MLP Nations Cup 2026 preview: power rankings, predictions and how to watch

Main image: Chris Cantino, Europe–West captain. Photo: Major League Pickleball / pickleball.com

The short answer: The first MLP Nations Cup is played at Brookhaven Country Club in Farmers Branch, Texas, from 30 October to 1 November. Eight regional teams of six play for a $50,000 prize pool. Each plays three group matches, and only the top two in each group reach Sunday. Team USA should win it, beating Europe–East in the final.

Last week in Hong Kong, Sahra Dennehy and Tama Shimabukuro played mixed doubles together, taking Anna Bright and Hayden Patriquin to 11-9 in the opening game of a quarter-final. In Texas they will be opponents, Dennehy for Australia and Shimabukuro for Asia International, in a Group B where one bad afternoon ends a weekend.

That is the Nations Cup in miniature. Season-long partners and rivals have been sorted by region, handed a captain and given three days to become a team, according to the rosters Major League Pickleball announced in September. Three round-robin matches, two semi-final places per group, then a single-elimination Sunday. The Opendoor Pickleball World Championships begin at the same venue on 2 November.

The talent is unevenly spread. One team has the best player in the world and the deepest women’s line-up; the other seven have to find a way around it.

Has pickleball held an international team event before?

Yes, though nothing on this scale. The International Federation of Pickleball’s amateur Bainbridge Cup began in Madrid in September 2017, where North America beat Europe 200-102, according to the IFP. It moved to Italy in 2018 and Germany in 2019; a 2020 edition in Nottingham was cancelled, according to the IFP’s cup history.

The first professional version was the APP Atlantic Cup in Miami in March 2024, billed as a Ryder Cup-style contest, according to Pickleball 52. Europe, co-captained by Thaddea Lock and Louis Laville, led 4-2 before the USA won 5-4, Pickleball 52 reported. The Nations Cup has eight teams, not two, and MLP’s format.

MLP Nations Cup power rankings

1. USA (Group A). Captain Johnny Goldberg; Tyra Black, Anna Bright, Kate Fahey, Ben Johns, CJ Klinger, Will Howells.
How they win: the women’s and mixed games. Bright won the Hong Kong women’s doubles with Anna Leigh Waters, Black won women’s and mixed gold in Brisbane, and Bright was the first pick in the 2026 MLP draft.
Where they break: men’s doubles. Johns won ten of the 13 PPA men’s doubles events from January to the Arizona Open, every one with Gabe Tardio, according to the PPA’s tournament history. Tardio is not here, and a lost men’s game can drag a 2-2 match into a DreamBreaker, the 21-point rally-scoring singles tiebreak in MLP’s rules guide.

2. Europe–East (Group B). Captain Caleb Garrard; Andrei Daescu, Arwid Dahlin, Ivan Jakovljevic, Lina Padegimaite, Tina Pisnik, Daria Walczak.
How they win: through Daescu, the best men’s player in Group B. He has won two PPA men’s doubles titles in 2026, including the Arizona Open after facing seven championship points, and lost three finals, according to the PPA’s records. Pisnik is 55-21 in PPA matches this year, according to PickleWave.
Where they break: the second men’s slot, where Dahlin or Jakovljevic must hold up at the kitchen.

3. Australia (Group B). Captain Sange Carter; Sarah Burr, Chris Crouch, Sahra Dennehy, Mitch Hargreaves, Danni-Elle Townsend, George Wall.
How they win: a settled women’s pair. Dennehy, a Hong Kong singles semi-finalist, reached the doubles quarter-finals with Townsend, the third pick in the MLP draft at $180,000, according to The Kitchen.
Where they break: the men’s game, where none of their three has Daescu’s record.

4. Europe–West (Group A). Captain Chris Cantino; Judit Castillo, Helena Jansen, Will MacKinnon, Théo Platel, Estee Widdershoven, DJ Young.
How they win: Castillo’s form, and MacKinnon’s shot-making. MacKinnon went 17th in the MLP draft for $40,000, Castillo 21st and Widdershoven 27th; Castillo also reached the PPA Finals singles semi-finals in May, losing 11-3, 11-8 to Kate Fahey, according to PickleFitter.
Where they break: MacKinnon’s consistency (more below).

