The eyes of the pickleball world will next turn to the Opendoor Pickleball World Championships. Main draw action begins November 2, from Brookhaven Country Club in Farmers Branch, Texas, just outside of Dallas. The biggest and best pickleball tournament featuring all the top players from around the world will have the usual five events, with men’s doubles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles, men’s singles, and women’s singles. Each of the five events have the largest draws we see all year, so the five gold medal winners will certainly earn it next week.

1. Men’s Doubles

The top seed is the team of Gabe Tardio and Ben Johns. They have struggled a little bit lately, including a loss last week in the final of the Hong Kong Slam, to next week’s #2 seed, Hayden Patriquin and Federico Staksrud. Are the struggles of Tardio/Johns a sign of things to come? Is the field catching up to them? Worlds will be a good test.

The #3 seed is Andrei Daescu/Christian Alshon, and at #4 is JW Johnson/Tama Shimabukuro. Of the top four seeds, Johnson/Shimabukuro is the weakest one, but their quarter of the draw has the overall weakest teams, to their benefit. 

The main competition in Johns/Tardio’s quarter is #6 Connor Garnett/Dylan Frazier. They are a fairly new partnership but have played well together and could upset the top seed, if they meet in the quarterfinals.

 

 

 

 

 

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Daescu/Alshon join Tardio/Johns in the top half of the draw. Their section of the draw includes several solid teams, including #8 Jaume Martinez Vich/Nico Acevedo, #10 Yuta Funemizu/Armaan Bhatia, and #12 Roscoe Bellamy/Pablo Tellez. JMV/Acevedo is definitely a team to watch. They have shown they can win a tournament and beat anyone.

The main threat to Patriquin/Staksrud in their section of the draw is #5 CJ Klinger/Eric Oncins. Klinger/Oncins is a high ceiling/low floor team, so if they make the semifinals, they will be playing well and will have a chance for the upset.

The bottom quarter of the draw is the best opportunity for an upset team to make a deep run. The #7 seeded team of Noe Khlif/Riley Newman is the best bet to be that team. Newman has not played to his standards lately but has a habit of showing up in the biggest tournaments. The #9 seeded team is Collin Johns/Len Yang. They are an under-the-radar team that will play smart pickleball, so their opponents will need to be careful.

A likely Round of 32 match to watch for is #13 Eunggwon Kim/Hong Kit Wong against #20 Tyson McGuffin/Casey Diamond. Kim/Wong are arguably the best players from Asia, but they have not normally done very well in US-based events. Another good Round of 32 match is #14 Dekel Bar/Wyatt Stone against #17 Will Howells/Clayton Powell. Powell is one of the most underrated players on tour. It is just a matter of time before he has a breakout event and people start noticing his talent.

2. Women’s Doubles

The women’s doubles draw is all about ‘Team Anna.’ The top seeded team of Anna Leigh Waters/Anna Bright has been rolling all year and there is no reason to think they will not continue their hot streak at Worlds.

The #2 seeded team and biggest threat to Waters/Bright is the team of Tyra Black and Jorja Johnson. While Black/Johnson have beaten Waters/Bright before, it feels like lately Black/Johnson have not been quite the same threat to win as in the past. Waters/Bright seem to have found another gear, separating themselves even more from the rest of the field.

The next seeds are #3 Rachel Rohrabacher/Parris Todd, #4 Kate Fahey/Tina Pisnik, #5 Sofia Sewing/Catherine Parenteau, and #6 Lacy Schneemann/Jamie Wei. Of those teams, watch out for Fahey/Pisnik. Fahey has been arguably the third best women’s doubles player over the last six months, and Pisnik is always steady. Can they make a run to the finals?

An interesting Round of 64 match pits #30 Kelly Goodnow/Elsie Hendershot against #35 Allison Phillips/Genie Bouchard. Goodnow and Hendershot have a combined age of less than Bouchard’s 32 years. Can the youngsters pull the upset?

An expected Round of 32 match is #9 Mari Humberg/Milan Rane against #20 Lucy Kovalova/Cailyn Campbell. This should be a very close match. Humberg and Campbell will supply the power, while Rane and Kovalova will be steady on the right side.

3. Mixed Doubles

The heavy favorite in mixed doubles will be the top seeded Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns. They may have an interesting Round of 32 match, as they will play the winner of #29 Callie Smith/Collin Johns v. #33 Daria Walczak/Augie Ge. A brother v. brother match would be fun to see, but I like Walczak/Ge to win that Round of 64 clash.

