First-Time Champions, Fahey’s Double Gold, and a Dominant Goins Highlight the PPA Virginia Beach Open

The 2026 Mojo Energy Pouches Virginia Beach Open wrapped up Sunday with five champions crowned, several career milestones reached, and results that could genuinely shift the conversation heading into the PPA World Championships in Dallas. Without some of the tour’s biggest names — Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns among the absentees — the tournament gave players who don’t always see Championship Sunday a real shot at gold. Some of them grabbed it with both hands.

Kate Fahey was the standout of the weekend, taking home two gold medals in women’s singles and mixed doubles. Elliott Schupp and Jaume Martinez Vich each earned their first career PPA Tour titles in men’s doubles — in their first tournament together, no less. John Lucian Goins put together one of the cleanest singles performances you’ll see all season, going undefeated without dropping a single game across six matches. And Sofia Sewing captured her first PPA Tour championship alongside Catherine Parenteau in women’s doubles.

There was a lot to unpack from Virginia Beach. Here’s a full breakdown of everything that happened.

What Happened at the PPA Virginia Beach Open? A Quick Explainer for Newer Fans

If you’re newer to pickleball or just getting familiar with the professional scene, here’s some helpful context before diving into the results. The PPA Tour — the Professional Pickleball Association Tour — is one of the top professional pickleball circuits in the United States. Players compete across multiple disciplines at each event: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. Points from each tournament count toward season-long rankings, and players are constantly jockeying for position heading into major championships.

At most PPA events, the storylines tend to revolve around the sport’s dominant stars. But when those stars don’t show up — for whatever reason — it opens the door for the rest of the field, and that’s exactly what happened in Virginia Beach. The results were genuinely surprising in the best way, with first-time champions emerging in multiple draws and lower seeds making deep runs that nobody saw coming. It was the kind of tournament that reminds you why following a full season of professional pickleball is worth your time.

Now, into the details.

Kate Fahey Wins Double Gold, Including Her First PPA Doubles Title

Kate Fahey came into Virginia Beach as the top seed in women’s singles and one of the obvious favorites given the absences at the top of the draw. She left as a double gold medalist — and did it on the eve of her 30th birthday.

In women’s singles, Fahey was dominant from start to finish. Her path to the final included a 11-0, 11-3 demolition of Zoey Weil and an 11-1, 11-7 victory over Catherine Parenteau. In Sunday’s final, she defeated No. 21 seed Helena Jansen Fink 11-1, 11-9. It wasn’t a close tournament for Fahey in singles — she controlled nearly every match she played.

But honestly, her mixed doubles run might have been the more impressive and significant story of her weekend. Playing alongside Eric Oncins for the first time, Fahey put together one of the more memorable comebacks of the tournament. After dropping the opening game 13-11 to Catherine Parenteau and Riley Newman, the duo bounced back with an 11-4 win in the second game. Then, in the deciding game, they were staring at an 8-2 deficit against Parenteau and Newman. Most teams don’t come back from there. Fahey and Oncins scored nine of the final ten points to win 11-9 and take gold.

For Fahey, the mixed doubles title is a meaningful breakthrough. She’s long been regarded as one of the tour’s best singles players, but doubles success — particularly in mixed — hadn’t come in the same way. Virginia Beach changed that. It was the first double-gold performance of her PPA Tour career, and given how comfortably she handled the singles draw, it’s fair to wonder if she’s entering a new level as an all-around competitor. According to The Dink, Oncins also earned his second career mixed doubles championship in the process.

Elliott Schupp and Jaume Martinez Vich Break Through in Men’s Doubles

If you want a feel-good story from the weekend, the men’s doubles championship delivers one in full. Elliott Schupp and Jaume Martinez Vich, seeded seventh, won the men’s doubles gold in their very first tournament as partners. And for both of them, it was their first career PPA Tour title.

The road to the championship wasn’t easy. They beat Pablo Tellez and John Lucian Goins 11-6, 11-6 in an early round, then knocked out Luca Mack and Anouar Braham 11-7, 11-5. In the semifinals, they took down No. 2 seeds Andrei Daescu and Will Howells 11-6, 11-7 — a win that set them up for Sunday’s championship match against Riley Newman and Noe Khlif.

The final itself was a battle. Schupp and Martinez Vich took the first game 11-4, only to watch Newman and Khlif respond with an identical 11-4 in Game 2. The deciding third game went to Schupp and Martinez Vich 11-4, completing a performance that felt dominant despite the back-and-forth nature of the match.

For Schupp, this was his first career PPA Tour final — and he won it. For Martinez Vich, the significance runs even deeper. He had reached 10 PPA Tour finals before Virginia Beach without ever winning. Sunday ended that streak in the most direct way possible. As The Dink reported, the milestone was a long time coming for the Spaniard, and winning in a debut partnership makes it all the more remarkable.

John Lucian Goins Puts Together a Flawless Men’s Singles Performance

There were impressive performances throughout the Virginia Beach Open, but John Lucian Goins’ run through the men’s singles draw stands apart. Six matches. Six wins. Not a single game dropped.

Goins, seeded fifth, had been knocking on the door heading into this tournament. He reached the men’s singles semifinals at both Las Vegas and Chicago earlier in the season, two consecutive deep runs that suggested a title was coming. Virginia Beach confirmed it.

He opened his run with an 11-5, 11-8 win over Eric Oncins in the Round of 16, then demolished George Rangelov 11-1, 11-3 in the quarterfinals. That Rangelov result is worth noting — Rangelov had just eliminated Jack Sock, so the path wasn’t exactly soft. In the semifinals, Goins defeated No. 2 seed Noe Khlif to set up a Sunday final against Jaume Martinez Vich.

