The short answer: Maximilian Wild and Mackonner Dy won the European Open men’s 18+ Open doubles title; Megan Fudge and Jada Bui won the women’s. Across Wednesday and Thursday’s three 50+ Open finals, the champions conceded only six points combined. Friday’s two 18+ finals were different: one was decided by two tight games, the other required a comeback. Saturday brings 18+ Open mixed doubles, not a continuation of Friday’s partnerships.
Megan Fudge and Jada Bui lost the opening game of the women’s 18+ Open doubles final 11–4. They won the next two 11–6, 11–1. It is the most useful starting point for the European Open’s Wednesday-to-Friday Open doubles programme: not every champion spent the week looking like one from the first ball of the final.
Wild and Dy’s men’s title came by a different route. They beat Ben Cawston and Louis Laville 12–10, 11–9, a final with just four points between the pairs across two games. No third game. Very little separation, either.
Those are the Friday winners at Ali Bey Club in Manavgat, Türkiye, where the inaugural European Open runs from 3–8 November. But concentrating on Friday alone would lose a substantial part of the story. Wednesday and Thursday’s Open competitions were the 50+ divisions, and their finals produced a much clearer set of winners.
The age labels matter. These are separate titles, not one ladder with the older players politely asked to step aside halfway up it.
What do the five finals actually tell us?
The three 50+ title matches were won by Richard Love and Marcello Paiva Jardim in men’s doubles; Sharon Tinsley and Julie Mac in women’s doubles; and Paola Tampieri and Jardim in mixed doubles. Their combined winning score was 52–6.
Love and Jardim won 15–2; Tinsley and Mac won 15–1; Tampieri and Jardim won 11–0, 11–3. Three finals, three decisive victories.
Friday’s two 18+ finals, by contrast, gave the winning pairs a combined 49–37 in recorded points. Fudge and Bui contributed 26–18 across three games; Wild and Dy added 23–19 across two. The age divisions used different game targets, but the contrast in the finals was clear: Friday’s golds were harder won.
Wednesday: the 50+ champions left little doubt
Love and Jardim beat Ian Banks and Alan Hutcherson 15–7 in their men’s 50+ semifinal. On the other side, Nathan Hill and Ian Marshall beat Quintin Garrido and Gabriel Satrustegui 15–12. That set up a final which was considerably less close than either semifinal: 15–2 to Love and Jardim.
Banks and Hutcherson then took bronze by beating Garrido and Satrustegui 15–8. Their place on the podium is worth distinguishing from the gold-medal result, rather than leaving the losing semifinalists as footnotes to somebody else’s week.
The women’s 50+ title was more emphatic still. Tinsley and Mac beat Lisa Evans and Jodi McLaren 15–0 in the quarterfinal, Sue Campbell and Jacqui Watson 15–8 in the semifinal and Kelly Dawson and Elaine Brown 15–1 in the final. Across those three knockout wins, they scored 45 points and conceded nine.
Dawson and Brown had earned their final place by beating Elizabeth Mccrae and Gabriela Costantino 15–10 in the semifinal. Campbell and Watson recovered from their own semifinal defeat to beat Mccrae and Costantino 15–9 for bronze.
Two title matches, two decisive finishes. Thursday would not make the senior Open finals much closer.
Thursday: Jardim doubled up, Marshall and Mac returned
Tampieri and Jardim beat Julie Mac and Ian Marshall 11–0, 11–3 for the mixed 50+ title. Jardim therefore had two golds from the three senior Open doubles competitions covered here. Marshall had two silvers, one with Hill in men’s doubles and another with Mac in mixed. Mac added mixed silver to Wednesday’s women’s doubles gold.
Those are not interchangeable achievements. They show how the same players reappeared in different partnerships, and why the senior competitions deserve to be followed as competitions rather than collected under an “also played” heading.
