The Professionals Pickleball Association is one of the many governing bodies of pickleball globally. It sets itself apart for having a structured annual tour wherein events are primarily held in the United States of America. There are 26 different tournaments held across 16 different states.
The 26 tournaments are not of the same tier. Some of them are classified as Open events, some fall under the Cup category, and the apex comprises of the Slams. This article focuses on the Open tournaments.
There are 14 Open tournaments as per the 2024 Professional Pickleball Tour. These are held in Phoenix, Minnesota, Texas (3), California (2), Utah (2), Kansas, Tennessee, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Florida. The Open 1000 event features competitions in men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles categories.
The Open tournaments are played in the traditional draw format. The qualifiers are played out on Wednesday. This is followed by men’s and women’s singles events, up until the finals, are completed on Thursday. Mixed doubles event begins and is scheduled till the final on Friday. The men’s and women’s doubles are played out till the final round on Saturday. Sunday features the finals of all the categories.
These tournaments are also called Open 1000 or the PPA 1000 competitions as it denotes the amount of ranking points that the winners of the competition get. The players who finish as runner-up, third position holder, fourth position holder, quarterfinalists, round of 16 finish, round of 32 finish, and round of 64 finish secure 800, 600, 400, 200, 100, 50, and 25 points respectively.
As of 2024, the total prize purse of the event is $170,000. The doubles champions of the Open events get $8000 which is split between the two players. The singles champions receive $2960. All the other players receive a prize money according to their final position in the tournament.
