The Black Desert Resort hosted the Greater Zion Cup for the first time in history and it was memorable!
The luxury resort in southwest Utah made for picturesque views all week long, and some of the guys got in a competitive round of golf on Monday:
The landscape was not the only highlight, as all the players played in this event, as it is a Cup, meaning it is worth 1,500 PPA Points (1.5x more than an Open).
Let’s get into the top storylines.
Anna Leigh Waters won her 43rd Triple Crown with her gas tank on E
Waters continues to impress. The GOAT played 26 games (13 matches) to make it to Championship Sunday in all three disciplines. She never lost a game in those 26 chances. In fact, she beat Lea Jansen 13-11 in game 1 of the semifinals, and no other opponent in any discipline got to 8 against her leading up to the finals.
In the finals, Waters’ day started in mixed doubles. The rivalry between Waters/Johns and Bright/Patriquin has been the talk of the town in mixed doubles lately. The Johnson siblings have definitely had a definite dip in level over the past few months and still only have two bronze medals to their name in mixed in 2026.
However, to call it a rivalry, I think is a bit ambitious. Hayden and Anna have only won once against Ben and Anna Leigh. This time, it was more of the same. Ben and Anna Leigh won the finals 11-5, 11-0, 15-13. About half way through game three, it looked OVER. Hayden and Anna looked like they could not find a way to win a point, and the match looked to be a drubbing. However, they fought back furiously, and pushed Ben and Anna Leigh to the brink in game three. We talk all the time about “the best match ever” and this certainly was not that, but the 15-13 game three might be a top 5 contender in terms of best game ever. Go watch it.
Next up for Waters on Championship Sunday was women’s doubles, where Anna Bright and Waters faced off against Parris Todd for the third straight finals, with a third different partner. This time it was the first time for Kate Fahey to make Championship Sunday alongside Todd.
The final score was 11-3, 11-3, 11-0. Bright and Waters are just dominating the competition and with Jorja not playing her best lately, there is no real competitor in sight. In fact, during the Greater Zion Cup, they double pickled TWO opponents. They also pickled Kate and Parris in the finals. Their combined women’s doubles scoreline this week was 121-15, or an average scoreline of 11-1.36. You read that right. Their opponents averaged 1.36 points per game against them in Utah.
Finally, in singles, ALW faced off against Kate Fahey in the finals for the 15th time. Kate had only taken one game off Waters prior to Sunday. So what happened on Sunday? Kate Fahey looked like a freight train that was going to run Waters off the court early in game one. She went up 8-0, had all of the momentum, and Waters already had a technical warning due to a line call and a challenge. Kate then won two more points, to go up 10-0 and nearly pickled Waters (would have been the first time Anna Leigh was ever pickled on the PPA Tour).
Instead, Waters fought back and got it to 8-10, before Fahey was able to crush a serve and won game one 11-8. From that point forward, Waters went on a 22-5 run, winning 11-3, 11-2. After the match, Waters just laid on the court gasping for air and looked truly thankful for the win.
Chris Haworth won gold and took over the #1 ranking in singles
One of the biggest stories was Chris Haworth taking over the #1 seed and #1 overall ranking in men’s singles.
It took a little bit of luck on Haworth’s part (Hunter Johnson lost early to JW Johnson), but it also took a heckuva lot of skill too. Haworth beat Crum, Frazier, and Goins to make the finals, but of course, Federico Staksrud was his opponent on Sunday.
Fed won the two most recent matchups in the series, once two weeks ago in Texas, and then in two games at Worlds.
That didn’t seem to affect Haworth, who seemed on a mission from the start. The altitude didn’t impact his ground strokes and he was precise, while moving well all over the court. He won 11-9, 11-5.
Early in 2026, I made 26 predictions for the year, and this was one of them:
There are still a few events to go, but if Haworth keeps up his winning ways, this looks like a prediction that will pan out. Crazy to think six months ago Haworth was the 57 seed, and now he is #1.
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Gabe Tardio and Ben Johns got pushed multiple times, but found a way to win
Men’s doubles has a ton of parity from the 2-5 seeds and every once in a while a partnership can sneak into the semis (like Jay and Jaume in Texas two weeks ago). However, there is one dominant team at the top.
