With Its Biggest Stars
Las Vegas Lights Up: Waters Chases Career Title No. 200 as the PPA Tour Returns With Its Biggest Stars
The Rate Las Vegas Open kicks off today with more than $1 million in prize money, the return of Bright, Patriquin and Tardio, and unfinished business at the Darling Tennis Center
The PPA Tour is swapping one desert for another. Just a week after Mesa, the tour lands in Las Vegas for the Rate Las Vegas Open, running September 28 through October 4 at the Darling Tennis Center. It's the second Open of the 2026-27 season, with 1,000 ranking points going to the champion of every division and $1,063,327 in total payouts. And unlike Arizona, where several top players skipped the trip, this time the field arrives at nearly full strength.
Anna Leigh Waters and the countdown to title No. 200
One number hangs over the entire tournament: 200. Anna Leigh Waters isn't playing singles this week, but she arrives in Las Vegas just two titles shy of 200 career PPA Tour titles. The path is easy to explain and hard to pull off: win women's doubles with Anna Bright and mixed doubles with Ben Johns.
The terrain favors her. Waters and Johns have won mixed doubles in Las Vegas four years in a row, while Waters and Bright are the defending women's doubles champions. If the script holds, the milestone arrives in the same desert where they've already made history.
The partnerships are back
Three heavyweight names who missed Mesa are back, and with them return several of the tour's most established partnerships. Anna Bright returns alongside Waters in women's doubles and with Hayden Patriquin in mixed, where they enter as the No. 2 seed. Gabe Tardio reunites with Johns in men's doubles and teams up with Tyra Black in mixed. Just like that, the doubles draws are considerably stronger than they were a week ago.
Women's singles, wide open
LOVE PICKLEBALL?
Get Dink Authority Magazine updates, new editions, pro stories and event alerts.
We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime.
With Waters out of singles, somebody leaves Las Vegas with a title that usually has an owner. Kate Fahey arrives as the No. 1 seed and knows how to win here: she took the singles title in 2024. Kaitlyn Christian, Lea Jansen and Zoey Wang follow behind her. And there's a comeback storyline: Genie Bouchard, last year's finalist and this year's No. 7 seed, hasn't played on the PPA Tour in nearly five months. The question is how much rust she's carrying.
One-week surprises, or the start of something bigger?
Mesa put some new names on the map. Jalina Ingram made noise in women's singles. Young players Kiora Kunimoto and Elliott Schupp broke through in mixed doubles and run it back together, though as the No. 34 seed. And Nico Acevedo, who reached the men's doubles final as the No. 15 seed before losing that 91-minute classic, now plays alongside Jaume Martinez Vich. This week we find out whether those runs were luck or a signal.
A rematch with two hours and 28 minutes of history
Christian Alshon and Andrei Daescu arrive as Mesa champions, with some unfinished business at this very venue. Last year's Las Vegas final against Johns and Tardio lasted two hours and 28 minutes, ending 12-10 in Game 5 in favor of Johns's pair. Johns and Tardio return as defending champions and the No. 1 seed. If fate crosses their paths again, Sunday could run very long.
The bye system is still making headlines
In men's singles, the new world ranking system keeps producing odd scenes: Ben Johns (seeded No. 19) and Eric Oncins (No. 20) both get double byes straight into the Round of 16 despite low seeds. It's the same system that sent the No. 1 player to start in the Round of 64 in Mesa, and how long it lasts is anyone's guess. Chris Haworth, the Arizona champion, is looking to go back-to-back, and an Alshon-Johns quarterfinal would be one of the most appealing matchups in the draw. Oncins, by the way, is the same player who partnered with Noé Khlif in doubles last week in Arizona.
An absence with a very good reason
Missing from women's doubles are Rachel Rohrabacher and Parris Todd, the Mesa champions. Rohrabacher got married this weekend, so she's taking the week for what really matters. Good news has its own priorities.
The heat, another main character
The first days could bring thunderstorms, but the real story will be the heat: temperatures in the 90s Fahrenheit midweek, approaching or exceeding 100 degrees over the weekend. Leaving Mesa doesn't mean leaving the desert heat behind.
How to watch
Coverage begins Thursday with the Round of 16 (Pacific times, with Eastern equivalents in parentheses):
Thursday, October 1, Round of 16: 2pm-10pm PT (5pm-1am ET), PickleballTV
Friday, October 2, Quarterfinals: 2pm-10pm PT (5pm-1am ET), PickleballTV
Saturday, October 3, Semifinals: 1pm-9pm PT (4pm-12am ET), PickleballTV
Sunday, October 4, Championships: 10am-3pm PT (1pm-6pm ET) on PickleballTV, and 10am-2pm PT (1pm-5pm ET) also on Tennis Channel
Meanwhile, the future keeps moving too
While the world's best fight it out in the desert, the PPA announced on September 22 the Junior PPA Select Team, a new development pathway for young players within the tour. In a week when Mesa just showed that teenagers are ready to compete at the highest level, the message fits perfectly.
Las Vegas is ready. So are we.
