The Report
Waters took three golds. Men’s doubles took the show
Good morning, pickleballers. Championship Sunday has been played. Anna Leigh Waters entered three Worlds finals and won three. The best match of the day still belonged to somebody else. Also today: Nationals, the European Open and my case for longer singles finals.
Watched Worlds with someone?
Send them this. It is the whole of Championship Sunday in five minutes, plus Nationals and the European Open. Forwarded to you? Subscribe and get your own copy.
JW Johnson and Tama Shimabukuro with the men’s doubles trophy at the Opendoor Pickleball World Championships, Farmers Branch, Texas, 8 November 2026. Photo: PPA Tour.
The Lead · Worlds Championship Sunday
Waters took three golds. The final that refused to die was men’s doubles
Waters won mixed with Ben Johns in five games, women’s doubles with Anna Bright in three, then, after eight doubles games, beat Kate Fahey 11–3, 11–2 for singles gold.
John Lucian Goins beat Jack Sock 11–5, 12–10 and has now won Worlds men’s singles in successive years. Sock still waits for a first PPA Tour singles title.
Then men’s doubles refused to finish on schedule. Third seeds Andrei Daescu and Christian Alshon led 11–5, 11–5. JW Johnson and Tama Shimabukuro won the next three, 11–4, 11–8, 11–4. Two games down is not colour writing. It is the first two lines of the score.
Read the Championship Sunday report →USA · Nationals
Stewart takes mixed gold. Camron and Mendez close Nationals on Sunday
At Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, Katerina Stewart won mixed gold with Richard Livornese, 11–5, 12–10, took women’s doubles silver with Bobbi Oshiro and withdrew from the singles bronze match. Ronan Camron and Seone Mendez won the singles titles, each in two games.
Livornese leaves with two golds: men’s doubles with Jack Munro, and mixed, beating him. Friday’s preview gave Stewart three routes. Sunday was the audit.
Opinion · Chris Beaumont
Worlds gave doubles finals five games and singles finals three. That is backwards
Both singles finals ended in two games. All three doubles finals were best of five, and the men’s doubles champions exist only because their final was long enough to change its mind. The case against me is real: Waters played ten games on Sunday. That is a scheduling problem to solve, not proof that singles titles need less sport.
Europe · European Open singles
Bower and Bui win European Open singles titles
Jake Bower beat Bálint Bakó 11–2, 11–7 for the men’s 18+ Open singles title at Ali Bey Club in Manavgat. Jada Bui took the long road, 9–11, 12–10, 14–12 against PeiChuan Kao, and leaves with three Open medals from three days.
Also on WPM today
The recount, Canada, Iran and an Olympian
We counted all 297 Worlds matches
Higher seeds won 230, 77%: the same rate as our 222-match count. The semi-finals went five from ten.
Read the updated seeding analysis →
CNPL events will carry APP ranking points
From 2027, every Canadian National Pickleball League event carries APP Tour doubles ranking points: 500 at each of five regular-season stops, 1,000 at the championship.
Piroozi’s double in Alborz
Masoud Piroozi won 17+ singles and, with Hojjat Nasrollahi, 35+ doubles at Iran’s 500-point men’s nationals. His province, Golestan, put a player on every podium.
An Olympic champion in China’s tour finale
Li Xiaopeng, a four-time Olympic gymnastics gold medallist, entered the China Pickleball Circuit finale in Guangzhou as a player. MLP Asia opens in Japan on Friday. Different questions. Keep them apart.
Also from World Pickleball Media
LEARN
Fix your own third shot
Spent the weekend watching the pros? LEARN has 34 YouTube lessons for players moving from 3.0 to 3.5, ranked by what real players recommend, not by views. Third shot keeps finding the net? Six of them deal with exactly that.
STUDIO
Coverage for your event
Running a tournament? World Pickleball Media turns events into media properties, starting with nearly live highlights that carry advertising. Remote co-commentary and a virtual studio from World Pickleball Studio can be added where an event qualifies.
Pass the Report on
Championship Sunday is the sort of day people argue about at the club. Forward this to the clubmate who missed it, or the organiser who should be reading it. Forwarded to you? Subscribe for your own copy.
Read the full stories in World Pickleball Magazine. Read the magazine →