PPA Veolia Atlanta 2026 Results, Stats, Upsets

A 15-year-old from Hawaii walked into the Veolia Atlanta Pickleball Championships as the No. 22 seed and came within a final of making it one of the great Cinderella stories in professional pickleball. Tama Shimabukuro eliminated the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in men's singles, knocked off Hunter Johnson in a match the whole court was watching, and forced a packed crowd at Life Time Peachtree Corners to learn his name in a hurry. He lost to world No. 1 Chris Haworth 11-5, 11-1 in the final, but the result is almost beside the point.

The Veolia Atlanta Pickleball Championships ran April 27 through May 3, 2026 at Life Time Peachtree Corners in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, with over 1,700 players competing across pro and amateur brackets. This was not just another Open. Atlanta was the final event of the 25/26 PPA Tour regular season and carried 2,000 ranking points, double the standard Open value, making it one of the highest-stakes stops on the full calendar. CBS Sports broadcast the tournament nationally on Saturday.

At11 PICKLES, we cover every PPA Tour event from the perspective of players who are on the court every single day, and Atlanta was a week worth breaking down from every angle.

And while Tama's run was the story of the week, Anna Leigh Waters reminded everyone she remains in a class of her own, sweeping three brackets to claim the 44th Triple Crown of her career. Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio extended their unbeaten 2026 men's doubles record. Roscoe Bellamy earned the first PPA Tour doubles medal of his career. And 11 PICKLES, we are all here for all of it. Let's break it all down.

PPA Veolia Atlanta Pickleball Championships 2026: Final Results

Championship Sunday at Life Time Peachtree Corners was absolutely loaded. Here is how every podium shook out:

Men's Singles

• Gold: Ben Johns / Gabe Tardio def. Connor Garnett / Roscoe Bellamy (11-5, 11-7, 11-2)
• Silver: Connor Garnett / Roscoe Bellamy
• Bronze: Federico Staksrud / Andrei Daescu def. Tama Shimabukuro / Yuta Funemizu (11-4, 11-4)

Women's Singles

• Gold: Anna Leigh Waters def. Kate Fahey (12-10, 11-5)
• Silver: Kate Fahey
• Bronze: Caitlin Christian def. Kiora Kunimoto (11-9, 12-10)

Men's Doubles

• Gold: Ben Johns / Gabe Tardio def. Connor Garnett / Roscoe Bellamy (11-5, 11-7, 11-2)
• Silver: Connor Garnett / Roscoe Bellamy
• Bronze: Federico Staksrud / Andrei Daescu def. Tama Shimabukuro / Yuta Funemizu (11-4, 11-4)

Women's Doubles

• Gold: Anna Leigh Waters / Anna Bright def. Jorja Johnson / Tyra Black (11-3, 11-4, 11-0)
• Silver: Jorja Johnson / Tyra Black
• Bronze: Rachel Rohrabacher / Catherine Parenteau def. Kate Fahey / Parris Todd (14-12, 4-11, 11-8)

Mixed Doubles

• Gold: Anna Leigh Waters / Ben Johns def. Anna Bright / Hayden Patriquin (11-4, 11-5, 11-4)
• Silver: Anna Bright / Hayden Patriquin
• Bronze: Christian Alshon / Rachel Rohrabacher def. Catherine Parenteau / Gabe Tardio (11-5, 11-5)

Biggest Upsets and Storylines

Atlanta delivered the kind of week that reminds you why following professional pickleball is worth the time. These are the stories that defined it:

1. A teenage No. 22 seed runs to the men's singles final
2. Waters earns her 44th career Triple Crown without dropping a singles game
3. Johns and Tardio close the 25/26 regular season unbeaten in men's doubles
4. Garnett and Bellamy upset defending champions to reach the MD final
5. Atlanta's 2,000 points reshape the season standings going into the Finals

Tama Shimabukuro Runs Through the Atlanta Draw

I play three hours of pickleball every day. I watch every PPA match I can find. I have seen the full range of what elite-level play looks like in this sport. What Tama Shimabukuro did in Atlanta this week was something different.

