Christian Alshon took home a gold and two silvers in Malaysia.
PPA Tour Asia
Last weekend, the Professional Pickleball Association Asian Tour visited Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia and home to the Petronas Twin Towers (which were officially the world’s tallest buildings from 1998 to 2004) for the 2025 Panas Malaysia Cup. Thanks to the proximity of this event and the coming weekend’s 2025 MB Vietnam Cup, a slew of US-based pros are in Asia to compete in these events, which are 1,500 point “cup” events on a par with the mid-level events in the US and which each have a $150k total prize purse for the competitors. Also notably, the PPA tour is now including PPA Asia points into its master Tour Rankings, which can most clearly be seen in the Men’s Singles rankings, where two of the top Asian male singles players (Phuc Hunh and Hong Kit Wong) are now ranked inside the top 30 on tour.
With two back-to-back 1500 level events, both top local players and the traveling domestic players have excellent chances to pad their ranking point totals in this and the coming events.
Click here for the PickleballTournaments.com home page for the Malaysia event, and click here for the brackets.
Let’s do a quick recap of the results, highlighting the winners, the upsets, and the top Asian players who made waves.
Men’s Pro Singles Recap
Only a few of the traveling US pros entered Pro Singles, and only one of them got out of the opening rounds as the Asian stars certainly came to play. Familiar names like Naveen Beasley and Greyson Goldin were ousted before even getting to the quarter finals, by No. 3 seed Hong Kit Wong from Hong Kong and No. 15 seed Marco Leung from Taiwan respectively. Wong continued his run all the way to the final, where he fell to the draw’s top seed No. 1 Christian Alshon, who took the gold medal 9,5 to finish off the title without dropping a game.
Women’s Pro Singles Recap
Top seeded and No. 3 ranked Kaitlyn Christian took the gold in Malaysia, topping two of the Asian tour’s best players along the way. In the semis Christian took out Australian No. 5 seed Andie Dikosavljevic in three games, then beat No. 6 seed Roos van Reek in the final. van Reek is from the Netherlands and is becoming rather well known globally for her singles play, and is now ranked in the top 30 on the PPA’s singles ranks.
Traveling US players had a tough go of it; Chao-Yi Wang fell to van Reek in the semis but claimed the bronze, and both Hannah Blatt and Liz Trulock were upset in the round of 16. Lastly, top Asian player Yufei Long, who won both of the singles titles in last month’s Asian swing, was upset in the 16s as the No. 8 seed before she could face off against top traveling talent.
Mixed Pro Doubles Recap
The mixed draw really showed out just how many US players were on hand at this event, with the round of 16 littered with domestic PPA pros either teamed up together or paired with leading international players, and the results really showcased the depth of the global game. A special shoutout to Aussie Sahra Dennehy & Santhosh Narayanan (who is from India but who plays out of Seattle, Washington), who topped Blatt & Goldin in the 16s and McGuffin & Wang in the qtrs before falling in the semis.
In the end, the top seeds No. 1 Ben Johns & Anna Bright cruised to the title without dropping a game. The beat No. 3 seeds Christian Alshon & Kaitlyn Christian in the final. The Truong siblings (who hail from the DC area, play out of Boca Raton, but who have Vietnamese ties) took the bronze.
Men’s Pro Doubles Recap
Tyson McGuffin (L) and Eric Oncins (R) were worked up to win the Pro Doubles gold.
PPA tour Asia
We almost had an earth-shattering upset in the opening round of the Men’s Pro doubles draw, as No. 1 Ben Johns & Christian Alshon were down big in game three to Quan Do & Hien Truong before recovering. This seemed to unsettle the Johns/Alshon pairing, who needed another 3rd game to advance past Rob Nunnery & Vanshik Kapadia in the quarters. Zane Navratil paired with one of India’s best in Armaan Bhatia and made a run to the semis before falling (they claimed the bronze together later in the event). Eunggwon Kim & Hong Kit Wong made the deepest run of any Asian tour regular, making the semis as the No. 3 seeds before falling to No. 2 Tyson Mcguffin & Eric Oncins.
In the final, Oncins and McGuffin ground out a tough win 5, (13),9, taking out the sport’s super star but giving the home crowd a raucous match.
Women’s Pro Doubles Recap
Chao-Yi Wang (L) and Kaitlyn Christian (R) finish off the Women’s Pro Doubles gold medal in Malaysia.
PPA Tour Asia
The Women’s Pro draw was littered with upsets, as the top seeds Anna Bright and Roos van Reek were taken out in the quarters by one of Australia’s best teams in Danni-elle Townsend & Nicola Schoeman. The Aussies continued their run all the way to the final, where they lost to No. 2 seeds Kaitlyn Christian and Chao-Yi Wang. Special shoutout to Japan’s Aiko Yoshitomi & Australian Sahra Dennehy for their run to the bronze.
The win gave Christian a double for the weekend, and nearly a triple crown.
Next up for the PPA Asian tour? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, the tour is head back to Vietnam, to Da Nang, for the 2025 MB Vietnam Cup, which is already underway as you read this.