Tampieri and Jardim’s knockout route was forceful throughout: 11–2 against Sheena Maclean-Bell and Douglas Taylor in the quarterfinal, then 15–3 against Costantino and Satrustegui in the semifinal. They conceded eight points across those three knockout matches, including the final.
Mac and Marshall beat Najwa Mourad and Samer Shammas 11–3 in their quarterfinal and Dawson and Love 15–10 in the semifinal. Dawson and Love then won bronze, beating Costantino and Satrustegui 11–9, 11–4.
There is a neat caution against reading Wednesday’s partnerships into Thursday’s results. Love won men’s gold with Jardim and mixed bronze with Dawson. Marshall won silver twice, with different partners. Doubles form travels with a player, but the result belongs to the pair.
Friday: the men had to win it twice
Wild and Dy’s final was close on the scorecard, but their semifinal required a recovery first. Against Aidan Schenk and Jake Bower they lost the opener 11–8, then won 11–6, 11–1. Their quarterfinal had been a single-game 15–8 win over Bálint Bakó and Joshua Bright.
Cawston and Laville also needed three games in the semifinal, beating Mateusz Matysik and Mauro García 11–0, 7–11, 11–4. Before that they had edged Josep Canyadell and Jardim 15–13 in the quarterfinal. Jardim’s senior golds did not make him immune to a narrow defeat in the 18+ competition.
The finalists therefore arrived through different three-game semifinals and produced two two-point games for gold. Wild and Dy won both.
Schenk and Bower took bronze, beating Matysik and García 11–6, 14–12. Their semifinal defeat did not become their last result of the day.
For Laville there is a wider professional context: the APP’s August player-signing announcement listed the Surrey player among its recruits, alongside international names including Fudge and Pei Chuan Kao. Friday’s field illustrates that overlap between a European event and a wider touring circuit.
The women’s final resisted the easy script
Fudge and Bui had beaten Ekaterina Ogurtsova and Sofia Rodina 15–4 in the quarterfinal, then Sabrina Mendez and María Costantino 11–7, 11–5 in the semifinal. Brooke Revuelta and PeiChuan Kao reached the final by beating Claudia Caymel and Karina Zustakova 15–9, then Emilia Richter and Caroline Nothnagel 11–7, 11–9.
There was established touring pedigree in that final. The APP’s August player-signing announcement described Fudge as its most decorated professional and recorded Kao’s women’s singles title on her APP debut in 2025. Kao’s doubles silver and Fudge’s gold show the same touring names taking on different jobs across events.
Then the eventual champions lost the first game heavily. Their response was just as clear on the scorecard: the opponents’ points fell from eleven to six to one.
Bui has spoken about adapting to an international sporting life. In a February interview published by Khel Now during the World Pickleball League, she said: “With pro tennis, it took me to over 35 countries.” Her further observation was simple: “No matter what happens, tomorrow is another chance to get better.”
From the World Pickleball League to Türkiye, Bui’s season has continued that travelling sporting life.
Richter and Nothnagel won bronze after another reversal, beating Mendez and Costantino 7–11, 12–10, 12–10. The last two games were both decided by the minimum two-point margin. Friday’s women’s medal matches had little in common with Wednesday’s 15–1 senior final beyond the sport and the venue.
Saturday: mixed doubles takes over
Saturday brings 18+ Open mixed doubles. The Round-of-32 pairings were still unconfirmed on Saturday morning.
Wednesday through Friday has already supplied the useful preview: Jardim’s two senior golds, Mac’s gold and silver, the narrow men’s 18+ final and the women’s comeback all belong to their particular categories and partnerships. None automatically transfers to Saturday’s mixed draw.
The weekend still has room to change the verdict on individual weeks. The five completed Open doubles titles do not need changing to make that prospect interesting.
Five titles settled. Different partnerships, and another set of medals, await.
Archive: Megan Fudge at the 2026 APP Vlasic Classic Chicago, 7 August 2026. Photo: Jessie Alcheh / The APP / Getty Images. Courtesy Association of Pickleball Players (APP).