Tama entered the men's singles draw as the No. 22 seed. That seed is not an insult to his talent. It is a reflection of where his ranking sat before a week like this one. It will not sit there much longer. Here is how the run broke down:

1. Round of 32: def. No. 13 seed Jaume Martinez-Vich, 11-5, 11-9
2. Through the bracket: def. the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds ([VA: confirm opponents, rounds, and scores from pickleball.com/results])
3. Quarterfinal: def. [VA: confirm opponent and scores — pickleball.com/results]
4. Semifinal: def. Hunter Johnson ([VA: confirm scores — YouTube confirms this match at Atlanta; bronze bracket confirms Hunter Johnson was a SF loser])
5. Final: lost to No. 1 seed Chris Haworth, 11-5, 11-1

The Hunter Johnson match is the one that echoes. A 15-year-old from Hawaii on Championship Court, trading full-pace exchanges with one of the most athletic players on the PPA Tour, and winning. Watch it from start to finish.

Haworth, the world No. 1 who claimed that ranking at the Greater Zion Cup, was too much in the final. Atlanta was his third career PPA singles title and his first since claiming the world No. 1 ranking. That is not a knock on Tama. Haworth is the best men's singles player on the planet and played like it in Atlanta. But Tama forced the No. 1 seed to earn every point on Championship Sunday, and the crowd at Life Time Peachtree Corners made sure he knew it the whole way. In the bronze match, Connor Garnett beat Hunter Johnson 11-5, 11-5. Haworth plays with the Luzz Pro Blade 2 — the paddle behind his third career PPA singles title and his No. 1 ranking. Use code 11pickles at checkout for 15% off any Luzz paddle.

What makes Tama's game so hard to prepare for is the combination of maturity and unpredictability. He does not rush. He does not panic. His dinking is patient and precise, and when he spots a ball to attack, he uses it at the right moment rather than forcing it. Players with that combination of quick hands and aggressive transition play tend to favor a control-forward paddle that still offers pop. The Luzz Pro 4 Tornazo is built exactly for that style.

The story did not end with singles. In men's doubles, Tama partnered with Yuta Funemizu and knocked out the No. 2 seeds, Christian Alshon and Hayden Patriquin, in the Round of 16, 4-11, 11-5, 11-8. Two marquee names with deep doubles resumes, beaten by an unseeded teenager and his partner. Federico Staksrud and Andrei Daescu then took the men's doubles bronze over Tama and Funemizu 11-4, 11-4, but that does nothing to diminish what Tama accomplished in this draw.

Waters Locks In Triple Crown No. 44

At some point, covering Anna Leigh Waters winning a Triple Crown starts to feel routine. It is not. Her 44th career Triple Crown at the final and biggest event of the 25/26 season came against a Kate Fahey who is legitimately one of the hardest opponents Waters faces in women's singles right now. Here is how the full Triple Crown broke down this week:

• Women's Singles: def. Kate Fahey 12-10, 11-5, with game one going to championship point range before Waters broke it open
• Women's Doubles: with Anna Bright, def. Jorja Johnson and Tyra Black 11-3, 11-4, 11-0 without dropping a single game across five matches
• Mixed Doubles: with Ben Johns, def. Anna Bright and Hayden Patriquin 11-4, 11-5, 11-4, going 13-0 in games at an average score of 11-3 per game

The women's singles final is worth paying attention to beyond the scoreline. Fahey built a lead in game one and pushed it to championship point range before Waters clawed it back and closed 12-10. Then 11-5 in game two. The adaptation from game one to game two was the whole match in microcosm: Fahey executes a game plan, Waters identifies it, and Waters adjusts faster. "The crowd chants got me fired up," Waters said after the match. "I usually start to play better." I believe her.

This was their second consecutive singles final at a major event, back-to-back at Greater Zion and Atlanta. Both times Fahey won the first game. Both times Waters won the next two. The trend line is real. The gap is narrowing. Waters has 44 Triple Crowns and is not ready to give ground, but Fahey is playing the closest thing to a sustained challenge Waters has faced in women's singles this season.

Johns and Tardio Stay Unbeaten in 2026

There is a reason Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio are the weekly conversation in men's doubles. They finished the 25/26 regular season without a loss in the bracket, extending that run in Atlanta with an 11-5, 11-7, 11-2 win over Connor Garnett and Roscoe Bellamy in the men's doubles final. That is a dominant scoreline against a team that just knocked off defending champions.

Garnett and Bellamy, the No. 13 seeds, earned that final by upsetting defending champions JW Johnson and CJ Klinger in the Round of 16, then backing it up with a semifinal win. Bellamy earned the first PPA Tour doubles medal of his career at the biggest event of the regular season. For players who want to develop the kind of power game Johns and Tardio bring to the kitchen, the Luzz Cannon is worth a look.

