The Rate Las Vegas Open 2026: Full PPA Tour Tournament Preview

The PPA Tour is heading from one stretch of desert to another. After wrapping up the Arizona Open in Mesa, the circuit now rolls into Las Vegas for The Rate Las Vegas Open, running September 28 through October 4 at the Darling Tennis Center. This is the second Open of the 2026-27 PPA Tour season, and with 1,000 PPA points on the line for each division winner, the stakes are high and the field is much closer to full strength than it was last week.

If you watched the Arizona Open and thought the draws looked a little thin at the top, Las Vegas is a different story. Anna Bright, Hayden Patriquin, and Gabe Tardio are all back, which immediately raises the competition level across every doubles bracket. Add in a wide-open women’s singles draw and the possibility of a rematch in men’s doubles that fans have been waiting for since last year, and this tournament has all the ingredients for one of the better events of the early season.

What Is the PPA Tour and Why Does This Tournament Matter?

If you’re newer to professional pickleball, here’s a quick breakdown of how this all works. The PPA Tour — Professional Pickleball Association — is one of the premier professional pickleball circuits in the United States. Players compete across five divisions at each event: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. Points earned at each tournament contribute to season-long rankings, which determine seeding, sponsorship opportunities, and end-of-year standings.

An “Open” designation is significant. It means the event carries the maximum point value — 1,000 points to the winner — making these tournaments the most important stops on the tour calendar. Players who skip an Open are giving up a major opportunity to accumulate ranking points, which is why the field being close to full strength in Las Vegas is such a big deal compared to the Arizona Open, where several top names sat out.

The Darling Tennis Center in Las Vegas has hosted PPA events before and has become one of the more iconic venues on the circuit, particularly for the drama that has played out there in men’s doubles over the years.

Five Storylines to Watch at the Rate Las Vegas Open

1. Anna Leigh Waters Is Two Titles Away from 200 Career PPA Titles

Anna Leigh Waters is not playing singles this week, but she enters Las Vegas sitting just two titles away from a remarkable milestone: 200 career PPA Tour titles. The math is simple — win women’s doubles with Anna Bright and mixed doubles with Ben Johns, and Waters leaves Las Vegas having reached that number. Both of those partnerships have a strong track record at this specific venue. Waters and Johns have won mixed doubles in Las Vegas four consecutive years, and Waters and Bright are the defending women’s doubles champions. The milestones are right there for the taking, which makes every match Waters plays this week carry an extra layer of significance beyond just the points.

2. Bright, Patriquin, and Tardio Are Back in the Draw

Their absence in Mesa was noticeable. Anna Bright’s return means Waters has her strongest doubles partner back in women’s doubles, and it also means Bright is reunited with Hayden Patriquin in mixed doubles — one of the more established partnerships on the Tour. Gabe Tardio, meanwhile, is back alongside Ben Johns in men’s doubles and teams up with Tyra Black in mixed. These three players returning doesn’t just fill out the bracket — it fundamentally changes the competitive landscape across multiple divisions. What felt like an opportunity for lower-ranked players in Arizona now becomes a much more difficult path to a title in Las Vegas.

3. Women’s Singles Is Genuinely Wide Open

Any time Anna Leigh Waters opts out of singles, the rest of the field has to be looking at the draw with real excitement. Someone is guaranteed to leave Las Vegas as women’s singles champion who isn’t Waters, and that’s a meaningful opportunity in a sport where she has dominated that bracket for years. Kate Fahey holds the No. 1 seed this week and already knows how to win here — she captured the Las Vegas singles title in 2024. Behind her, the draw includes Kaitlyn Christian at No. 2, Lea Jansen at No. 3, and Zoey Wang at No. 4. Genie Bouchard, last year’s finalist, returns as the No. 7 seed, though she hasn’t played on the PPA Tour in nearly five months. Rust is a real factor at this level. There are also some intriguing lower seeds like Jalina Ingram, who made noise in Mesa, and Sofia Sewing, who could be a dark horse if she gets through the early rounds.

4. Can the Mesa Breakout Players Carry Their Momentum?

The Arizona Open produced some genuinely surprising results. Jalina Ingram made a strong showing in women’s singles. Kiora Kunimoto and Elliott Schupp broke through as a mixed doubles team. And perhaps the most talked-about result of the week — Nico Acevedo and Yuta Funemizu reached the men’s doubles final as the No. 15 seed before falling in a wild five-game match to Christian Alshon and Andrei Daescu. Now the question is whether those performances were one-week breakthroughs or signs of sustained improvement. Kunimoto and Schupp are back together in Las Vegas as the No. 34 seed in mixed doubles. Acevedo is teaming up with Jaume Martinez Vich. The field is stronger this week, which will tell us a lot about whether those Mesa runs were flukes or the beginning of something real.

5. Johns and Tardio vs. Alshon and Daescu — A Potential Rematch for the Ages

Christian Alshon and Andrei Daescu arrive in Las Vegas as the defending Arizona Open champions, riding real momentum into a tournament where they have some unfinished business. Last year’s Las Vegas men’s doubles final between Alshon/Daescu and Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio went to five games, lasted two hours and 28 minutes, and ended with Johns and Tardio winning 12-10 in the fifth. That’s the kind of match that sticks with players and fans alike. This week, Johns and Tardio come in as the No. 1 seed and Alshon and Daescu are right behind them at No. 2. If the bracket holds, a rematch on the same court where that epic played out would be one of the most compelling men’s doubles finals of the season.