Las Vegas Lights Up: Waters Chases Career Title No. 200 as the PPA Tour Returns With Its Biggest Stars
The Rate Las Vegas Open kicks off today with more than $1 million in prize money, the return of Bright, Patriquin and Tardio, and unfinished business at the Darling Tennis Center
The PPA Tour is swapping one desert for another. Just a week after Mesa, the tour lands in Las Vegas for the Rate Las Vegas Open, running September 28 through October 4 at the Darling Tennis Center. It's the second Open of the 2026-27 season, with 1,000 ranking points going to the champion of every division and $1,063,327 in total payouts. And unlike Arizona, where several top players skipped the trip, this time the field arrives at nearly full strength.
Anna Leigh Waters and the countdown to title No. 200
One number hangs over the entire tournament: 200. Anna Leigh Waters isn't playing singles this week, but she arrives in Las Vegas just two titles shy of 200 career PPA Tour titles. The path is easy to explain and hard to pull off: win women's doubles with Anna Bright and mixed doubles with Ben Johns.
The terrain favors her. Waters and Johns have won mixed doubles in Las Vegas four years in a row, while Waters and Bright are the defending women's doubles champions. If the script holds, the milestone arrives in the same desert where they've already made history.
The partnerships are back
Three heavyweight names who missed Mesa are back, and with them return several of the tour's most established partnerships. Anna Bright returns alongside Waters in women's doubles and with Hayden Patriquin in mixed, where they enter as the No. 2 seed. Gabe Tardio reunites with Johns in men's doubles and teams up with Tyra Black in mixed. Just like that, the doubles draws are considerably stronger than they were a week ago.
Women's singles, wide open
LOVE PICKLEBALL?
Get Dink Authority Magazine updates, new editions, pro stories and event alerts.
We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime.
With Waters out of singles, somebody leaves Las Vegas with a title that usually has an owner. Kate Fahey arrives as the No. 1 seed and knows how to win here: she took the singles title in 2024. Kaitlyn Christian, Lea Jansen and Zoey Wang follow behind her. And there's a comeback storyline: Genie Bouchard, last year's finalist and this year's No. 7 seed, hasn't played on the PPA Tour in nearly five months. The question is how much rust she's carrying.
One-week surprises, or the start of something bigger?
Mesa put some new names on the map. Jalina Ingram made noise in women's singles. Young players Kiora Kunimoto and Elliott Schupp broke through in mixed doubles and run it back together, though as the No. 34 seed. And Nico Acevedo, who reached the men's doubles final as the No. 15 seed before losing that 91-minute classic, now plays alongside Jaume Martinez Vich. This week we find out whether those runs were luck or a signal.
A rematch with two hours and 28 minutes of history
Christian Alshon and Andrei Daescu arrive as Mesa champions, with some unfinished business at this very venue. Last year's Las Vegas final against Johns and Tardio lasted two hours and 28 minutes, ending 12-10 in Game 5 in favor of Johns's pair. Johns and Tardio return as defending champions and the No. 1 seed. If fate crosses their paths again, Sunday could run very long.
The bye system is still making headlines
In men's singles, the new world ranking system keeps producing odd scenes: Ben Johns (seeded No. 19) and Eric Oncins (No. 20) both get double byes straight into the Round of 16 despite low seeds. It's the same system that sent the No. 1 player to start in the Round of 64 in Mesa, and how long it lasts is anyone's guess. Chris Haworth, the Arizona champion, is looking to go back-to-back, and an Alshon-Johns quarterfinal would be one of the most appealing matchups in the draw. Oncins, by the way, is the same player who partnered with Noé Khlif in doubles last week in Arizona.
An absence with a very good reason
Missing from women's doubles are Rachel Rohrabacher and Parris Todd, the Mesa champions. Rohrabacher got married this weekend, so she's taking the week for what really matters. Good news has its own priorities.
The heat, another main character
The first days could bring thunderstorms, but the real story will be the heat: temperatures in the 90s Fahrenheit midweek, approaching or exceeding 100 degrees over the weekend. Leaving Mesa doesn't mean leaving the desert heat behind.
How to watch
Coverage begins Thursday with the Round of 16 (Pacific times, with Eastern equivalents in parentheses):
Thursday, October 1, Round of 16: 2pm-10pm PT (5pm-1am ET), PickleballTV
Friday, October 2, Quarterfinals: 2pm-10pm PT (5pm-1am ET), PickleballTV
Saturday, October 3, Semifinals: 1pm-9pm PT (4pm-12am ET), PickleballTV
Sunday, October 4, Championships: 10am-3pm PT (1pm-6pm ET) on PickleballTV, and 10am-2pm PT (1pm-5pm ET) also on Tennis Channel
Meanwhile, the future keeps moving too
While the world's best fight it out in the desert, the PPA announced on September 22 the Junior PPA Select Team, a new development pathway for young players within the tour. In a week when Mesa just showed that teenagers are ready to compete at the highest level, the message fits perfectly.
Las Vegas is ready. So are we.
