PPA Tour Explained: Format, Schedule, and How to Watch
Tournaments
The PPA Tour is professional pickleball’s biggest stage. It is the individual tour where the world’s best players compete for ranking points and prize money at events across the United States and beyond, while amateurs play on the same courts at the same events. This guide explains what it is, how its format and ranking points work, the 2026-27 schedule, who the stars are, how to watch, and how you can play in it.
The PPA Tour is the pro pickleball tour, founded in 2019, with Majors, Cups, and Opens across the US and internationally. Every court streams live on PickleballTV, marquee rounds air on national TV, and every stop runs an amateur draw on the same courts as the pros.
What is the PPA Tour?
The PPA Tour, short for the Professional Pickleball Association Tour, is the professional pickleball tour. It was founded in 2019 by Connor Pardoe, and its first event was held in 2020 in Mesa, Arizona. The tour’s own history record counts 121 tournaments across 2020 to 2026.
The tour is officially called the Carvana PPA Tour, after its title sponsor, Carvana. It has more than 200 contracted players competing across 25 annual events, with prize money surpassing $30 million. The five pro divisions at every event are:
- Men’s singles
- Women’s singles
- Men’s doubles
- Women’s doubles
- Mixed doubles
It is an individual tour: players compete for themselves and their partners, not for a team. That is the key difference from Major League Pickleball, which is a team league.
In 2024 the tour and MLP came under a common parent organization, the United Pickleball Association, which coordinates their schedules and player contracts. The tours stayed separate competitions: the tour runs individual events, MLP runs team matches.
Format and ranking points
Every tour event is one of several tiers, and the tier decides how many ranking points a title is worth. The table below uses the tour’s own event pages.
| Tier | Ranking points per title | Example event |
|---|---|---|
| Pickleball World Championships | 3,000 | Opendoor Pickleball World Championships, Dallas |
| PPA Major | 2,000 | Carvana Pickleball Masters; Pickleball Players Championships |
| PPA Finals (Championship) | 2,000 | PPA Finals |
| PPA Open | 500 to 1,000 | Veolia Malibu Showcase (500); Proton Daytona Beach Open (1,000) |
| PPA 125 / 250 / 500 | 125, 250, or 500 | PPA Canada and PPA Italy events |
Total payouts vary by tier too. An Open lists a total payout of $1,063,327, while a Major lists $1,648,641, across the five pro divisions including appearance fees. The Australian Pickleball Open in the 2026-27 season carries a $500,000 prize pool, a record for an international event.
The World Pickleball Rankings count a player’s best 14 results in each discipline over 52 weeks, with the four Majors always counting. So a player cannot climb the rankings by playing only small events: the Majors always count, and only the best 14 results in each discipline are used.
One thing that confuses new fans: scoring varies by event. Some pro events use rally scoring, others use side-out scoring. Check the event’s format sheet before you watch, because the same two players can play under different scoring rules at different stops.
The 2026-27 schedule
The 2026-27 season begins on August 31, 2026 with the Veolia Pickleball National Championships, and it runs more than 20 tournaments worth 1,000 or more ranking points. The season’s biggest stops include the Pickleball World Championships in Dallas, Texas, and the PPA Finals in San Clemente, California.
The season is the tour’s most international yet. New stops include Kuala Lumpur, Brisbane, and Hong Kong, while PPA Canada and PPA Italy host 125 and 250 level events in Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto, Portoroz in Slovenia, and Brescia. PPA Asia offers the most ranking points ever available to professionals in the region.
The tour is also expanding in Europe. PPA Tour Europe was announced on August 4, 2026, with 20 events across nine countries and a total prize pool of 545,000 euros. Its Spanish leg runs seven tournaments, and the opener was a PPA250 in Barcelona on September 23 to 27, 2026. Be careful with the European calendar: as of September 10, 2026, only two of the 20 events had published dates, so do not plan travel around dates that have not been announced yet.
The full schedule changes through the season, so check the official PPA Tour site for the current dates before booking anything.
For the wider picture of competitive pickleball, our pickleball tournaments hub covers how all the big events fit together.
Who are the stars?