The main threats to Waters/Johns in the top half of the draw are #4 Rachel Rohrabacher/Christian Alshon, #5 Tyra Black/Gabe Tardio, and #7 Kate Fahey/Federico Staksrud. Fahey and Staksrud usually give Waters/Johns a tough time, but can they break through with a win?

In the bottom half of the draw, the #2 seed goes to Anna Bright/Hayden Patriquin, and the #3 seed is Jorja and JW Johnson. The bottom half of the draw also includes quality teams #6 Parris Todd/Andrei Daescu, #8 Catherine Parenteau/Eric Oncins, and #9 Tina Pisnik/Noe Khlif. Whoever comes out of the bottom half of the draw will have to earn their way to the final.

The Round of 64 will feature some excellent matches. #22 Mari Humberg/Pablo Tellez takes on #44 Zoey Weil/Chris Haworth, and #31 Etta Tuionetoa/Jaume Martinez Vich plays #37 Kiora Kunimoto/Elliott Schupp. Young guns Kunimoto and Schupp have had some success lately, but the veteran team of Tuionetoa/Martinez Vich brings a lot of experience into this one.

4. Men’s Singles

The men’s singles draw is stacked, as usual. Chris Haworth gets the top seed, but he will be challenged early. He is matched against a qualifier in the first round but then has to play the winner of #30 Cam Chaffin against #35 Augie Ge. It does not get easier as he goes, as he faces a likely quarterfinal against the winner of #7 John Lucian Goins against #9 Noe Khlif. Of course, that assumes Khlif can win his Round of 32 match against #19 Ben Johns. These matches show the quality depth of the men’s singles draw.

Also in the top half of the draw are #4 Christian Alshon and #8 Connor Garnett. A couple of fun Round of 64 matches in the top half pit #15 Grayson Goldin against #55 Nico Acevedo, and #12 Jaume Martinez Vich against #53 Will Howells.

In the bottom half of the draw, the #2 seed is Federico Staksrud and #3 is Hunter Johnson. Standing in the way of a semifinal showdown between those two are #5 Roscoe Bellamy, #6 Tama Shimabukuro, and #11 Hong Kit Wong. Wong is a very successful singles player who had match points against Staksrud when they played in Hong Kong, but can he adjust to the change of scenery and do well in a US tournament?

 

 

 

 

 

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The bottom half also has a great expected Round of 32 match between #13 Jack Sock and #22 Yates Johnson. Sock is always a fun watch, while Johnson has had a number of good singles results lately. That will be a very good match to watch on Wednesday.

5. Women’s Singles

When the women’s singles draw is released, every player looks to see when they would have to play top seed Anna Leigh Waters. If you get put in the bottom half of the draw, you let out a sigh of relief. Trying for the upset in the top half will be #4 Brooke Buckner, #5 Zoey Wang, #8 Judit Castillo, and #9 Sahra Dennehy. Castillo will be tested in the Round of 32 by #25 Sofia Sewing. The winner could well see Waters in the quarterfinals.

In the bottom half of the draw, Kate Fahey headlines as the #2 seed. She will be challenged by #3 Kaitlyn Christian, #6 Kiora Kunimoto, and #7 Catherine Parenteau. A good Round of 32 match in the bottom half will have #11 Jorja Johnson against #22 Liz Truluck.

6. Predictions 

Starting with men’s doubles, we have not seen Tardio/Johns in their usual position at the top. I expect that the prestige of winning Worlds will motivate them to play their best and when they play their best, they win. Patriquin/Staksrud benefit from being on the easier side, so they should also make the final.

In women’s doubles, it is hard to bet against Waters and Bright, so I will not do it. The bigger question is whether they will lose a game at all. For a finals opponent, I will go with Fahey/Pisnik. Fahey has been playing well enough to make a final, so this looks like a good spot to do it.

For mixed doubles, how about one big upset with Fahey and Staksrud taking down the top seed but then losing to Rohrabacher/Alshon. That will create an opening for Bright/Patriquin to take the title.

Men’s singles is just coin flip after coin flip. Nico Acevedo is a #55 seed yet is good enough to win it all. That is how deep the draw is. I will go with Hunter Johnson to win, over John Lucian Goins.

Finally, in women’s singles, no one should ever anticipate that Anna Leigh Waters will lose. It will happen someday, but I will not predict it for next week. The usual Waters over Fahey final is likely.

All the matches will be on Pickleballtv. Worlds is can’t-miss pickleball.

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