The Association of Pickleball Players (APP) was back in action last weekend, traveling to the awesome Sawyer Point facility along the banks of the Ohio River to host the 2026 APP Vlasic Classic Cincinnati event.
Click here for the PickleballDen.com home page for the event, where you can get tournament details, draw sheets, and results.
News and Noteworthy ahead of the Event
Here’s a quick recap of notable news items of import to the APP tour or this event:
- On 6/11/26: APP announced an expanded partnership with Pickleball England, with whom they’ve already been partnered since 2022.
Together the groups will work together to accelerate Pickleball’s growth in England. The English Pickleball Open is now one of the largest events in the world, with more than 3,000 participants annually. - On 5/19/26: The APP announced the APP Asia Tour, on top of previously announced international events, and will hold six APP Asia events in the second half of 2026. They plan on tourneys in Malaysia, China, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, India, and Vietnam. This expands on their existing D-Joy relationship in Vietnam.
- They also announced Two pickleball industry veterans, Yui See Lau and Yuki Chen, have been named the Senior Vice President of Global Expansion and Director of Global Expansion for the APP, respectively.
- Just before their most recent event in Sacramento, the tour announced a slew of additional player signings. They now have 30 players signed to contracts that bind the players to the APP tour in some capacity (details are not disclosed). Their signings now include multiple international players such as Vietnam’s Quang Duong, England’s Louis Laville, India’s Harsh Mehta, and Australia based players such as Seone Mendez, Nicola Schoeman, and Roos van Reek.
With that said, let’s recap the action.
Men’s Pro Singles Recap
Fifty-six (56) Pros poured into the Men’s singles draw in Cincinnati, and there were upsets galore. The biggest run was made by French man Emilien Burnel, a recent D1 tennis grad who now serves as a Grad assistant coach to the St. Louis University tennis team. As a No. 29 seed he won his opener, then cruised past No. 4 seed Kawka in two. From there he beat APP tour regular James Broker before falling in the quarters to APP veteran Andre Millet.
The top two seeds stayed above the fray though and met in the final, with No. 2 Dusty Boyer finally capturing his first APP Singles gold, topping No. 1 Ronan Camron in the final 5,4.
Special shout-out to No. 14 Drake Palm, who’s been cleaning up recently on the APP next tour; he made the bronze medal match before falling.
Gold: Dusty Boyer. Silver: Ronan Camron. Bronze: Andre Millet.
Women’s Pro Singles Recap
The women’s singles draw was chalk into the semis, with the tour’s top four players all advancing as expected. There. No. 1 Sofia Sewing, taking time off her Palm Beach Royals MLP duty, withdrew, giving No. 4 Domenika Turkovic a free ride into the finals. Unfortunately, Turkovic couldn’t take advantage of the extra rest and fell in the gold medal match to No. 2 Kat Stewart 6,4. It is Stewart’s 4th APP gold medal in singles.
Gold: Kat Stewart. Silver: Domenika Turkovic. Bronze: Bobbi Oshiro.
Mixed Pro Doubles Recap
We had an interesting shake up of regular Mixed partners on tour, which gave us some interesting medal results. After playing together for more than 2 years, Megan Fudge & Jack Munro have parted ways. Fudge is now playing with Richard Livornese, while Sofia Sewing has settled in with Casey Diamond. Munro paired up this week with Jill Braverman for the first time in years (they had one PPA result together in June 2024 previously). The pairing paid off; together as the No. 3 seed they cruised into the finals and won, giving Munro a double for the weekend and Braverman her first Mixed gold since Jan 2025. They beat the top seeds Sofia Sewing & Casey Diamond in the final.
Gold: Munro/Braverman. Silver: Sewing/Livornese. Bronze: Oshiro/DeHeart.
Men’s Pro Doubles Recap
Top seeds Jack Munro & Richard Livornese held serve throughout the week, and took the gold medal with a 4,3 win over upstarts Drake Palm and Ronan Camron, making it a solid weekend for both the APP Next players. Palm & Camron together won both doubles golds on the APP next tour as recently as last December, and now are pushing to the top of the APP main tour.
