Inaugural Major League Nations Cup Kicks Off The Big Professional Pickleball Association Worlds Week In Dallas

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St. Louis Shock teammates Kate Fahey (L) and Anna Bright (R) team up again for Team USA in the 2026 MLP Nation's cup.

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Now that the Professional Pickleball Association’s top players have finished up their Australasian swing (with two Cup-level events in the last two weeks in the Australia Cup two weeks ago and the Hong Kong Slam last week), it’s time for the biggest event on the PPA’s schedule; the 2026 World Championships.

In each of the last two years, the tour has held a Major League Pickleball (MLP) event during the first weekend of the 10-day event; a round of playoffs in 2024 and the MLP Cup in 2025. This year, they’ve created a new MLP event that will serve to highlight the global growth of the pro game: the 2026 MLP Nation’s Cup.

The league announced the event back in July, then started releasing the projected rosters for the 8-team competition in mid-September on their social media platforms. In this post, we’ll preview the rosters, talk about who may or may not have been a better pick for the teams, preview the group stages, and then offer some predictions.

This event is of particular interest to this observer in part due to the previously announced PPA-World Cup partnership. This event seems like a dry run of future Olympic-style competitions, ones that could be a precursor to actual Olympic games involvement at some point in the future. We’re a ways from that point, organizationally and from a participation perspective, but having the world’s best players contractually enabled to compete in this style of competition is a great first step.

Rosters for the Nations Cup Teams

Chai-Yi "Zoey" Wang leads the way for team Asia Domestic.

MLP

Group A

Asia Domestic:

  • Augie Ge (China), Len Yang (China), Jonathan Truong (Vietnam)
  • Milan Rane (India), Zoey Wang (Chinese Taipei), Jamie Wei (Chinese Taipei)

Europe-West

  • Will MacKinnon (Scotland), DJ Young (Spain), Theo Platel (France)
  • Judit Castillo (Spain), Helena Jansen (Spain), Estee Widdershoven (Belgium)

Canada

  • Blaine Hovenier, Armaan Jiwa Mawji, Ryan Torresin
  • Victoria DiMuzio, Layne Sleeth, Angie Walker

USA

  • Ben Johns, CJ Klinger, Will Howells
  • Tyra Black, Anna Bright, Kate Fahey

Thoughts on the Rosters: The Europe-West men seems like it could have been improved. There’s several Frenchmen who should be here (Khlif, Devilliers, Auvergne), plus Jaume Martinez Vich claims Spain as his homeland, plus there’s some solid Germans (Martin Emmrich, Pat Smith) and English players (Laville comes to mind) who probably would be better picks here. I think contract situations come into play for sure, but Europe West’s weaker men’s side may be their downfall. Canada’s rosters are missing their best female in Parenteau but otherwise the roster looks pretty solid.

In the meantime, how does this event go on without Anna Leigh Waters representing USA? I’m frankly shocked that an “optional” MLP event has Johns but not Waters, given ALW’s devotion to the format. With all due respect to the USA rosters, a full strength men’s side includes both Patriquin and Tardio, with consideration to Alshon and JW Johnson. Honestly, they should have fielded two USA teams, perhaps one just from Boca Raton and its suburbs. Watch for a possible replacement for Black, who seems to have injured her hand in Asia.

Group B

Texas teammates Nico Acevedo (L) and Eric Oncins (center) will suit up for team Latin America this weekend.

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Asia International

  • Hong kit “Jack: Wong (Hong Kong, China), Tama Shimabukuro (Hawaii), Jimmy Liong (Malaysia)
  • Rika Fujiwara (Japan); Lingwei Kong (China), Macy Ybanez (Philippines)

Australia

  • Mitch Hargreaves, George Wall, Chris Crouch
  • Sahra Dennehy, Danni-Elle Townsend, Sarah Burr

Europe-East

  • Andrei Daescu (Romania); Ivan Jakovlevic (Croatia), Arwid Dahlin (Sweden)
  • Tina Pisnik (Slovenia); Daria Walczak (Poland), Lina Padegimaite (Lithuania);

Latin America

  • Nico Acevedo (Chile), Eric Oncins (Brazil), Rafa Lenhard (Brazil);
  • Mari Humberg (Brazil), Alexa Schull (Puerto Rico), Carlota Trevino (Mexico)

Thoughts on the Rosters: Team Asia could have picked from a slew of players and frankly could have fielded individual country teams from Vietnam, China, and Japan and have them be as good as some of these other countries. As they stand, They’ll certainly be a tough out. Some of Australia’s best players aren’t PPA signed, leaving them on the sidelines for this competition, not the least of which is Andie Dikosavljevic, who is probably a top-4 singles player right now in the world. The Eastern European team is going to be very tough, but the Latin America team could be the dark horse in this competition, with Acevedo teaming up with his Dallas Flash MLP teammate Oncins and a red-hot Humberg leading the line.

Last minute replacements: Mikolaj Biedermann (Poland) was replaced on the Eastern European team by Jakovlevic. Shimabukuro replaced Hien Truong on the Asia Int’l team, for which he’s eligible by virtue of his parents.

Group Stage and Overall Event Predictions

Group play will feature two groups of four playing a round robin. Friday and Saturday will feature group stage, then Sunday a knockout between (presumably) the two top teams from each group.

  • Group A: Asia Domestic, Europe-West, Canada, USA
  • Group B: Asia International, Australia, Europe-East, Latin America

Here’s how I think the groups play out.

Group A will be a 3-0 win for Team USA of course, but who takes the second spot in the knockouts? I think Asia Domestic has the advantage here, with slightly stronger sides than Canada and Europe-West. Canada finishes 3rd, Europe West last.

Group B is tough. I like all four teams. I can see a situation where we have three teams go 2-1 and tie for the top. The addition of Tama to the Asia team makes this a really difficult one to call. It is never wise to pick against Daescu or Pisnik, making the Eastern European team tough. But I think the PPA talent on Latin America will make the difference. I think the Asian team squeaks out 2nd place.

Semis and Finals Prediction:

  • Semis 1: USA over Asia International
  • Semis 2: Latin America over Asia Domestic
  • Final: Team USA wins

MLP Nation’s Cup Group play begins Friday, October 30 at 11am EST/10 a.m. Central. Tune in to PickleballTv.com for coverage.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

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