India’s No. 1 Armaan Bhatia had a spirited run to the gold medal in NYC.
This past weekend featured the crown jewel of the Association of Pickleball Players (APP) annual slate, the 2025 Zimmer Biomet APP New York City Open. This is the fourth year that the APP has traveled to the USTA Tennis Center in Queens to play at the largest Tennis facility in the USA, and the event has seen a ton of great play over the years.
In the inaugural event in 2022, JW Johnson came within a few points of a triple crown, winning the two doubles titles but falling in the singles final to Zane Navratil (the singles bronze medalist in 2022? Current PPA #1 Staksrud). Parris Todd took the singles final over Salome Devidze, with a rookie pro named Anna Bright claiming the bronze.
2023’s event saw a spirited run in Men’s Singles from Australian Vuk “The Wolf” Velickovic, who fell in the finals to William Sobek in his first ever pro event. The rest of the podium was filled with APP stalwarts at the time, including a double gold for Rob Nunnery, a Women’s pro gold for Simone Jardim, and Salome Devidze.
By 2024, a new wave of pros had taken over the APP and the NYC podiums reflected it: Megan Fudge won both Singles and Women’s Doubles, current No. 1 Christopher Haworth topped current No. 2 Greyson Goldin for the singles crown, and Jack Munro took the doubles title with an unlikely partner in Mario Barrientos. The 2025 podiums may look quite similar to 2024s once all is said and done, though there’s some new blood that’s making waves on tour that will have something to say.
Click here for the UTRSports.net home page for the event, where you can get tournament details, draw sheets, and results.
News and Noteworthy ahead of the Event
Here’s a quick recap of notable news items of import to the tour or this event:
– On 5/7/25: The APP announces the APP Breakthrough series, a brand-new tournament circuit dedicated to showcasing emerging pro pickleball talent and providing more opportunities to play the best pickleball tournaments in the world.
This will present as a pro feeder circuit or a “challenger circuit” in the nomenclature of
tennis, and will feature a slew of tournaments this coming fall in several non-traditional pro sites, and will only be open to players ranked outside of the APP top 20 at the time of registration.
With that said, let’s recap the action.
Men’s Pro Singles Recap
This year’s NYC Open Singles draw was missing a few of the APP’s top names (Foster, Howells, Kawka) but did have a few relatively new names that have made waves in recent events (Crum, Wazir, and Bhatia). Bhatia’s performance in both the US Open and in the previous APP event in Cincinnati led to the tour giving him a protected No. 3 seed in the draw, to the howls of a certain critic on social media (one who isn’t even contracted on tour any longer). This kind of seeding on the APP is not unprecedented: when the “Johnson Five” were out of contract in early 2024 they were given protected seeds into APP draws as well. One can argue these kinds of draw “manipulations” are needed in unique cases, or are never appropriate. Either way, we’ll soon see that his seeding was warranted.
No. 1 Christopher Haworth ousted the 2023 NYC Open champion Sobek and then ground out a quarter final win against the No. 8 seed Manthou, but ran into the red-hot Alexander Crum in the semis and lost two close games 13,16. Crum made major waves in the pickleball world last week, making the quarters of the PPA Atlanta Slam and then appearing on podcasts talking about singles in general and his new-found commitment to the sport; clearly it’s paying off with two significant results in two weeks for the Louisville tennis coach. Now he’s in the NYC Open finals and will earn enough points this weekend to jump into the APP’s top four going forward.
The Bottom half of the draw featured all three medalists from the APP’s most recent tournament in No. 2 Grayson Goldin, No. 3 Armaan Bhatia, and No. 10 Ammar Wazir. Bhatia opened his event with a 3,3 destruction of Casey Diamond and did not look back, grinding out results over No. 6 Brandon Lane and then over the streaking No. 7 seed Ronan Camron, who had taken out both Wazir and Goldin to get to the semis. Goldin’s loss broke a streak of making the podium in 7 of the last 8 APP events.
In the final, Bhatia took a major step forward in his pro pickleball career by topping Crum by the amazing score line of 15-10, 27-25 (this may be the highest scoring win-by-two game I’ve seen in my time covering the sport). He becomes the first male from the “new world” of Pickleball to win gold on the APP, following in the footsteps of Pei Chuan Kao’s singles gold in Fort Lauderdale earlier this year.
Gold: Armaan Bhatia. Silver: Alexander Crum. Bronze: Ronan Camron.
Women’s Pro Singles Recap
Sofia Sewing has been dominating the tour since she arrived.
With the APP’s newly crowned all-time medals leader Megan Fudge once again sitting out singles, the shooting star that is Sofia Sewing got the No. 1 seed at the event, her highest ever seeding since beginning her APP onslaught in January of this year. True to form, Sewing cruised through the top half of the draw, topping Turkovic in the quarters and the original pickleball GOAT Simone Jardim in the semis to advance to the finals for the sixth straight APP pro singles event.
For as chalk as the top half of the draw went, the bottom half of the draw was anything but. All four top seeds in the bottom half fell early; No. 2 Hendry was out in her first match at the hands of Shea Donahue, No. 7 Klokotzky fell to No. 10 Nicole Eugenio in the 16s, and No. 6 Grigoriu fell to No. 11 Katarina Stewart in the round of 16. Neither Eugenio nor Stewart was done yet, and they felled their quarter final opponents to set up an unlikely NYC Open semifinal. The pair battled to the end, with Eugenio advancing in three games to secure her spot in the final and to guarantee her first ever pro medal.
In the final, Sewing continued her dominance on tour with a hard-fought win over Eugenio 12,14.
