The finals of the 2024 CIBC Tour, the Professional Pickleball Association’s (PPA) year-long “race,” took place last weekend in San Clemente. The Tour’s two top players, Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns, both won triple crowns to cap up their 2023 seasons with a bang, and last year’s inaugural Tour Finals event was a coronation of two dominant seasons. Since then, the tour has advanced significantly, and the 2024 tournament produced radically different outcomes this time, particularly for the men’s division.
We released two pieces in the run-up to this event: a response to the Player Pools being chosen and a detailed preview and prediction post that won’t hold up over time given the insane pool play outcomes we just saw.
PPA Tour
Click here to access the event’s PickleballBrackets.com home page, which includes tournament information, draw sheets, and results.
Note: No matches for bronze medals were held here. The top-scoring semifinalist is noted in my Medal Tracker, but they are not given credit for a medal. A reminder about the competition: the ATP pool and the Erne pool were the two round-robin groups. A knockout round then decided the medalists.
Recap of Men’s Pro Singles
The top two seeds in the ATP Pool emerged victorious from a group that ultimately fell flat against the preliminary seeds. I predicted that Hunter Johnson would defeat Federico Staksrud, the top seed, in the third game of their meeting, but Fed defeated Hunter 11–8 to guarantee the top seed going into the knockout round. Johnson and Staksrud move forward.
There was an early upset in the Erne Pool when Tyson McGuffin defeated the sluggish top seed Ben Johns in two tight matches. Despite being the group’s lowest seed, McGuffin was undoubtedly on fire this weekend, going 3-0 and winning the title. Dark horse group favorite Quang Duong left the competition minutes after defeating Connor Garnett due to a worsening of the same knee ailment he has been dealing with for weeks.
PPA Tour
Pablo Tellez, who filled in for Duong, almost got double-pickled by McGuffin and ended up last in the group. Last year’s winner and second-ranked Johns did not even make it to the playoffs as Johns was surprisingly defeated by Garnett 3,9, who ultimately advanced as the second seed by point differential.
To earn his fourth gold medal appearance in the past three months, Johnson dominated McGuffin 1,7 in the first semifinal of the elimination stages. Garnett defeated Staksrud 11-3 in the third game of the other semifinal to go to 4-3 against this year’s top player and force a rematch of Hunter’s Atlanta Grand Slam singles final. After starting the season with almost zero rating points and needing to qualify for the main events, Johnson’s victory over Garnett in the final placed a climax on his season.
Recap of Women’s Pro Singles
As expected, Anna Leigh Waters (ALW), ranked first in the ATP Pool, advanced while giving out a few donuts. Lacy Schneemann finished with a score of 0-3. She took the spot of No. 5 Salome Devidze, who arrived late to the event. The 2024 singles star, Kate Fahey, is seen by many as a strong contender to defeat ALW. She played a tough group round match against ALW, losing 10-7. However, she also lost to Parris Todd and failed to advance to the knockout stages. Todd and ALW step forward.
Kaitlyn Christian secured match points in game two of the Erne Pool after defeating Catherine Parenteau. The 65-minute struggle gave her an early lead despite the last-minute withdrawal of No. 2 ranked Brooke Buckner.
Christian secured passage by eliminating the lowest-seeded Mary Brascia. He then defeated the unbeaten Jorja Johnson, who replaced Bucker after her last-minute withdrawal, to complete the sweep. The longtime No. 2 ranked singles player was shocked. Brascia took full advantage of the situation and defeated Parenteau 11-7 in the third, clinching the second elimination spot. Brascia moves forward with Christian.
Waters continued her stellar 2024 singles season in the elimination stages by defeating Brascia 0.6 in the opening semifinal. Todd defeated Christian 8,6 in the other semifinal, securing her and ALW’s third gold medal match of the season. One of the few players who has ever defeated Waters on a singles court had to meet her in the final; in June 2022, Todd defeated Waters on the same court to win the Orange County Cup. On this particular day, though, there were no surprises as Waters easily won the title with a score of 9.4.
Anna Leigh Waters is the gold. Silver: Todd Parris
Recap of Mixed Pro Doubles
No. 1 Waters & Johns lost to Alshon & Parenteau, the second seed in their ATP Pool. However, they won the group with a 3-0 record and advanced to the knockout round. To ensure the final day’s matches were about pride and position rather than qualifying, both top seeds started 2-0. This ended the drama early. Alshon/Parenteau and Waters/Johns make progress.
Similar to the ATP pool, the top two seeded teams in the Erne Pool both won their opening two games to guarantee advancement before play started on Friday. To ensure that they would be relocating by mid-Thursday afternoon, No. 2 Bright & Tardio resisted the veteran Bar & Pisnik. With just 26 points conceded in six games, including an 8-1 victory over Bright & Tardio to win the group, the Johnson twins, meanwhile, dominated their way into the final. It appears that last year’s final will be rematched soon. Bright/Tardio and Johnson/Johnson make progress.
With Alshon’s solid hand, Alshon & Parenteau easily defeated the Johnson siblings in the knockout round, winning 4,9. Bright & Tardio took an early lead in the other semifinal. However, Waters & Johns overcame it with a 7–4 win. The long-standing No. 1 team easily won the first two games of the final, 11–3. Alshon and Parenteau barely realized what had happened. The underdogs rallied to win game three. However, Waters & Johns dominated game four with an 11–1 victory to claim the championship.