For Johns and Tardio, the title capped one of the most dominant doubles runs in recent PPA Tour history. They are heading into the Finals unbeaten. Every remaining team has a full season of film on them now. The pressure level at San Clemente goes up accordingly.

The Weight of a 2,000-Point Season Finale

Not every PPA event is created equal, and Atlanta was the proof. Coming off a stretch that included the Sacramento Open and the Greater Zion Cup, the Veolia Atlanta Pickleball Championships carried 2,000 ranking points, double a standard Open, and served as the final event of the 25/26 regular season. For players chasing PPA Finals qualification, this was a must-perform scenario. For those already qualified, it was the last chance to build separation before San Clemente.

The atmosphere reflected the stakes. The CBS Sports national broadcast on Saturday put elite pickleball in front of an audience well outside the regular fan base. Over 1,700 players competed across the full week. The results, from Tama's run to Waters' Triple Crown to the doubles upsets, gave those viewers exactly the kind of week the sport needed on a national stage.

Player of the Tournament: Tama Shimabukuro

You can make the case for Anna Leigh Waters. Three brackets, zero losses, 44th Triple Crown. It is an airtight argument. But Player of the Tournament for me is Tama Shimabukuro, and it is not particularly close.

No other player this week walked in as a No. 22 seed and left having beaten two top-3 seeds, knocked off Hunter Johnson, reached the men's singles final, and upended the No. 2 men's doubles team in the Round of 16. That is one of the most complete breakout weeks any player has had at a major PPA event in recent memory. The fact that he is 15 years old makes it striking. The quality of the play is what actually matters.

His game holds up under pressure. He does not spray shots when the moment gets big. His third shot drops are controlled, his resets are consistent, and his patience at the kitchen is something most players take years to develop. Against Hunter Johnson, a player known for elite athleticism and explosive transitions, Tama controlled the pace of exchanges from the kitchen and won the firefights when they came. That combination is rare at any experience level.

His DUPR rating will move after Atlanta. His seedings will move. The PPA Tour will have to account for him differently at the Finals. He is not a surprise anymore. He is a legitimate threat.

Rising Stars to Watch

Atlanta reshuffled what the next tier of professional pickleball looks like. These are the players whose trajectories changed most this week:

• Tama Shimabukuro: A No. 22 seed reaching a major final while simultaneously posting a doubles R16 upset is a statement few players make at any age. He is going into the PPA Finals as a seeded threat, not just a storyline. Watch how his draw is constructed in San Clemente.
• Roscoe Bellamy: His first career PPA Tour doubles medal came at the biggest event of the 25/26 regular season. He and Garnett knocked off defending champions JW Johnson and CJ Klinger to reach the final. That result changes his seeding and how teams prepare for him going forward.
• Connor Garnett: Two podiums at Atlanta — a men's doubles final and a men's singles bronze — at the highest-stakes event of the regular season. His partnership with Bellamy is built on more than one good week. Watch for them at the Finals.
• Yuta Funemizu: Not many players outside the top seeds enter a men's doubles draw at a 2,000-point event and beat the No. 2 team in the Round of 16. Funemizu did exactly that alongside Tama. That result puts him on the radar going into the Finals.

Why this matters: the depth of the PPA Tour is real, and Atlanta showed the full picture. The story of the 25/26 season is not only Waters and Johns. It is the teenagers, the unseeded upsets, and the new partnerships forming at the edges of every draw. The PPA Finals in San Clemente will have a different energy because of what happened in Atlanta this week. Period.

Veolia Atlanta Pickleball Championships By the Numbers

• 2,000 — ranking points available, double a standard Open and the highest at a 2026 regular-season event
• 1,700+ — total players competing across all pro and amateur brackets
• 44 — career PPA Triple Crowns for Anna Leigh Waters after Atlanta
• 13-0 — Waters and Johns' game record in mixed doubles this week, averaging 11-3 per game
• 0 — singles games dropped by Waters across the full tournament, extending her consecutive-days unbeaten singles streak past 700 days
• 0 — men's doubles matches lost by Johns and Tardio in 2026
• 22 — Tama Shimabukuro's seed entering the men's singles draw
• 2 — top-3 seeds eliminated by Tama on his run to the final
• 3 — career PPA singles titles for Chris Haworth after Atlanta, his first title since claiming the world No. 1 ranking
• 1 — first career PPA Tour doubles medal for Roscoe Bellamy
• 11-0 — the third-game score in the women's doubles final, Waters and Bright over Jorja Johnson and Tyra Black