Gabe and Ben have separated themselves from the other men’s partnerships. They beat Hayden and Christian 13-11, 3-11, 3-11, 11-2, 11-7. It was a very good match, and probably the match to watch from the weekend, if you only have time for one.
Here is the point: Ben and Gabe did not have their best stuff this week. They lost a game to Haworth and Lenhard early in the draw. Jay and Jaume took a game off them, and so did JW and CJ.
At certain points in games two and three, they looked lost and both wre discombobulated. In the post-match interview Gabe even said, “I didn’t think we were going to win after game three”.
But this is what winners do - they find ways to win when they don’t have their best stuff. Are Gabe and Ben eventually going to lose? Absolutely. But it wasn’t this time in Utah. This marks their sixth straight men’s doubles gold together in 2026.
Other Storylines and Good Runs
Christian Alshon was fighting the flu and retired from his singles match against Noe Khlif. After game one of the match, Alshon retired citing illness. Alsbon and Rohrabacher lost in mixed to Kate Fahey and Fed Staksrud 8 & 8 in the quarters. Despite feeling the effects from the flu, Alshon played some of his best pickleball in the men’s doubles final, falling just short. He said he had temperatures of at least 103 degrees and he said he was coughing up blood on Sunday. I hope he is able to find some time to rest and heal up.
John Lucian Goins seems to have found a little groove. He won back to back tournaments over six months ago, but hasn’t done much since. In back to back tournaments he made the semis. He won bronze in this one, and lost the bronze match in Texas.
Lacy Schneemann and Meghan Dizon made a very good run to the semis, including taking out the #2 seed, Jorja Johnson and Hurricane Tyra Black in the quarters. They won bronze together in Minnesota earlier in the year, and fell just short of the bronze medal in Utah.
Something to keep an eye on: Hayden Patriquin got a couple technicals in this tournament. He got angry in a men’s doubles match and launched a ball into the stratosphere when they were down 11-12 to Jay and Jaume in the quarters. The ball launch resulted in a straight technical foul to Patriquin and a point to Jay and Jaume, and the game 1 win. Alshon and Patriquin were able to take care of business, winning 11-1, 11-6 after that.
In the finals, within five minutes of the mixed doubles match starting, Hayden received a technical warning for profanity after Ben Johns got a lucky net cord winner.
Is this a trend for H? Probably not. In a post match interview he was humble and showed some self awareness and said he shouldn’t have done the ball launch and he is maturing. A pretty insightful thing to say for a 20 year old. Just something to keep an eye on moving forward.
Medals by MLP Team
St. Louis Shock - 🥇🥇🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈🥉 (Anna, Gabe, Kate, Hayden, & John Lucian Goins)
New Jersey 5s - 🥇🥇🥇🥉 (ALW & Jorja)
LA Mad Drops - 🥇🥇🥉 (Ben & Catherine)
Brooklyn Pickleball Team - 🥇🥈🥉 (Chris, Christian, & Rachel)
Columbus Sliders - 🥈🥉 (Parris & CJ)
Orlando Squeeze - 🥈 (Fed)
Dallas Flash - 🥉🥉 (JW Johnson)
Texas Ranchers - 🥉 (Lea Jansen)
All Medalists
Women’s Singles
🥇 Anna Leigh Waters
🥈 Kate Fahey
🥉 Lea Jansen
Men’s Singles
🥇 Chris Haworth
🥈 Federico Staksrud
🥉 John Lucian Goins
Mixed Doubles
🥇 Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns
🥈 Anna Bright/Hayden Patriquin
🥉 Jorja & JW Johnson
Women’s Doubles
🥇 Anna Bright/Anna Leigh Waters
🥈 Kate Fahey/Parris Todd
🥉 Rachel Rohrabacher/Catherine Parenteau
Men’s Doubles
🥇 Gabe Tardio/Ben Johns
🥈 Christian Alshon/Hayden Patriquin
🥉 CJ Klinger/JW Johnson
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