Waters & Johns is gold. Silver: Parenteau & Alshon
Recap of Men’s Pro Doubles
Ben and Collin Johns, the top seeds in the ATP Pool, ended a tough season on a low note. They lost badly in the group stage. After winning the first game, they struggled in the third. They were defeated 11–7 by the unexpected duo, Christian Alshon and Dekel Bar. This loss forced them to face JW Johnson and Gabe Tardio, the Boynton Beach kids, in a quick match.
Tardio dominated from the right and the Johns brothers lost 5,6, forcing them to leave early, as he has done multiple matches this season. Undoubtedly, questions will surface once more: will the brothers just split apart for 2025, or how will they adapt? Both Johnson/Tardio and Alshon/Bar make progress.
Federico Staksrud and Hayden Patriquin faced their first team defeat of the year in the Erne Pool. Despite this, they managed to survive by finishing second in the group. They defeated Frazier and Tellez, the top seeds, with a score of 5–6. This result shows that Frazier’s new doubles strategy still needs improvement for big matches.
PPA Tour
After grinding out two three-game victories and giving the last-place Wright/Ignatowich team a double-pickle to advance, the unexpected group winners were the seasoned players Tyson McGuffin and Andrei Daescu. Advancement by Staksrud/Patriquin and McGuffin/Daescu.
Youth triumphed in the knockout stages. Johnson/Tardio bounced back from a game two loss with two commanding 11-2 wins to reach the final. Staksrud/Patriquin crushed Alshon & Bar in the other semifinal. Both teams are young and represent the next generation of men’s doubles play. Industry insiders predict they will dominate the tour. This was evident in the highly anticipated final. Patriquin & Staksrud won the war of MLP comrades and off-court housemates by out-attacking Tardio and providing Johnson with a constant supply of cross-court dinks. Score at the end: 6, 1, 7.
Gold: Staksrud & Patriquin. Silver: Tardio & Johnson
Recap of Women’s Pro Doubles
In the ATP Pool, top seeds Waters & Parenteau faced an unexpected loss in the group stage. They were defeated in three games by Jorja Johnson & Lacy Schneemann. Advancing teams had to play tiebreakers due to an unusual situation. Three teams in the pool ended with identical 2-1 records. Johnson/Schneemann finished second, even though they lost to Pisnik & Todd in the group round. Waters & Parenteau claimed the top seed with a couple of decisive single-game wins. They are followed by Waters/Parenteau and Johnson/Schneemann.
Top seeds Anna Bright and Rachel Rohrabacher in the Erne Pool lost just 20 points in six group matches. They easily won, fulfilling their half of the agreement. After an early loss to the top seeds, the No. 8 seeded duo of Mari Humberg and Jesse Irvine bounced back. They claimed second place, having been paired together as the last two players picked. Advancement by Bright/Rohrabacher & Humberg/Irvine.
In the knockout stages, Waters & Parenteau defeated Humberg & Irvine, ALW’s MLP colleague, in two to go to the final, while Bright & Rohrabacher had to fight hard and overcome a defeat in game one to advance to the highly anticipated final.
These partners faced each other in a gold medal match for the ninth time this season in the final. Parenteau lost game one 11–6 after being picked on by Bright & Rohrabacher, who called themselves “The Girlies.” However, the defending champions bounced back to win games two and three. In game four, Waters & Parenteau stormed back after Bright & Rohrabacher jumped out to a 7-2 lead. They won the last game 12-10.
Given the increase in talent on the Tour in 2024, Waters’ victory secures the Tour Finals Triple Crown for the second consecutive year. This is an incredible feat. Her 30th PPA career Triple Crown comes as she gradually overtakes Ben Johns for the most gold medals won on the circuit.
Gold: Parenteau & Waters. Bright & Rohrabacher are silver.
A Brief Recap of the Senior Open Competition
In addition to its tour finals, the tour featured a few Senior Open draws and an amateur competition.
- Men’s Senior Open Singles: No. 2 seeded In a suitable matchup for the title, Joshua Cooperman defeated No. 1 seed Mattias Johansson, who retired late during a back-and-forth final. Cooperman has won the PPA Senior Open singles championship nine times this year.
- Men’s Senior Open Doubles: Second-ranked seeds Without losing a single match, Laurent Yung/John Riedy won the championship.
- Mixed Senior Open Doubles: Julie Henderson and Joshua Cooperman won the title in a small round-robin group. Cooperman and doubles partner Johansson pulled out of the Doubles draw, denying Cooperman a rare Senior Triple Crown.
These findings have now been included in the Pro Pickleball Medal Tracker; for a comprehensive history of pro medals for all tours and events stretching back to the inception of all major pro tours, as well as pro tournaments before 2020, go to this link online.
What will happen next on the pickleball calendar? This concludes the PPA’s 2024 season, based on my master pickleball schedule. But to avoid an MLP event earlier in the season, they rearranged their 2025 season to begin with an event at Daytona Beach in late December. Attendance at that event will be interesting, and since it will conclude three days before Christmas, I anticipate a high concentration of professional players from Florida and the East Coast.
Before the year ends, I have a ton of stuff to offer regarding my pickleball coverage. Anticipate a few niche interest stories, a study of the upcoming 2025 standards, several MLP port mortem articles, and a massive “Year in Review” series at the end of the year that covers everything that has happened in the sector.