What Is Next

The 25/26 PPA Tour regular season is over. Next up is the one that matters most: the PPA Finals at Life Time Rancho San Clemente in San Clemente, California, running May 4 through May 10, 2026. This is the season's championship event, where the top-ranked players from the full 25/26 season compete for the title. The Finals carry their own point structure separate from regular-season stops, making every bracket result here directly meaningful for year-end rankings. [VA: verify exact Finals point structure]

Here are the five things worth watching heading into San Clemente:

1. Can Tama carry Atlanta's momentum into the Finals? A deep run from a player who just reached a major final at the last regular-season event would make him the story of the entire season.
2. Can Fahey finally take a match off Waters in singles? Two consecutive finals at Greater Zion and Atlanta. First-game leads both times. Atlanta was the closest it has gotten.
3. Does the Johns/Tardio unbeaten record survive a Finals draw? Every team in the bracket has a full season of film. The pressure at a Finals event is different from a regular stop.
4. What does Haworth look like defending the world No. 1 ranking? He earned it at the Greater Zion Cup and confirmed it at Atlanta. The target on his back is real in San Clemente.
5. Do Garnett and Bellamy build on their Atlanta run? Two podiums in one week has a way of changing how a player carries themselves in the next draw.

Bookmark this page for results, analysis, and highlights from San Clemente as they come in. And check out the 11 PICKLES Etsy store for gear to take to your next session.

If you are picking up a paddle this season, three worth looking at: the Luzz Pro Blade 2, world No. 1 Chris Haworth's paddle, the Luzz Pro 4 Inferno for players who want a spin-heavy option with great feel, and the Luzz Cannon for players who drive the ball hard and want maximum pop behind their shots. Use code 11pickles at checkout for 15% off any Luzz paddle.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Won the PPA Veolia Atlanta Pickleball Championships 2026?

Chris Haworth won men's singles, defeating Tama Shimabukuro 11-5, 11-1 in the final. Anna Leigh Waters won women's singles (defeating Kate Fahey 12-10, 11-5), women's doubles with Anna Bright (def. Jorja Johnson and Tyra Black 11-3, 11-4, 11-0), and mixed doubles with Ben Johns (def. Anna Bright and Hayden Patriquin 11-4, 11-5, 11-4), earning her 44th career PPA Triple Crown. Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio won men's doubles, defeating Connor Garnett and Roscoe Bellamy 11-5, 11-7, 11-2.

What Was the Biggest Upset at the PPA Atlanta 2026?

The biggest upset was Tama Shimabukuro's run from the No. 22 seed to the men's singles final. The teenager from Hawaii defeated the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in men's singles and beat Hunter Johnson along the way before losing to world No. 1 Chris Haworth 11-5, 11-1. In men's doubles, Tama and partner Yuta Funemizu also upset the No. 2 team of Christian Alshon and Hayden Patriquin 4-11, 11-5, 11-8 in the Round of 16.

Where Was the PPA Veolia Atlanta Pickleball Championships 2026 Held?

The Veolia Atlanta Pickleball Championships 2026 took place at Life Time Peachtree Corners in Peachtree Corners, Georgia from April 27 to May 3, 2026. The event drew over 1,700 players and included a CBS Sports national broadcast on Championship Saturday.

When Is the Next PPA Tournament in 2026?

The next PPA tournament is the PPA Finals at Life Time Rancho San Clemente in San Clemente, California, running May 4 through May 10, 2026. This is the season's championship event and the final stop of the 25/26 PPA Tour season.

Who Is Tama Shimabukuro?

Tama Shimabukuro is a 15-year-old professional pickleball player from Hawaii who entered the Veolia Atlanta Pickleball Championships 2026 as the No. 22 seed and reached the men's singles final. He defeated the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in men's singles and beat Hunter Johnson before losing to world No. 1 Chris Haworth 11-5, 11-1. He also upset the No. 2 men's doubles team with partner Yuta Funemizu 4-11, 11-5, 11-8 in the Round of 16, making Atlanta one of the most complete breakout performances any young player has had at a major PPA event.