5. Latin America (Group B). Captain Juan Manuel Benitez; Nico Acevedo, Mari Humberg, Rafa Lenhard, Eric Oncins, Alexa Schull, Charlie Trevino.
How they win: the men. Acevedo reached the Arizona Open final, and he and Oncins are Texas Ranchers teammates. Humberg was the sixth pick in the MLP draft, the highest in Group B.
Where they break: women’s doubles, where Humberg needs support against Pisnik and Dennehy.

6. Asia International (Group B). Captain Madeleine Lim; Rika Fujiwara, Lingwei Kong, Jimmy Liong, Tama Shimabukuro, Jack Wong, Macy Ybañez.
How they win: Shimabukuro, a Hong Kong singles finalist at 15 and the ninth pick in the MLP draft at $125,000, according to The Kitchen, can change any game. Fujiwara reached the Hong Kong singles quarter-finals, according to ThePickleHub.
Where they break: format experience. Shimabukuro replaced Vietnam’s Hien Truong on 21 October, Times Now and The Dink reported.

7. Canada (Group A). Captain Steve Deakin; Victoria DiMuzio, Blaine Hovenier, Armaan Jiwa Mawji, Layne Sleeth, Ryan Torresin, Angie Walker.
How they win: familiarity, and a captain who calls it a duty. “When your country calls, you answer the phone,” Steve Deakin said.
Where they break: star power.

8. Asia Domestic (Group A). Co-captains Geoffrey Nguyen and Jeff Tsao; Augie Ge, Milan Rane, Jonathan Truong, Zoey Wang, Jamie Wei, Len Yang.
How they win: better than eighth on paper. Wei, Truong and Yang were the fifth, tenth and 18th picks in the MLP draft, and Ge and Yang reached the Kuala Lumpur Cup men’s doubles final in September.
Where they break: the draw, which put them in USA’s group.

Can Will MacKinnon carry Europe–West?

For British readers, the interest begins with a Scot raised in California. MacKinnon made his MLP debut at 17 in June, as pickleball.com noted, and pickleball.com‘s Jim Kloss picked him as “the breakthrough player on the men’s side in 2026 (if he plays enough events)”.

Kloss also put the problem better than anyone. Previewing MLP St. Louis for pickleball.com in June, he wrote that MacKinnon “has crazy talent, but is very undisciplined and inconsistent. He will drive you crazy by hitting three shots better than anything from Ben Johns, and then he will miss five shots that a 3.0 would be embarrassed to miss.”

“We’re all representing our heritage, competing for something bigger than ourselves,” Cantino told MLP in comments published by pickleball.com.

Hong Kong showed both sides. He lost his first-round singles match to Joey Wild 13-11, 7-11, 11-8, but stayed alive in doubles. With Théo Platel alongside, Cantino has a calmer option if MacKinnon’s day goes wrong.

The bigger asset is Castillo, a losing finalist to Andie Dikosavljevic in Brisbane and Hong Kong in successive weeks, pickleball.com reported.

How strong is European pickleball now?

Strong enough to need two teams. Europe sent one team of six to the Atlantic Cup in 2024. Now six of the European players here were picked in the 2026 MLP draft, and Daescu did not need to be, because the Columbus Sliders kept him.

The question the Nations Cup can answer is whether Europe’s best can beat Americans as a team, not only as their partners. Both European teams are in the top four here because the answer may already be yes.

Three matches to watch

USA v Europe–West. The only Group A match in which the Americans can be pushed, if MacKinnon has a good day.

Europe–East v Latin America. A rematch of sorts of the Arizona Open men’s doubles final, with Daescu against Acevedo. The winner probably tops Group B.

Australia v Asia International. Dennehy against her Hong Kong mixed partner, and very likely a match that decides the second Group B semi-final place.

Who will win the MLP Nations Cup?

USA. On these rankings the Americans would meet Australia in the semi-finals and Europe–East would beat Europe–West, but nobody can match Bright, Black and Fahey in the final.

The cost of losing is greater than one weekend. MLP’s case for the event is that it can become a genuinely international property, and that case weakens if the home team wins at a canter.

Frequently asked questions

Chris Beaumont

Founder and Editor-in-Chief

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Beaumont is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of World Pickleball Magazine. Chris follows the global game closely, reporting on the latest news, developments, stories and tournaments from all five continents. He also hosts the World Pickleball Podcast, interviewing people at…

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