The tour’s own record keeps a simple leaderboard: the winningest pros by tour titles won across all five divisions. The top three are:
- Anna Leigh Waters: 201 titles
- Ben Johns: 181 titles
- Catherine Parenteau: 55 titles
Anna Leigh Waters is the sport’s most decorated player and the women’s world No. 1. On the men’s side, Ben Johns and Hunter Johnson are the names at the top. Johnson won the men’s singles at the Hong Kong Slam on October 25, 2026, a PPA Asia 1500 event, which shows how the international stops now shape the rankings too.
The Challenger Showdown is the tour’s route in for players without a contract. At the 2026 World Championships, the prize was eight tour contracts for 2027.
- Singles: the top eight men and top eight women
- Doubles: the top 16 of each gender drafted into eight teams
- Mixed: eight teams
Each event played round robin pools first, then a bracket, best of three games to 11.
How to watch
Watching the tour is easy, because every court streams live on PickleballTV, and the marquee rounds air on national television, including Tennis Channel and CBS. The tour’s MATCHDAY app carries live scores, brackets, order of play, and match alerts.
Going in person is part of the experience. Tickets are sold per day through the event’s own listing, and the Veolia Malibu Showcase lists day tickets at $25. Arrive early: gates open an hour or more before first serve, and finals move to a late-morning start for the broadcast window.
If you are new to the pro game, watch the doubles first. The dink rallies, the speed-ups, and the stacking patterns are easier to follow in doubles, and you will see the same patterns in your own games the next weekend.
How to play
You do not need to be a pro to play at a tour event. Every PPA stop runs an amateur draw on the same courts as the pros, plus clinics and pro-ams during event week.
Amateur brackets are set by skill and age, and registration runs through pickleballtournaments.com. Entry starts from $89 per division, and medals are played on Championship Court. Amateur divisions are seeded by DUPR and play double elimination, so you are grouped with players near your own level.
The pathway is simple: play local events, build a DUPR rating, enter a PPA amateur draw, and if you want to go further, the Challenger Showdown is the route to a tour contract. Senior players have their own brackets too: senior divisions start at 50 and older.
PPA vs MLP vs APP
Three names confuse new fans, because they all run pro pickleball events. The table below sorts them out.
| Tour | Format | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|
| PPA Tour | Individual events | Pros under contract, plus amateurs at the same events |
| Major League Pickleball (MLP) | Team league | Teams of pros playing MLPlay matches and a DreamBreaker |
| APP Tour | Individual events | Pros and amateurs; USA Pickleball-sanctioned, deepest amateur pipeline |
The tour and MLP share a parent organization since 2024, but they are different competitions. The APP Tour is separate and is sanctioned by USA Pickleball.
The US Open Pickleball Championship is a good example of how the tours overlap: it is a PPA major, and it also runs five senior pro events and large amateur draws.
Common questions, answered
What does PPA stand for in pickleball?
PPA stands for Professional Pickleball Association. It is the professional pickleball tour, officially called the Carvana PPA Tour after its title sponsor.
When was the tour founded?
The PPA Tour was founded in 2019 by Connor Pardoe, and its first event was held in 2020 in Mesa, Arizona. Its history record counts 121 tournaments from 2020 to 2026.
How do the ranking points work?
A title is worth 3,000 points at the Pickleball World Championships, 2,000 at a Major or the PPA Finals, and 500 to 1,000 at an Open. The World Pickleball Rankings count a player’s best 14 results in each discipline over 52 weeks, with the four Majors always counting.
How can I watch the tour?
Every court streams live on PickleballTV, and marquee rounds air on national television, including Tennis Channel and CBS. The MATCHDAY app has live scores, brackets, and order of play.
Can amateurs play at tour events?
Yes. Every PPA stop runs an amateur draw on the same courts as the pros. Brackets are set by skill and age, entry starts from $89 per division, and registration runs through pickleballtournaments.com.
What is the difference between the PPA and MLP?
It is an individual tour where players compete for themselves and their partners. Major League Pickleball is a team league where teams play MLPlay matches and a DreamBreaker tiebreaker. Both have shared a parent organization since 2024.
How much prize money does the tour pay?
Prize money has surpassed $30 million across the tour. A Major lists a total payout of $1,648,641 and an Open lists $1,063,327, across the five pro divisions including appearance fees.
Related guides
Checked: November 8, 2026, against official PPA Tour pages, the PPA 2026-27 season announcement, and the PPA Tour history record.
