Recap of the PPA Columbia Challenger Series Event

The first ever PPA Challenger Series event took place this past weekend in Cayce, South Carolina, just outside Columbia.

The event took place at the Cayce Pickleball Complex and took place Friday, March 28th - Sunday, March 30th. There were over 300 total players in this event.

PPA Challenger Series Refresher

The PPA Challenger Series is new for 2025. The PPA Tour announced the series in December 2024.

The Challenger Series is looked as a ‘pathway to the pros’ and gives up-and-coming players a chance to compete for PPA Points, a spot in a PPA Main Draw event, and prize money.

Additionally, the Challenger Series is going to have its own ‘Challenger Showdown’ in Dallas, during the PPA Worlds in November 2025.

Anyone can sign up for a PPA Challenger Series event. If they want to play in the Open/Pro Division, the only rule is they cannot be in the top 20 in PPA Points in the event(s) they sign up for.

Signed United Pickleball Association (UPA) players can play in these events, as evidenced this last week.

For all the details on the PPA Challenger Series, please read the article above.

One big takeaway I had was the back draw. The PPA Tour doesn’t have a back draw at the Pro level, so teams lose one match, and they are done. However, the Challenger Series does have a back draw all the way to bronze, so players are getting more reps and facing more competition at a very high level.

Action in Columbia, South Carolina

The Challenger Series consists of three day tournaments:

• Friday is women’s and men’s singles
• Saturday is mixed doubles
• Sunday is women’s and men’s doubles

Women’s Singles Recap

UPA signed pros in the draw: Helena Jansen, Mehvish Safdar, and Brooke Caruso

Helena Jansen, the eventual winner, won four matches to win gold, only dropping one game throughout the day. The one game she lost was the first game in the finals against Julia Ronney. 

Singles was the first event Jansen won on her way to winning the triple crown in Columbia.

Ronney also had a great run, winning three matches on her way to the finals. She is a former tennis pro and has been playing pickleball for about a year. Last year in April, she got fourth in 5.0 singles at the PPA LA Open, so to get second at this event is a huge step up in a year.

Keilly Ulery, a former D1 tennis player at Vanderbuilt, got third, only losing to Ronney, 11-7, in the third game.

Of note, I don’t think Jansen will be allowed to play in the Challenger Series in women’s singles moving forward in 2025, as she is now well within the top 20 in that category.

Medals

🥇 Helena Jansen

🥈 Julia Ronney

🥉 Keily Ulery

Men’s Singles Recap

UPA signed pros in the draw: James Delgado & Edward Perez

Luca Mack won the entire men’s singles bracket. I have not heard of his name or seen him play until this event. Mack is not a signed PPA player, so he has now earned a wildcard spot at an upcoming PPA Tour main draw.

Mack won a D2 National Championship in tennis, at Valdosta State, in Georgia. He won five matches on his way to the title, with three of them going to a third game. In the finals, he was able to beat silver medalist, Anouar Braham 11-6, 11-6.

Veteran Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez rounded out the medal stand, holding off youngster, George Rangelov, 11-3 in the third game, in the bronze medal match.

Medals

🥇 Luca Mack - unsigned PPA player - earned a main draw slot in a PPA Tour event

🥈 Anouar Braham

🥉 Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez

Mixed Doubles Recap

UPA signed pros in the draw: Helena Jansen, James Delgado, Edward Perez, Pierina Imparato, Carlos Di Laura, Mehvish Safdar, and Tatiana Ruhl

Jansen and Delgado teamed up to win it all on Saturday. In their five matches, they only got taken to a third game once, in the quarterfinals, by Ashley Griffith and George Rangelov (who ended up going through the back draw and winning bronze).

Speaking of the bronze medal, Chicago Slice teammates, Carlos Di Laura and Pierina Imparato teamed up in the event. They went 1-1 in the main draw and then reeled off five straight wins in the back draw, losing 13-15 to Griffith and Rangelov in the bronze medal match.

In the finals, Jansen and Delgado faced undefeated Ting Chieh Wei and Alex Guy, and beat them 11-0, 11-6.

Medals

🥇 Helena Jansen/James Delgado

🥈 Ting Chieh Wei/Alex Guy

🥉 Ashley Griffith/George Rangelov

Women’s Doubles Recap

UPA signed pros in the draw: Helena Jansen, Pierina Imparato, Brooke Caruso, Mehvish Safdar, and Tatiana Ruhl

Imparato and Jansen teamed up for gold in women’s doubles. Both players live and train in North Carolina. Jansen for the most part, played the athletic left side and let Imparato use her forehand roll drops and dinks to their advantage throughout.

Imparato and Jansen had to win five matches for the gold. In the quarters, they came up against eventual bronze medalists, Ting Chei Wei and Liz Truluck, narrowly winning 11-9, in the third game.

They then beat the Safdar sisters, 11-7, 11-9. In the final against Caruso and Ashley Griffith, Jansen and Imparato won 12-10, 11-1.

Medals

🥇 Pierina Imparato/Helena Jansen

🥈 Brooke Caruso/Ashley Griffith

🥉 Ting Chieh Wei/Liz Truluck

Men’s Doubles Recap

UPA signed pros in the draw: James Delgado, Edward Perez, and Carlos Di Laura

Christopher Crouch and Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez win the whole thing, earning a spot in a future PPA main draw. 

Crouch and Medina Alvarez won three matches in three games and two matches in two. In the finals, they beat the silver medalists, Sanil Jagtiani and Oscar Serra, 11-9, 11-8.

Delgado and Perez lost to the silver medalists in the quarterfinals, and then won four matches to earn the bronze.

Medals

🥇 Christopher Crouch/Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez - unsigned PPA players - earned a main draw slot in a PPA Tour event

🥈 Sanil Jagtiani/Oscar Serra

🥉 James Delgado/Edward Perez