The Association of Pickleball Players (APP) concluded an historic week in South Florida with the first-ever Atlantic Cup and a capacity crowd for its national broadcasts on ESPN2 and ESPN+ of the Chase APP Miami Pickleball Open’s five Championship Sunday matches.
More than 1,200 pickleball players of all ages and skill levels competed throughout the week at the Miami Beach Convention Center, with the sport’s elite pros battling for gold on Championship Court for their share of a $150,000 prize pool. Florida residents dominated the competition as ‘Hurricane’ Tyra Black (Delray Beach), Megan Fudge (Belleair), JW Johnson (Boynton Beach), Jorja Johnson (Boynton Beach) and Milan Rane (Boca Raton) all took home gold medals. Dylan Frazier, 23, earned two gold medals, and Hunter Johnson rounds out the group of champions with a gold of his own.
Chase APP Miami Pickleball Open
The Championship Sunday action started off with mixed pro doubles, with Black and Frazier taking on Fudge and Andrei Daescu. In their first APP Tour gold medal match appearance together, Black and Frazier started strong with an 11-4 game one win. The veterans Fudge and Daescu battled back in game two, but Black and Frazier ultimately prevailed 12-10. Jorja Johnson and Gabriel Tardio earned the mixed pro doubles bronze medals in Miami.
“I’m feeling amazing,” said Black after the win. “It’s so awesome to play with Dylan. We’ve played a few times together, so it was nice to get a lot of reps in a lot of matches. It was a great experience, and mixed doubles is my favorite event so it was so much fun to win that gold out there for the first time.”
The action continued with men’s pro doubles, pitting Frazier and JW Johnson against Ryler DeHeart and Will Howells. The Frazier-Johnson duo were nearly unstoppable, cruising to victory 11-3 and 11-3. The win marked Frazier’s first APP Tour gold medal since 2022, and Johnson’s second of 2024. Erik Lange and Max Manthou took home men’s pro doubles bronze.
“It was awesome competing in Miami alongside my partners Tyra and JW,” said Frazier. “It was a great environment to play in. Chase and the APP put on an excellent event!”
Next match up on Championship Court featured Rane and Jorja Johnson against Fudge and Susannah Barr in the women’s pro doubles final. Johnson and Rane’s chemistry guided them to a tightly contested 11-8 win in game one, with their momentum carrying into an easy 11-1 win in game two to secure gold. Mari Humberg and Alix Truong secured the women’s pro doubles bronze medals.
“Our mentality was just to stick together as a team, keep communicating and keep working together,” Jorja Johnson said. “Thank you so much to our coaches, our trainer and the fans for cheering us on. We're really grateful to be out here.”
“Susannah and Megan have a great game, but we came up with a game plan to neutralize them and stuck to it,” added Rane.
In the men’s pro singles gold medal match, Hunter Johnson defeated first-time finalist Grayson Goldin,15-13 and 15-8. Jack Foster secured the men’s pro singles bronze in Miami.
Championship Sunday’s final match featured Fudge battling against Jenna Hessert for women’s pro singles gold. It was a back-and-forth affair with both sides trading momentum, but Fudge emerged victorious with a pair of 15-13 wins to clinch her first gold medal of 2024. Bobbi Oshiro earned the women’s pro singles bronze medal.
“I’m fortunate to be coming home with gold,” Fudge said. “I took a timeout to stall [Jenna] and give myself a breather. I just reset, went back after it and got the gold. Credit to Jenna, she played amazing and had a fantastic tournament.”
APP Atlantic Cup
Coinciding with the Chase APP Miami Pickleball Open was the inaugural APP Atlantic Cup, a signature event featuring Team USA against Team Europe in the first-ever international team pickleball event. After two days of the best-of-nine competition, Team Europe led 4-2. With their backs against the wall, Team USA rattled off three straight victories on Sunday, including the clinching mixed doubles victory by Ava Kalist and Richard Livornese, Jr., to claim the title of Atlantic Cup Champions.
The 2024 Team USA roster included Riley Bohnert (Louisville, Ky.), Alia Brown (Alpharetta, Ga.), Kalist (Chambersburg, Pa.), Spencer Lanier (Newberg, Ore.), Livornese (Ringoes, N.J.) and Jack Munro (Buda, Texas). Pickleball coach and current APP Tour broadcaster Chad Edwards and AARP Champions Division pro Lee Whitwell served as coaches for Team USA.
Team Europe’s roster consisted of Pialena Ander (Nyköping, Sweden), James Chaudry (London, UK), María Costantino (Malaga, Spain), Felix Grunert (Erlangen, Germany), Louis Laville (London, UK) and Thaddea Lock (London, UK), led by Laville and Lock as co-captains.
AARP Champions And Masters Pro Action
In AARP Champions Division (50+) action in Miami, Lee Whitwell and Jaime Oncins earned two gold medals apiece, Mark Palus won men’s singles gold and Dana Wiatroski took home women’s singles gold.
In AARP Masters Division (60+) competition, Connie Burnett and Jenny Reifeis were women’s doubles champions, Scott Moore and F.D. Wilder earned men’s doubles gold and Kristin Hickman and David Spearman took home mixed doubles gold.
Additional Details
All pro winners are shown below, with full tournament results available here. The APP returns to action in Delray Beach on April 3-7 for the APP Vlasic Classic.
More information about upcoming APP events—including APP Tour dates, player registration and ticket information—is available on theapp.global. Pickleball enthusiasts can also stay in the know by following the APP on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok, Threads and LinkedIn.
Full Results
APP Pro Results
AARP Champions Division Results
AARP Masters Division Results