Gold: Sofia Sewing. Silver: Nicole Eugenio. Bronze: Katarina Stewart.
Mixed Pro Doubles Recap
In a stark contrast to some of the pro draws this weekend, the Mixed Pro went relatively chalk all week, with all eight top seeds advancing to the quarters as projected. Top seeds Megan Fudge & Jack Munro, who have won three times together on tour, were stretched to three games multiple times along the way but persevered to make the final from the top half of the draw. Meanwhile, the No. 6 seeds Christopher Haworth & Amanda Hendry made a surprise run to the finals, dispatching the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in the bottom half of the draw along the way.
In the final, Hendry and Haworth (who has just two career pro doubles medals despite his dominance in singles), pushed Fudge & Munro as far as they could go without breaking, but ended up falling 11-7 in the third to give the top pair the NYC Open title. This gave Munro the “double double” for the weekend, with golds in both Men’s and Mixed Pro Doubles.
Gold: Fudge & Munro. Silver: Hendry & Haworth. Bronze: Oshiro & Blanco.
Men’s Pro Doubles Recap
It isn’t often that we use a picture of the silver medalists, but to go from qualifying to the gold … More
If his performance in Pro Singles wasn’t enough of a statement, Armaan Bhatia made a significant statement in Doubles as well. Teaming with the singles bronze medalist Ronan Camron, they fed right into the top seeds Erik Lange & Max Manthou in the round of 16 and sent the No. 1 seeds home early with a 12-10 game three win. This blew open the topside of the draw, combined with a team of qualifiers in Thomas Yu & Len Yang (gold medalist in pro doubles at the US Open and the man who ousted Andre Agassi in mixed) making noise of their own. Yu and Yang ousted the No. 4 seeds Nunnery & Sobek early, then continued their run into the semis. There, the qualifiers defeated Bhatia and ended his attempt at a multi-gold weekend to secure a spot in the final.
The bottom half was slightly saner, though the No. 3 seeds DeHeart & Livornese fell in the 16s as well, meaning three of the top four teams were one-and-done this weekend. This opened the way for No. 2 Jack Munro and his partner this week Aiden Schenk (Munro’s normal partner Howells was on MLP duty) to grind their way into finals from the bottom half, topping Mick & Slutsky in the semis.
In the final, there was no Cinderella story for Yu & Yang, though they certainly gave the top touring pros their money’s worth. After winning the first game 11-4, Munro & Schenk took control to win in three and secure the gold.
Gold: Munro & Schenk. Silver: Yu & Yang. Bronze: Bhatia & Camron.
Women’s Pro Doubles Recap
Like the Mixed draw, the Women’s pro doubles draw went very much according to projections, with only a small round of 16 upset by the No. 9 seeds teenage-sensations Schull & Bohnert preventing a 100% chalk quarters. The top seeds Fudge & Braverman, winners of a slew of golds together in the last 18 months on tour, ran into the rapidly rising Bobbi Oshiro and her partner Allison Harris in the semis, sending the No. 1s into the Bronze medal match from the topside of the draw. From the bottom half, the legendary Simone Jardim willed herself and her partner Christine Maddox into the semis, but they fell to the Fort Lauderdale Open champions Yana Newell & Emily Cederquist.
In the final, Oshiro & Harris made fast work of Newell & Cederquist 2,9 to secure their first gold together on tour.
Gold: Oshiro & Harris. Silver: Newell & Cederquist. Bronze: Fudge & Braverman.
AARP Champions Pro Competition Quick Recap
- Men’s Champions Pro Singles: In what is turning into a great new rivalry, current No. 1 Marcello Jardim took out fast-rising newcomer Youssef Bouzidi in the final.
- Women’s Champions Pro Singles: Karin Ptaszek-Kochis won her 3rd straight APP Champions Singles title, taking the small round robin group undefeated.
- Men’s Champions Pro Doubles: Jamie Oncins & Marcello Jardim cruised to the title as the No. 1 seeds, giving Jardim a double-gold weekend.
- Women’s Champions Pro Doubles: Karin Ptaszek-Kochis & Cara Beth Lee teamed up to take the gold and give Ptaszek-Kochis a double gold weekend.
- Mixed Champions Pro Doubles: Lee Whitwell & Jaime Oncins won their 10th Mixed Pro doubles title together since Lee’s eligibility turned in January 2024, the most prolific gold-winning pair on tour.
AARP Masters Pro Competition Quick Recap
- Men’s Masters Pro Singles: Dana Treister became just the third man to win a Masters singles title.
- Women’s Masters Pro Singles: Sue Johnston topped Andrea Pusateri for the title after the rest of their round robin competitors withdrew.
- Men’s Masters Pro Doubles: Mark Wilder & Rob Krizmanich surprised the field for the title.
- Women’s Masters Pro Doubles: Diane Wainio & Kristin Hickman continued their dominance on tour with another gold medal.
- Mixed Masters Pro Doubles: The Mixed Masters Pro draw succumbed to the weather issues that plagued the event all weekend.
The Pro Pickleball Medal Tracker has now been updated with these results; check out this link online for a complete pro medal history for all tours and all pro events dating to the beginnings of all the major pro tours, plus pro events that predated 2020.
Next up for the APP? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule , there’s a NextGen tournament mid-June in St. Charles outside of Chicago, and then the first weekend of July sees the tour head to Newport Beach for its 3rd major of the season.
Any Head to Head or career match stats quoted in this article are courtesy of PickleWave. Visit picklewave.com for the premier source of Pro Pickleball data, including match replays, highlights, stats, and discussion. PickleWave has more than 22,000 matches in its database across all the pro tours.
Other resources I use frequently to cover Pickleball include:
