Hunter Wins & ALW Grabs Another Triple - Newport Beach Open Recap

With one weekend off after the Carvana Mesa Cup, the PPA Tour was back in action at the Newport Beach Open this past weekend.

If it feels like forever since the Mesa Cup ended, it’s because of all the (Major League Pickleball) MLP draft news that happened in that one weekend off. Here are two articles to catch you up on the MLP news:

• 2026 MLP Draft Recap
• 2026 Trade Tracker

Of note, Catherine Parenteau took this entire tournament off for rest. Parris Todd mentioned that she was going to play a lot less singles after winning the Indoor Championships in February, and she skipped singles in this event, along with Ben Johns.

There were some really fun matchups and highlights this weekend. Let’s get into the action.

Anna Leigh Waters Earns her Second Triple Crown of 2026

In the first matchup of Championship Sunday, Anna Leigh and Ben Johns faced off against (10) Tina Pisnik and Eric Oncins, who had a delightful run to make it to the finals. 

On Pisnik and Oncins - they beat the following teams to make it to Championship Sunday (the first time for team):

• Rd16 - #8 Kate Fahey and Federico Staksrud - 11-1, 1-11, 11-6
• Quarterfinal - #3 Anna Bright and Hayden Patriquin - 2-11, 11-7, 11-7 (AB and H just beat ALW and Ben in Mesa in the finals)
• Semifinal - #2 Jorja and JW Johnson - 11-4, 11-5

Alas, the Cinderalla story came to a close on Sunday morning. Anna Leigh and Ben were just too much for Tina and Eric. The #1 seed played like, and won 11-4, 11-2, 12-10.

In women’s doubles, AB and ALW double pickled their first two opponents. That’s right, after two matches their combined scoreline was 44-0. They did not drop a game headed into Championship Sunday, but their opponent had a new look.

With Catherine Parenteau sitting this one out, Rachel Rohrabacher turned to Parris Todd as her doubles partner. This duo looked great throughout the week, bringing a ton of fire power. In the semis, they played the #2 seed, Jorja Johnson and Tyra Black, and beat them 11-5, 11-6 to make the finals for the first time together.

However, Anna Leigh and Anna Bright were just too much for the new partnership. The #1 seed won comfortably in three games, 11-4, 11-5, 11-3.

Lastly, in singles, Anna Leigh continues to dominate the field. In her first four matches, she won by a combined score of 88-34, or 11-3.1.

She faced off against Lea Jansen in the finals, who has been playing really well in 2026, entering Newport Beach with a bronze and silver medal already.

Jansen had a great Newport tournament, having beat some top competition to make the finals:

• Rd16 - (10) Kiora Kunimoto - 11-6, 12-14, 11-3
• Quarterfinal - (2) Kate Fahey - 6-11, 11-8, 14-12
• Semifinal - (3) Brooke Buckner - 13-11, 9-11, 11-9

The matches versus Kate and Brooke both took over an hour and 20 minutes, and ended at the closest of margins - Lea claim up clutch when it mattered most. To say that was a gauntlet for Jansen is an understatement - she had a phenomenal tournament in Newport Beach.

Waters definitely didn’t look like she had already won two gold medals on Championship Sunday when she played Jansen. She came out with a ton of energy in her third match of the day, winning 11-2, 11-1.

This now means Anna Leigh Waters has not lost in 647 days on the singles court.

Hunter Johnson Earns his Second Gold in Singles in 2026

Men’s singles is in a place where some pundits are saying “anyone can win” and that is just not the case. 

August 31st, 2025 was the last time someone not named Chris Haworth, Christian Alshon, Federico Staksrud, Roscoe Bellamy, or Hunter Johnson won a title (it was John Lucian Goins in Vegas). So in over six months, only five guys have won a singles title - sure upsets are happening, but not to the top dogs.

This is the second win on the year for Hunter Johnson, who retains the #1 seed and #1 overall ranking on the PPA Tour. It was not an easy task this week, as he beat the following players to win the title:

• Rd 16 - #16 Mo Alhouni - 11-3, 11-1
• Quarterfinal - #6 Roscoe Bellamy - 11-4, 11-5
• Semfinal - #3 Chris Haworth - 11-7, 11-9
• Final - #2 Federico Staksrud - 12-10, 11-9

The final was highly entertaining with some chirping and some back and forth between Fed and Hunter. Ultimately, Hunter was able to come out on top with the victory.

Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio win Fourth Gold of 2026 (Fifth for Tardio)

Gabe Tardio has now won gold in men’s doubles in all five events in 2026. Newport Beach marked the fourth gold he earned with Ben Johns (in a row) in 2026.

He also won the Indoor Championships in Minnesota in January with Andrei Daescu, as Ben sat that one out.

The top four or five teams are making the quarterfinals every single tournament and the semis at a very high clip.

No matter what combination of the top guys gets thrown their way, Gabe and Ben are able to overcome the competition. On their way to the finals, they won their first four matches by a combines score of 88-48, or 11-6. They didn’t drop a game.

In the finals, they faced off against Hayden Patriquin and Christian Alshon, which marked the third time in 2026.

The first two meetings were also in the finals, with Ben and Gabe winning both:

• The Masters – January – Ben & Gabe – 11-9, 11-4, 11-5
• Mesa Cup – February – Ben & Gabe – 8-11, 11-6, 11-8, 13-11

The scoreline for Newport was 11-6, 11-2, 3-11, 11-8. Hayden and Christian just seemed to take a while to wake up and then really came alive in game three. However, they just didn't have their best stuff in game four, giving Johns and Tardio the win.

This tournament marked yet another tournament where Ben Johns earned double gold. Despite not playing or winning much in singles, Johns easily has the most golds in 2026 on the guys side and is looking to pad those stats every chance he can get.

Other Storylines

As previously mentioned, #10 seed Tina Pisnik and Eric Oncins earned a silver medal together, beating the #3 and #2 overall seeds in this tournament.

Additionally, Tina Pisnik and Lacy Schneemann made the semis together for the second straight tournament - I would like to see them paired up again sometime soon.

Speaking of Oncins, he also made one of the most ridiculous behind the back counters, beating Christian Alshon in their quarterfinal matchup. Oncins and Dylan Frazier ended up losing 11-3, 9-11, 9-11 to Christian Alshon and Hayden Patriquin. The play I mentioned above actually made the Sportscenter Top 10 plays that night:

Ben Johns Nearly got hit by an Errant Golf Ball on Saturday

Collin Johns and Len Yang Made a Huge run to the Semis 

In the quarterfinals, Johns and Yang beat (3) CJ Klinger and JW Johnson, 11-6 in game three, to make the finals. This was the first time for Yang to make the semis in the States (he earned three medals on the PPA Asia Tour last year). 

Full Results

Women’s Singles

🥇 Anna Leigh Waters

🥈 Lea Jansen

🥉 Brooke Buckner

Men’s Singles

🥇 Hunter Johnson

🥈 Federico Staksrud

🥉 Christian Alshon or Chris Haworth (as of publishing this match is still underway)

Mixed Doubles

🥇 Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns 

🥈 Tina Pisnik/Eric Oncins

🥉 Jorja Johnson & JW Johnson

Women’s Doubles

🥇 Anna Bright/Anna Leigh Waters

🥈 Rachel Rohrabacher/Parris Todd

🥉 Lacy Schneemann/Tina Pisnik

Men’s Doubles

🥇 Gabe Tardio/Ben Johns

🥈 Christian Alshon/Hayden Patriquin

🥉 Federico Staksrud/Andrei Daescu