Special recognition to Andre Millet / Ryan Torresin, who upset the No. 2 seeds Diamond & Schenk in the round of 16.
Gold: Munro/Livornese. Silver: Palm/Camron. Bronze: Lane/Slutsky
Women’s Pro Doubles Recap
Kat Steward made it a double gold for the weekend, teaming with another successful APP Next player in Riley Bohnert to capture the gold medal. They upset the top seeds Fudge & Sewing in the final 3,8. In the bronze match we got a rare medal for Susannah Barr, one of the most decorated players in APP tour history, who won the 3rd place match with partner Oshiro.
In doing so, Steward and Bohnert were able to complete a rare feat: in the same event they beat the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 seeds. First they topped No. 2 Schmidt & Braverman in the quarters, then No. 3 Maddox & Bates in the semis, and then the top seeds in the final.
Gold: Stewart/Bohnert. Silver: Fudge/Sewing. Bronze: Barr/Oshiro
AARP Champions Pro Competition Quick Recap
- Men’s Champions Pro Singles: The same three men reached the podium for Champions singles for the 3rd time this year; Bouzidi, Jardim, and Arrant. This time around it was Marcello Jardim taking the title; The three men now each have exactly 1 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze so far this season.
- Women’s Champions Pro Singles: Eugenia Carolina Lopez continues her ascent up the ranks in her first season eligible for Champions; she falls in the final to top seed Karin Ptaszek-Kochis.
- Men’s Champions Pro Doubles: Marcello Jardim made it a double, pairing with Jamie Oncins to win the Men’s Champions doubles title.
- Women’s Champions Pro Doubles: Lee Whitwell/Eugenia Carolina Lopez won their third straight Women’s Champions doubles title to open the APP season, as Lopez takes the tour by force.
- Mixed Champions Pro Doubles: A massive 48-team Mixed Champions Pro draw competed for the title in Cincinnati. Eugenia Carolina Lopez teamed with Jardim to upset the top seeds in the semis and take the gold as the No. 4 seeded team.
This gave Jardim the Triple Crown for the weekend; the first on the APP senior tour since last November, and Jardim’s first triple since Dallas in October 2024.
AARP Masters 60+ Pro Competition Quick Recap
- Men’s Masters 60+ Pro Singles: Both top seeds fell early, and No. 3 Scott Greenberg took advantage with the gold in singles.
- Men’s Masters 60+ Pro Doubles: No. 1 Howard Mendel / David Spearman survived an 11-1 first game beating in the gold medal match to rebound and win.
- Women’s Masters 60+ Pro Doubles: Another No.1 seed fell early, paving the way for Ginny Purdy / Heather Iffert to take the title.
- Mixed Masters 60+ Pro Doubles: No. 3 Nathalie Bagby / Dan Granot beat the top seeds in the final to take gold.
The Pro Pickleball Medal Tracker spreadsheets have now been updated with these results. Click here for the Pro-only Medal Tracker, and click here for the Senior Pro Medal Tracker. These spreadsheets hold Medal winners for every pro event going back to the beginnings of the tours.
Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, the APP’s Next tour heads to Grapevine, Texas next weekend, while the main tour heads overseas for much of the next two months. There’s a D-Joy collab event June 21st weekend in Vietnam, then the Kinto Nagoya City Open the second weekend of July, then the week after that APP Singapore, and the week after that the 2026 Leapmotor APP Penang Open in Malaysia. That’s three straight weekends abroad of events stacked up for the APP and Asia-based pros. The next time the APP plays domestically is the first week of August in Chicago.
Any Head to Head or career match stats quoted in this article are courtesy of PickleWave. Visit picklewave.com for the premier source of Pro Pickleball data, including match replays, highlights, stats, and discussion. PickleWave has more than 31,000 matches in its database across all the pro tours, and has started a fantastic new Bracket Challenge feature for Fantasy-style sports fans to try out.
Other resources I use frequently to cover Pickleball include:
For a full list of my “Pickleball Bookmarks,” including a summary of my “go-to” links for coverage as well as a relatively comprehensive list of links for the industry, click here.