That final was over quickly. Goins won 11-5, 11-3, denying Martinez Vich a potential double gold and securing his third career PPA Tour singles title. What makes this performance especially compelling is the consistency. Going an entire tournament without dropping a game at the professional level isn’t something that happens often. Goins didn’t just win — he made it look routine, which is a different and more difficult thing altogether.

In a men’s singles division that continues to deliver unpredictable results week to week, Goins is building a case that he belongs among the tour’s elite. Three straight semifinal or better finishes, capped by a dominant championship run, makes that argument hard to ignore.

Sofia Sewing Captures Her First PPA Title Alongside Catherine Parenteau

Sofia Sewing had already drawn attention as one of the sport’s rising young talents before Virginia Beach. On Sunday, she earned her first PPA Tour championship to go along with the reputation.

Sewing partnered with the experienced Catherine Parenteau to win women’s doubles gold, defeating Alix Truong and Layne Sleeth 11-8, 11-6 in the final. The scoreline suggests a fairly comfortable victory, but getting there wasn’t without drama. Earlier in the day, Parenteau and Sewing were pushed to the absolute limit by Mari Humberg and Zoey Weil in the semifinals, saving three match points before completing the comeback. That kind of resilience, especially for a player competing in her first PPA final, is worth acknowledging.

For Parenteau, the women’s doubles gold was her first of 2026 after two silver-medal finishes in Las Vegas and Chicago with a different partner. For Sewing, it’s a milestone that validates the early hype and adds a doubles title to a growing professional resume. Winning your first PPA championship alongside one of the sport’s most accomplished veterans is a meaningful way to break through.

Jaume Martinez Vich Was One Match Away from Double Gold

Even though Martinez Vich came up short in the men’s singles final against Goins, his overall tournament performance deserves its own recognition. He was one of only a handful of players competing for multiple gold medals in Virginia Beach, and his singles run alone would have been considered a success regardless of the final result.

His most significant singles win came in the quarterfinals, where he defeated top-seeded Roscoe Bellamy 11-2, 11-7. Bellamy had just won men’s singles at the Chicago Cup, making that upset one of the bigger results of the week. Martinez Vich followed it with an 11-4, 11-6 semifinal win over Adam Harvey before meeting Goins in Sunday’s final.

Goins was simply the better player that day, controlling the match from the opening point. But one gold medal and one silver across the same weekend is an outstanding result by any measure. And for a player who had reached 10 tour finals without a championship before this week, leaving Virginia Beach with his name in the winner’s column changes something. The pressure of that particular streak is gone.

Other Storylines Worth Following

Helena Jansen Fink’s run to the women’s singles final was one of the genuine surprises of the tournament. The No. 21 seed navigated a difficult draw that included a dramatic semifinal comeback victory over Sofia Sewing before falling to Fahey 11-1, 11-9 in the championship match. Reaching a PPA Tour final as a 21 seed is a significant accomplishment, and her performance in Virginia Beach will be a result she builds on.

Roscoe Bellamy’s attempt to win back-to-back men’s singles titles ended in the quarterfinals when Martinez Vich beat him 11-2, 11-7. After his breakthrough at the Chicago Cup, Virginia Beach served as a reminder that defending success on the PPA Tour is its own challenge. The men’s singles draw remains as competitive and unpredictable as it’s been all season.

Alix Truong and Layne Sleeth made a strong women’s doubles run, beating Kate Fahey and Lea Jansen in the semifinals before falling to Parenteau and Sewing in the final. For a partnership competing in its first final together, the silver medal was a positive result. Zoey Weil and Mari Humberg came agonizingly close to an upset, holding three match points against the eventual champions before falling. And Nico Acevedo and Layne Sleeth’s mixed doubles run gave two players trying to establish themselves on the tour another encouraging result to point to.

Jack Sock’s tournament ended earlier than expected, with a Round of 16 exit against George Rangelov. Rangelov’s run came to an end one round later against Goins.

Full Championship Results from the PPA Virginia Beach Open

As reported by The Dink, here are the final results from Championship Sunday:

Women’s Singles: Kate Fahey def. Helena Jansen Fink (11-1, 11-9)
Men’s Singles: John Lucian Goins def. Jaume Martinez Vich (11-5, 11-3)
Mixed Doubles: Kate Fahey and Eric Oncins def. Catherine Parenteau and Riley Newman (11-13, 11-4, 11-9)
Women’s Doubles: Catherine Parenteau and Sofia Sewing def. Layne Sleeth and Alix Truong (11-8, 11-6)
Men’s Doubles: Elliott Schupp and Jaume Martinez Vich def. Noe Khlif and Riley Newman (11-4, 4-11, 11-4)

What Virginia Beach Means Going Forward

The PPA Virginia Beach Open was a good reminder that the depth of talent on the PPA Tour goes well beyond its most famous names. Tournaments like this one — where the stars at the very top of the rankings don’t participate — have a way of revealing what the rest of the field is actually capable of, and the answers were impressive.

Fahey showed she can compete and win across multiple disciplines in the same weekend. Goins delivered the kind of dominant, clean performance that changes how people talk about a player. Schupp and Martinez Vich proved that a brand-new partnership can come out and win a PPA title on their first attempt together. And Sewing added a meaningful first championship to what looks like the beginning of a long and successful professional career.

With the PPA World Championships in Dallas on the horizon, Virginia Beach handed out more than just gold medals. It may have given us a clearer picture of which players and partnerships are worth watching when the biggest stage of the season arrives. The names Goins, Fahey, Martinez Vich, and Sewing should be on that list.

For more coverage of the PPA Tour and everything happening in professional pickleball, follow along at The Dink.