Martin Stanchev, Matt Burkhardt, Jessica Ho and Eileen Wang all went 3-0 to top their Challenger Showdown singles pools at Worlds. The rankings’ No 2, Masa Grgan, finished without a win. Here are Thursday’s results, the four singles semi-finals with 2027 PPA contracts at stake, and every group in the still-unplayed doubles and mixed pools.
Masa Grgan arrived at Brookhaven two points behind Jessica Ho at the top of the women’s Challenger rankings. She leaves the singles pools bottom of her group, 0-3, having lost two of her three matches in deciding games.
That is the sharpest single result from Thursday’s Challenger Showdown singles pools at the 2026 Opendoor Pickleball World Championships, and it is not the only one that complicated yesterday’s preview. William Hsieh, the Charlotte Challenger champion, still qualified but as runner-up, after Martin Stanchev beat him 11-9, 11-6. Jessica Ho, the rankings leader, topped her pool after only two completed matches, because her third opponent never played a point.
The semi-finals are now set. In the men’s draw, Matt Burkhardt plays Hsieh and Stanchev plays Troy Akin. In the women’s draw, Eileen Wang plays Kelsey Laurente and Ho plays Shannon Pretorius. The men’s and women’s singles champions each earn a 2027 PPA Tour contract.
The doubles and mixed pools have not started. Every team on all six official pool sheets is 0-0, with six matches unplayed in each group.
All scores below are taken from the official tournament pool sheets. No player quotes from Thursday have been published that we can verify; the only quotes in this piece are from interviews Isaac Hunter conducted before the event.
Men’s pool one: Stanchev beats Hsieh to take first
| Player | W | L | Points for | Points against | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Stanchev | 3 | 0 | 67 | 46 | +21 |
| William Hsieh | 2 | 1 | 59 | 42 | +17 |
| Eli Steiner | 1 | 2 | 52 | 52 | 0 |
| Wade Heerboth | 0 | 3 | 28 | 66 | -38 |
Stanchev’s afternoon began with the tightest men’s game of the pool: he beat Eli Steiner 11-8, 12-10. He then beat Hsieh 11-9, 11-6 in the second round and closed with an 11-8, 11-5 win over Wade Heerboth.
Hsieh had opened by beating Heerboth 11-1, 11-7 and finished by beating Steiner 11-4, 11-8, so the only six games he dropped all day came against Stanchev. That single defeat was the difference between first place and second. Steiner’s one win came against Heerboth, 11-4, 11-3.
Earlier this week, Stanchev lost 11-7, 11-4 to Christian Alshon in the professional round of 64. Alshon is now in the Worlds men’s singles quarter-finals. Stanchev’s Thursday is a reminder that the Challenger pathway is a separate competition with its own level, not a consolation bracket.
Men’s pool two: Burkhardt concedes 33 points in six games
| Player | W | L | Points for | Points against | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Burkhardt | 3 | 0 | 66 | 33 | +33 |
| Troy Akin | 2 | 1 | 57 | 33 | +24 |
| Bret Berryman | 1 | 2 | 49 | 73 | -24 |
| Vincent Rettke | 0 | 3 | 41 | 74 | -33 |
Burkhardt produced the most dominant men’s singles pool of the day. He beat Akin 11-5, 11-8 in the first round, then Vincent Rettke 11-7, 11-0 and Bret Berryman 11-6, 11-7. His +33 differential is the best of all four singles groups.
Akin’s only loss was that opening match. After it, he beat Berryman 11-1, 11-5 and Rettke 11-4, 11-1, conceding seven points across four games.
The longest match in the group was the one that decided nothing at the top. Berryman beat Rettke 7-11, 11-8, 12-10. That gave Berryman third place.
In yesterday’s preview we pointed to Burkhardt’s 11-9, 11-8 defeat by Tama Shimabukuro in the professional draw as evidence that his level should not be judged by the word “loss”. Thursday supports that reading. It does not make him the favourite against Hsieh.
Women’s pool one: Ho tops the group after two matches
| Player | W | L | Points for | Points against | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jessica Ho | 3 | 0 | 53 | 40 | +13 |
| Kelsey Laurente | 2 | 1 | 49 | 43 | +6 |
| Naomi de Hart | 1 | 2 | 25 | 44 | -19 |
| Anne-Sophie Courteau | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Anne-Sophie Courteau’s line on the official sheet is three losses, no points won and no points conceded. Each of her three matches, against Laurente, Ho and Naomi de Hart, is marked “WD”, the sheet’s walkover notation, with no score. The tournament has not published a reason, and we are not going to guess at one.
That means each of the other three players had one result decided without a ball being struck. It also shaped the tie-breaks: a walkover adds a win but no points, so the points-difference column reflects only the matches that were actually played.
The real contest was Ho against Laurente in the final round. Ho won 13-11, 7-11, 11-5. Before that, she had beaten de Hart 11-4, 11-9. Laurente’s other completed match was an 11-9, 11-3 win over de Hart.
“There are a lot of great players in the final eight and everyone earned their spot,” Ho told Isaac Hunter before the event. “If I secure a contract, that’s my cherry on top.” She is now two wins away from it.
Women’s pool two: Wang survives two deciders, Grgan loses two
| Player | W | L | Points for | Points against | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eileen Wang | 3 | 0 | 90 | 69 | +21 |
| Shannon Pretorius | 2 | 1 | 77 | 64 | +13 |
| Janet Liu | 1 | 2 | 62 | 71 | -9 |
| Masa Grgan | 0 | 3 | 65 | 90 | -25 |
This was the hardest-fought group of the four. Grgan, ranked second in the Challenger standings before the week, lost her first match to Janet Liu 11-6, 8-11, 12-10.
She then took Wang to three, winning the second game 15-13 before losing 11-3, 13-15, 11-6. Pretorius beat her 13-11, 11-3 in the last round. Grgan scored 65 points in seven games. That is more than Ho scored all day, but it did not bring her a win.
Wang’s route to first place was hardly comfortable. She lost the opening game of her first match to Pretorius 13-11 and came back to win 11-13, 11-9, 11-9. After the deciding game against Grgan, she finished by beating Liu 11-9, 11-5. Wang won all three of her matches but played eight games, more than any other pool winner.
Pretorius beat Liu 11-8, 11-9 and Grgan 13-11, 11-3, so her only loss was that deciding game against Wang. She came into the Showdown after beating Chao Yi Wang, the fifth seed in the professional women’s singles, earlier in the week. She is not among the eight women left in the Worlds singles quarter-finals.
The singles semi-finals
The format crosses each pool winner over to face the runner-up from the other pool. As a result, none of Saturday’s four semi-finals is a rematch of a Thursday pool match.
Men: Matt Burkhardt v William Hsieh. On Thursday’s numbers, Burkhardt has the edge: he dropped only 33 points in three matches. Hsieh, the Charlotte champion, comes in having lost only to Stanchev. Before the event, Hsieh told Isaac Hunter: “A PPA contract would mean the world to me, and it would feel like proof that what I’m doing is working.”
Men: Martin Stanchev v Troy Akin. Stanchev has the most varied set of wins, including a 12-10 game against Steiner and a straight-games defeat of Hsieh. Akin’s last two matches were the most one-sided on the men’s sheets.
Women: Eileen Wang v Kelsey Laurente. Wang has been tested more than anyone else left in the singles, with two three-game wins. Laurente’s two-match record is real but thin: one straight-games win over de Hart, one three-game loss to Ho and a walkover.
Women: Jessica Ho v Shannon Pretorius. This is the season-long rankings leader against the player with the strongest professional-draw run of the Challenger field. Pretorius took a game off Wang, and Ho dropped one to Laurente. Of all four semi-finals, this one looks closest on paper.
The doubles pools: who is in them
Doubles and mixed use the same pool format as singles, with two pools of four teams in each event and matches played best of three games to 11, win by two. The sheets we have do not yet show the doubles medal-round draw, so we are not stating how many teams advance from each group.
Men’s doubles, pool one: Riley Inn/Alex Emery, Juan Varon/Ryan Camras, Connor McCartney/Wade Heerboth, Usama Khalid/Zach Gonnering.
Listed order: Inn/Emery v Khalid/Gonnering and Varon/Camras v McCartney/Heerboth first. Then Inn/Emery v McCartney/Heerboth and Varon/Camras v Khalid/Gonnering. Last come Inn/Emery v Varon/Camras and McCartney/Heerboth v Khalid/Gonnering.
Men’s doubles, pool two: Eli Steiner/Jackson Ayotte, Mike Radermacher/Matt Burkhardt, Jake Anderson/Vincent Rettke, Nicholas Wade/Dale Kim.
Listed order: Steiner/Ayotte v Wade/Kim and Radermacher/Burkhardt v Anderson/Rettke first. Then Steiner/Ayotte v Anderson/Rettke and Radermacher/Burkhardt v Wade/Kim. Last come Steiner/Ayotte v Radermacher/Burkhardt and Anderson/Rettke v Wade/Kim.
