We are exactly one-third of the way through the 2024 PPA Tour season, with eight events down and 16 to go before the CIBC PPA Finals to close out the year.
At each tour stop, players earn PPA Points, attempting to qualify for the finals. The top eight players (singles) and top 16 players (doubles) qualify for the year-end event.
Each tournament has a different amount of PPA Points up for grabs, depending on the level of the tournament. There are three levels of tournaments on the PPA Tour:
- Slam - Slams are the largest tournaments on the PPA Tour and the winner(s) earn 2,000 PPA Points.
- There are four Slams on tour in 2024 - The Masters, Vizzy Atlanta Slam (May), CIBC Atlanta Slam (September), and the United Pickleball Championships (November)
- Cup - Cups are big tournaments on the PPA Tour, with the winner(s) earning 1,500 PPA Points.
- There are five Cups on tour in 2025 - Mesa Arizona Cup, North Carolina Cup, Orange County Cup (June), Seattle Cup (July), and Virginia Beach Cup (October)
- Open - Open events are the smallest amount of points are available, with the winner(s) earning 1,000 PPA Points.
- The remaining 15 tour stops are all Open events
Here is a breakdown of the points earned in each of the different events:
There are two purposes for the PPA Points: Seeding at tournaments and qualification for the PPA CIBC Finals. Let’s review the terms and facts about the seeding portion:
The terms to know for seeding purposes are Rank and Overall Points. Each player’s rank is the summation of their points in the last 52 weeks. Seeding is extremely important on the PPA Tour, as it can determine whether you get a favorable first or second round draw or a really tough matchup.
An example of this is Hunter Johnson in men’s singles. Hunter played on the APP Tour last year, so he hasn’t earned many PPA Points. He was the best player on the APP Tour in 2023, but in the men’s singles draw this weekend at the PPA Red Rock Open, he is the No. 30 seed.
If seeding was based on a subjective skill level, Hunter should be seeded somewhere between 10-20 and possibly get a first-round bye. Instead, based on points, he had to play another player seeded in the 30s before losing to Quang Duong, the No. 8 seed.
With Hunter’s loss in the Round of 32 to Quang Duong at PPA Red Rock Open, he earned himself 50 PPA Points, which will continue to help him climb in the player rankings, earning him a better seed.
Next, we will review the way points affect the qualification for the CIBC Finals in December.
The big term to know in terms of finals qualification is Race Points. Race Points are very different from Overall Points. Race Points is the summation of PPA Points earned during the 2024 calendar year.
To put it another way, at the beginning of the 2024 season, players started the year with the summation of their entire 2023 season as their Overall Points and every player started with zero Race Points.
Rundown of Race Points in 2024
Let’s take a look at player Race Points rankings this year, now that we are one-third of the way through the season. Again, the Race Points determine who qualifies for the CIBC Finals in December.
A quick note: If you want to see the entire Points Race or Overall Player Rankings - visit the PPA Website. There is a cool new feature on the site so you can choose to sort by Overall Points or by Race Points
Women’s singles
It is not a surprise to see the best women’s singles player in the world on top by a wide margin, despite only playing four events (winning all four). The top eight ladies will qualify for the CIBC Finals, so Lauren Stratman is on the outside looking in after her deep run at the LA Open.
Men’s Singles
Federico Staksrud has been ridiculously good at singles this year - either earning a silver or gold medal in all eight events. The gap between No. 8 Jaume Martinez Vich (2,150 Race Points) and Jay Devilliers (1,650) is fairly large, but there are quite a few players who are not qualified for the finals right now who could eventually sneak in.
Women’s Doubles
The top 16 women’s doubles players at the end of the year will make the CIBC Finals. Having the most points is crucial, because the No. 1 seed gets to pick their partner. Then the next highest seed gets to pick their partner, and so on.
So if the season ended today, since Anna Bright has the most points, she could pick Anna Leigh to be her partner and then Catherine Parenteau would then have to pick a partner.
Men’s Doubles
With Fed and Pablo Tellez breaking up for the foreseeable future, it seems like Thomas Wilson is going to stay at that No. 3 spot for a long time. It will be interesting to watch as the year develops if he can maintain it – and who he would pick as his men’s partner in the CIBC Finals.
Mixed Doubles - Women
Mixed doubles is where the qualification for the CIBC Finals gets super tight, as there are only eight spots available in each gender. To showcase how good the pro doubles game is on the PPA Tour, if the season ended today, Catherine Parenteau, Jorja Johnson, and all the other names that aren’t highlighted would miss out on the mixed doubles finals.
Mixed Doubles - Men
On the men’s side of mixed doubles, the gap between Nos. 20 and 8 is less than 1,000 points. I expect this race to stay tight with those last four or five spots up for grabs until the last tournament or two.
The reason is because obviously Ben and Thomas are doing well and making finals and winning, so it's become a weekly musical chairs act as to who will make it to the semis or quarterfinals.
