Eric Oncins wins his first Mixed gold with partner Hurricane Tyra Black.
While its top female player was 3,000 miles away playing at the US Open, the rest of the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) tour was at the Life Time Arden in California’s state capital for the 2026 Fasenra Sacramento Open. Without Waters in the field, the draws were wide open for the taking, and fans were treated to some new and exciting matchups.
Sacramento hosted the pros last September in a throwback event that featured all the pros playing with standardized wooden paddles. This time around, the pros were playing with their regular Gen3s, fighting for points in one of the two remaining PPA events prior to the Tour Finals.
Click here for the PickleballTournaments.com home page for the event, where you can get tournament details, draw sheets, and results.
Here’s a quick recap of notable news items of import to the tour or this event:
The tour announced that the Cary, North Carolina event planned for September 2026 will kick off its 2026-27 season and has been elevated to a slam-level tournament.
A new docuseries called Partners released its trailer on 4/9/26 ahead of a May 2026 release. It covers the Professional Pickleball Association tour and its players in a cross between sports documentary and reality series.
We saw a rare Pro singles appearance from Ben Johns, seemingly giving it one last-ditch effort to qualify for the tour finals from his current 11th ranked spot. More likely is, since his regular Mixed partner was not here, he entered Singles so he got “credit” for playing two of the three disciplines. Either way, for his troubles he faced a laughably hard projected path to the final (JW Johnson, Sock, Haworth, Hunter Johnson, and Staksrud), and could not get past the first hurdle, losing to JW 8,7 and exiting in the round of 32. Johns essentially has to win the Atlanta Slam to have any shot at getting into the top eight for San Clemente, but if you asked me to bet money on whether he’d even enter singles, I’d say “no bet.”
The tournament saw a fantastic run from No. 12 Zane Ford, who destroyed Oncins 0,1 in the 32s, beat the always tough Gabriel Joseph in the 16s, and then got a forfeit-aided win into the semis when Hunter Johnson was defaulted from their match for bouncing his paddle into the stands, where it struck a fan. Ford too full advantage, beating the resurgent Jack Sock in the semis, who had gotten a career win over Haworth one round earlier. The top ranked Haworth will remain No. 1 despite the loss; he’s yet to even play 16 events this cycle, and the rankings are based on a players’ best 16 results.
In the final, Ford played No. 2 Federico Staksrud, who exorcised some daemons with early round wins over the fast-rising teenager Tama Shimabukor and a 4,0 demolishing of No. 9 Khlif. Staksrud was unstoppable on Sunday, beating Zane 4,2 to secure his 20th career Singles title on tour and keep the pressure on Haworth at the top of the standings. The Tour Finals Men’s singles division is going to be banging.
Gold: Federico Staksrud. Silver: Zane Ford. Bronze: Roscoe Bellamy.
Kate Fahey with her patented fierce roar during her finals gold medal win.
With no Waters in this event, the rest of the top seeds knew the opportunity was there for the taking. Surprisingly, we did not see any crazy runs from unexpected sources, and the podium eventually featured the top three seeds, in order. Top seed Kate Fahey needed some time to wake up in her first round, dropping the first game to qualifier Kwon Mihae, but then went on a tear, handing out pickles in both the 16s and quarters. After topping No. 6 Kiora Kunimoto in the semis, Fahey pummeled No.2 Kaitlyn Christian in the final 11-0, 11-3 to take her 5th career pro title, and her first since last September (here in Sacramento).
Gold: Kate Fahey. Silver: Kaitlyn Christian. Bronze: Lea Jansen.
With the uber-dominant top mixed team missing, the Johnson brother/sister team of J.W. and Jorja rose to the top seed. After a stretch in mid-2025 where a slew of the mixed pro finals was Johns/Waters versus the Johnson Siblings, the team has struggled a bit to make its way through the draws. They’ve had just two medals this calendar year as the team of Anna Bright & Hayden Patriquin has become the new leading suitor to the Mixed pro title.
This past weekend, the Johnsons rose to the occasion and made their way to the final, where they ran into a cobbled together team of Eric Oncins and Hurricane Tyra Black. Black has been playing with Alshon lately, but found a temporary partner in Oncins for Sacramento, and the pair immediately found success with each other and made a run to the finals as the No. 4 seed.
The final was an epic 5-game showdown, with the duos splitting the first two games and then Oncins & Black coming back to win both game 4 and 5 11-8 to take the title. It is Oncins’s first ever Mixed Pro Doubles gold, and Black’s second.
Gold: Black & Oncins. Silver: Johnson & Johnson. Bronze: Todd & Daescu.
One of the GOATS may have been missing, but the other was here in full force. Ben Johns and Gabriel Tardio once again took gold in Men’s Doubles, making it six PPA events in a row for the pair, who are now clearly the prohibitive favorites in both the Tour Finals and in any event they play for the forseeable future. However, they were pushed early and often in Sacramento, dropping games in the quarters (to No. 8 Hovenier & Vich), the semis (to Daescu & Staksrud) and in the final (where No. 2 JW Johnson & CJ Klinger
Both Christian Alshon & Hayden Patriquin took the weekend off, which jumbled the typical teams we’ve been seeing week-in and week-out on the Men’s Doubles podium. Pablo Tellez & Jack Sock had a solid weekend and made a run to the semis before falling in the bronze medal match.