Women’s doubles, pool one: Allie Reichert/Madalina Grigoriu, Monika Wynne/Ella Boydston, Averee Beck/Bella Nelson, Yolena Carlon/Haley Ferguson.
Listed order: Reichert/Grigoriu v Carlon/Ferguson and Wynne/Boydston v Beck/Nelson first. Then Reichert/Grigoriu v Beck/Nelson and Wynne/Boydston v Carlon/Ferguson. Last come Reichert/Grigoriu v Wynne/Boydston and Beck/Nelson v Carlon/Ferguson.
Women’s doubles, pool two: Maddy Rasmusen/Masa Grgan, Marisa Ruiz/Kelsey Laurente, Anne-Sophie Courteau/Chloe Diskin, Adelie Osher/Janet Liu.
Listed order: Rasmusen/Grgan v Osher/Liu and Ruiz/Laurente v Courteau/Diskin first. Then Rasmusen/Grgan v Courteau/Diskin and Ruiz/Laurente v Osher/Liu. Last come Rasmusen/Grgan v Ruiz/Laurente and Courteau/Diskin v Osher/Liu.
Mixed doubles, pool one: Madalina Grigoriu/Garrison Eaby, Anne-Sophie Courteau/Juan Varon, Allie Reichert/Jake Anderson, Monika Wynne/Zach Gonnering.
Listed order: Grigoriu/Eaby v Wynne/Gonnering and Courteau/Varon v Reichert/Anderson first. Then Grigoriu/Eaby v Reichert/Anderson and Courteau/Varon v Wynne/Gonnering. Last come Grigoriu/Eaby v Courteau/Varon and Reichert/Anderson v Wynne/Gonnering.
Mixed doubles, pool two: Lauren Cole/Jarryd Woog, Chloe Diskin/Matt Burkhardt, Maddy Rasmusen/Usama Khalid, Marisa Ruiz/Nicholas Wade.
Listed order: Cole/Woog v Ruiz/Wade and Diskin/Burkhardt v Rasmusen/Khalid first. Then Cole/Woog v Rasmusen/Khalid and Diskin/Burkhardt v Ruiz/Wade. Last come Cole/Woog v Diskin/Burkhardt and Rasmusen/Khalid v Ruiz/Wade.
What to watch in doubles
Burkhardt’s workload. He is the only singles semi-finalist on either doubles sheet. He is entered in men’s doubles with Mike Radermacher and in mixed with Chloe Diskin, on top of Saturday’s singles semi-final against Hsieh. The sheets do not give times, so we cannot yet say whether those commitments clash. No other singles semi-finalist appears in either doubles event: Hsieh, Stanchev, Akin, Ho, Wang and Pretorius are all absent.
Grgan’s second chance. Grgan’s singles ended on Thursday, but she is in women’s doubles with Maddy Rasmusen. Their last listed pool match is against Laurente and Marisa Ruiz, which puts a singles semi-finalist on the other side of the net.
The losing singles players. Heerboth and Rettke, both 0-3 in singles, are paired with McCartney and Anderson respectively. Liu, who beat Grgan, partners Adelie Osher. Steiner, third in men’s pool one, plays with Jackson Ayotte. The pool sheets give each of them a fresh table.
The busy names. Juan Varon, Usama Khalid, Zach Gonnering, Jake Anderson, Nicholas Wade, Madalina Grigoriu, Allie Reichert, Monika Wynne, Maddy Rasmusen, Marisa Ruiz and Chloe Diskin are each entered in both doubles and mixed. Wade is listed from Upminster, in east London.
Courteau. After three walkovers in singles, Anne-Sophie Courteau is still listed on the women’s doubles sheet with Diskin and on the mixed sheet with Varon. Her doubles opener is against Ruiz/Laurente; her mixed opener is against Reichert/Anderson. The sheet still lists her. That is all it tells us: it does not say whether she will take the court, and we have not been able to confirm her status with the tournament. If she does not play, the walkover arithmetic from Thursday’s singles would affect two more groups.
What Saturday decides
Thursday cut sixteen singles players down to eight, then to four in each draw. The four pool winners carry 3-0 records into the semi-finals, but Thursday’s results do not count once the knockout starts. The doubles and mixed pools start from 0-0 with every result still to be played.
Isaac Hunter’s guide to the eight contracts available this week sets out what is at stake across the Showdown. We will report the singles medal matches and the doubles pool results when they have been played.
Photo: Selkirk Sport.
