In the first ever Life Time Open, held at Life Time Peachtree Corners, Chris Haworth and Lea Jansen are walking away $50,000 richer.
Life Time has showed continued investment in pickleball, and only continued that investment with the Life Time Open. The entire prize purse was $250,000.
This tournament was unique in multiple ways:
- Pro singles only - no amateurs playing on side courts and no pro doubles brackets either
- $250k prize pool - the PPA Tour has players that are on guaranteed contracts, there are rarely any tournaments with real prize money up for grabs
- Each match was the best three out of five games, side out scoring to 11, win by two
- Each day contestants kept winning, they played two matches per day
- All pro players were welcome to play - APP Tour players, PPA Tour players, and even international players were able to register for this one - a unique opportunity for players on different tours to play against one another
Let’s get into the action.
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Lea Jansen Wins the Title with a Gutty Performance
Jansen had smooth sailing in the Round of 32 and Round of 16, beating her opponents by a combined score of 66-28 and winning all six games. In the quarters, she faced off against APP Tour player, Bobbi Oshiro, who took the second game off of Lea, but could only manage the one.
It was a good thing for Jansen that she started Sunday off relatively unscathed on the weekend. Fitness definitely played a big part in this best three out of five tournament and Lea had saved the difficult work for Sunday.
In the morning, Jansen squared up against Salome Devidze, who she had the advantage over heading into this one, having beat Devidze five times out of their seven matchups. This was a brawl and neither woman wanted to give up.
Lea ended up winning in five games, 11-7, 12-14, 11-4, 8-11, 11-4. Salome fought hard and actually fought off game points in game two, to mount a comeback win in that one. Jansen was just too much.
In the final, Jansen faced off against her Columbus Sliders teammate, Parris Todd. Todd had just had another five game semifinal against Kaitlyn Christian. This four game match was actually longer in time than her five game match with Salome. Both Parris and Lea played extremely slow, with multiple timeouts and challenges used.
Jansen ended up winning 13-11, 5-11, 12-10, 11-6. This was the first tournament win for Lea since the 2024 CIBC Texas Open last June. It will definitely be a little sweeter with the large $50,000 prize.
Chris Haworth Beat Fed and Donald Young on his way to a Second Straight Gold
Chris Haworth has come a long way since being a 57 seed two months ago in a PPA Tour tournament in August. He just won the PPA Virginia Beach Cup, and he now took down the Life Time Open.
Haworth has been in the conversation of top five best men’s singles players over the last year and a half or so, but it is difficult to compare when he was not playing on the PPA Tour regularly. Since signing exclusively on the PPA Tour in August, Haworth has moved himself into a top 10 seed moving forward.
After beating John Cangelosi and Ronan Camron in straights on Saturday, Haworth faced off against red-hot Donald Young on Sunday morning in the semis. He made quick work of Young, 11-6, 11-5, 11-9. Young took down Will Howells and Connor Garnett to make it to the semis. Young, playing in his hometown of Atlanta, very near his new pickleball facility, made the best run of his pickleball career, near his home.
In the Finals, Haworth played Federico Staksrud, with Haworth having the edge throughout their history playing each other. Haworth won game one, and then lost games two and three - his first game losses of the entire tournament. He picked up momentum in game four and never looked back, winning 11-1, 11-1 in games four and five.
Haworth is back in action this week in the Rate Vegas Cup, hoping to crack the top 5 in seeding by the end of the year.
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The Eight Semi-Finalists were all PPA Tour Signed Players
This event was open to PPA Tour signed players, but it was also open to any other pro player that wanted to enter. International players and players who normally play on the APP Tour signed up for this event.
The two best APP Tour singles players, Ammar Wazir and Sofia Sewing, did not enter this one, but many others did. John Cangelosi, Bobbi Oshiro, Katerina Stewart, Will Howells, and Dusty Boyer all made the quarterfinals.
However, the PPA Tour signed players were just too much. Each of the eight semifinalists were signed players. On the women’s side, the semifinalists were the #1 - #4 seeds. Parris Todd, Lea Jansen, Kaitlyn Christian, and Salome Devidze. On the men’s side, the top three seeds made it, in Federico Staksrud, Chris Haworth, Connor Garnett, and Donald Young was the #14 seed.
Despite the semis and finals being between all PPA Tour signed players, it was a lot of fun watching the different tours’ players compete against one another, which doesn’t happen much at all anymore. I’d like the tournament to keep that aspect of it.
There were definitely some kinks to work out, but the future of the Life Time Open is solid
This was the first iteration of the event, and usually things are not 10/10 on the first try. Overall, I like the concept of this unique tournament and I love that Life Time is into growing the game of pickleball. It was awesome having Andre Agassi present on Championship Sunday, another key figure in the growth of the sport.
Some of the things that the tournament organizers need to work on for next time:
How do you get MORE of the world’s best to enter this tournament?
The women’s bracket only had 42 total contestants, but the tournament was ready for at least 64. Does the tournament need to be at a different time in the schedule? Does Life Time have to put up even more prize money? Does the prize money need to be distributed differently? The guys side was good, but still had plenty of top pros missing. Even some of the qualifiers had a DUPR that started with a four.
Does every round being best 3 out 5 make sense?
I don’t know the correct answer to this. I know the idea of this tournament was that it would be a physical battle. The players that made it to Championship Sunday all played well over 15 singles games in the span of three days. Maybe the first two rounds are the best two out of three? This is just something to consider.
Marketing needs to be a little more clear. Even I had trouble remembering where each day was streamed. On top of that, there was no social media telling us the order of play each day. Additionally, there was no cool bracket graphic made to follow along with, so fans were left checking in on pickleballtournaments.com to stay updated with results. Lastly, the fan turnout needs to be improved. Sunday did have some weather, but for the most part, this was one of the smallest crowds I have seen on tour this year - how does the tournament get more fan engagement?
Overall, I love the idea of the Life Time Open - I think if the operations are tweaked and improved for next year, this tournament could continue to thrive in the future.