Weather Outlook

Leaving the desert does not mean escaping desert conditions. The early part of the week could see some thunderstorms roll through, but the bigger story by the weekend will be the heat. Temperatures are expected to climb into the mid-90s later in the week and could approach or exceed 100 degrees on Saturday and Sunday. Players and outdoor conditions in Las Vegas in early October are no joke, and heat management will be a real factor for anyone grinding through deep runs across multiple divisions.

How to Watch the Rate Las Vegas Open

All broadcast times are listed in Pacific time. The PPA Tour’s broadcast schedule kicks off Thursday with the Round of 16 and runs through Sunday’s championship matches.

Thursday, October 1 — Round of 16: 2pm–10pm on PickleballTV

Friday, October 2 — Quarterfinals: 2pm–10pm on PickleballTV

Saturday, October 3 — Semifinals: 1pm–9pm on PickleballTV

Sunday, October 4 — Championships: 10am–3pm on PickleballTV; 10am–2pm on Tennis Channel and PickleballTV

Women’s Singles Preview and Predictions

Kate Fahey enters as the No. 1 seed and is not just a name on paper — she has actually won this tournament before, taking the Las Vegas singles title in 2024. That experience at Darling Tennis Center is worth something. Genie Bouchard as the No. 7 seed is a fascinating subplot. She reached last year’s final here, but the nearly five-month absence from the PPA Tour raises legitimate questions about sharpness. Jalina Ingram is coming off her best PPA showing and could see Fahey as early as the quarterfinals, though she would need to get through No. 5 seed Kiora Kunimoto first. Keep an eye on Zoey Weil, Isabella Dunlap, and Sofia Sewing, who sits in Kaitlyn Christian’s section of the draw — Sewing versus Christian in the Round of 16 is one of the more intriguing early-round matchups of the week.

Predicted semifinalists: Kate Fahey, Isabella Dunlap, Sofia Sewing, Lea Jansen

Predicted champion: Kate Fahey over Sofia Sewing in the final

Men’s Singles Preview and Predictions

Chris Haworth enters with momentum after his performance in Arizona and holds the No. 1 seed heading into Las Vegas. The most compelling potential quarterfinal matchup involves Christian Alshon and Ben Johns — two players who have been among the best on the Tour this season. Federico Staksrud and Hunter Johnson could set up another semifinal meeting after the two played a memorable match in Mesa. Roscoe Bellamy made the final in Las Vegas last year and is always a threat in singles. There’s also a notable quirk in this week’s draw: Ben Johns as the No. 19 seed and Eric Oncins as the No. 20 seed both receive double byes into the Round of 16 due to the WPR bye system — an arrangement that continues to raise eyebrows around the Tour.

Predicted semifinalists: Chris Haworth, Christian Alshon, Federico Staksrud, Hunter Johnson

Predicted champion: Chris Haworth over Federico Staksrud in a rematch of the Arizona Open final

Mixed Doubles Preview and Predictions

Waters and Johns are the No. 1 seed and have won this specific tournament four straight years in mixed doubles. That’s a dominant record that is very hard to bet against. Anna Bright and Hayden Patriquin return as the No. 2 seed after both missed Mesa — they’re the clearest threat to Waters and Johns on paper, though they’ll need to shake off any rust from the week off. The Mesa breakout team of Kiora Kunimoto and Elliott Schupp is back together as the No. 34 seed, which means their early-round path could be brutal. Sofia Sewing and Casey Diamond are another low seed worth watching — Jack Sock and Lea Jansen draw them in the Round of 64, which looks like a difficult early match for that pairing.

Predicted semifinalists: Waters/Johns, Black/Tardio, Fahey/Staksrud, Pisnik/Alshon

Predicted champion: Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns make it five straight in Las Vegas over Fahey and Staksrud

Women’s Doubles Preview and Predictions

Anna Leigh Waters and Anna Bright are back together and immediately reclaim the top seed. They’re the defending champions here, which matters. The most likely challenger is Tyra Black and Lea Parenteau, but they may run into trouble from the No. 5 seed pairing of Sofia Sewing and Tina Pisnik — two players who have built genuine chemistry through MLP play and shouldn’t be taken lightly. One of the most compelling quarterfinals on the bracket could be Schneemann/Fahey versus Jansen/Irvine, a matchup with a lot of competitive history. Rachel Rohrabacher is sitting this one out — she got married this past weekend — along with her usual partner Parris Todd.

Predicted semifinalists: Waters/Bright, Wei/Dizon, Sewing/Pisnik, Schneemann/Fahey

Predicted champion: Waters and Bright over Sewing and Pisnik in the final

Men’s Doubles Preview and Predictions

Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio are the defending Las Vegas champions and return as the No. 1 seed with Tardio back in the draw after missing Mesa. Alshon and Daescu come in as the No. 2 seed with real confidence after winning Arizona, and they look increasingly dangerous with Alshon committed to the left side of the court — a tactical alignment that has suited them well. Pablo Tellez and Will Howells are another team with deep-run potential despite a double-digit seed. Elliott Schupp and John Lucian Goins are a young team worth tracking in the early rounds as well.

Predicted semifinalists: Johns/Tardio, Oncins/Clinger, Patriquin/Staksrud, Alshon/Daescu

Predicted champion: Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio defeat Hayden Patriquin and Federico Staksrud in the final

Final Thoughts

The Rate Las Vegas Open has the feel of a tournament that could deliver on multiple fronts — a potential historic milestone for Anna Leigh Waters, a rematch in men’s doubles that fans have been waiting for since last year’s two-and-a-half hour marathon, and a wide-open women’s singles bracket that guarantees a new name on the Las Vegas trophy. With the field returning closer to full strength after a slightly depleted Arizona Open, the competition this week should be sharper, the matches tighter, and the storylines bigger. Check back as the week unfolds and results come in from the Darling Tennis Center.