The State Of Senior Pro Pickleball In 2026

We cover a lot of Pro Pickleball in this space. Between PPA, MLP, APP, and all their burgeoning international pursuits, there’s now at least a tournament a weekend to cover, somewhere, somehow, and usually more.

But, did you know there’s a slew of Senior Pro Pickleball competitions going on out there as well? This article will introduce you to all the “Senior” pro pickleball going on, and give you an idea of some of the big names involved. For years “senior” meant 50+, but we’re now starting to see the expansion both older (into 60+ and beyond) and younger (35+ and 40+) divisions as the various competitors vie for players and provide opportunities for aging top players.

Here’s a run-down of the organizations running Senior Pro events, in the rough order of the organization’s founding and stature in the Senior Pro game.

Association of Pickleball Players

In addition to running a pro division, an U-23 Next division for up-and-coming pros, and now in 2026 embarking on a new Global professional tour, the Association of Pickleball Players (APP) also runs the two biggest senior pro tours in existence. They run two sets of senior pro divisions at every APP Event; one for 50+ (formerly called “Senior Pro” and now labeled “Champions”) and one set for 60+ (formerly called “Super Senior” and now called “Masters.”). Fittingly, the AARP sponsored both divisions a couple years ago, and now the APP Champions and APP Masters tournaments are the gold standard to determine the leading senior pros in existence today. Regularly having 10-12 events a year, the APP tournaments draw the best of the senior pros all year, and they almost always run a full slate of both 50+ and 60+ events (singles, doubles, and mixed divisions). There’s regularly maintained rankings for both Champions and Masters online, with year-end champions recognized.

The 2026 APP slate includes 10 events as of this writing.

The leading Senior Pros on the APP as of this writing in early 2026 include:

• Champions Men: Youssef Bouzidi, Jaime Oncins (father of PPA pro Eric Oncins), Marcello Jardim (brother of legendary pro Simone Jardim), Joe Derisi, and Mircea Morariu
• Champions Women: Karin Ptaszek-Kochis, Lee Whitwell (who’s only recently removed from touring on the PPA), Jennifer Dawson, and Nathalie Bagby.
• Masters Men: Todd Murphy, Scott Moore, John Moorin, Dan Granot, Dana Treister, and David Spearman
• Masters Women: Anna Shirley, Elizabeth Bellamy (mother of top PPA pro Roscoe Bellamy), Lupita Curiel, Heather Iffert, Kristin Hickman.

Professional Pickleball Association Senior Pro Divisions

The Professional Pickleball Association (PPA), like its rival the APP, has run Senior “Pro” divisions awarding prize money since day one. You can see these events going all the way back to their first event in February, 2020, Lately, the PPA has struggled to host all five expected divisions at its senior pro events week-in and week-out, usually skipping both women’s divisions and sometimes even a Mixed doubles division. The PPA does have a set of regulars that play its senior pro divisions, but they do not maintain a ranking like the APP. Often times, the cynic in me thinks the sole reason for the PPA to continue throwing a bit of money at these divisions is to give its touring coaches a place to play for a little while each weekend, in-between their side-line gigs. There’s no delineation between 50+ and 60+: it’s just “Senior Pro” when the divisions are held.

The leading PPA Senior pros are as follows:

• Senior Men: Altaf Merchant and Steve Deakin (who haven’t lost on the PPA senior circuit as a doubles team in more than a year), plus singles specialist Joshua Cooperman, Mark Palus, Morgan Shephard, and Mario Porcelli.
• Senior Women: Julie Johnson (the matriarch of the Johnson pickleball family and mother to JW and Jorja), Kimmie Ouchi, Kristi Dorman.

The Champions Series Pickleball Team League and Tournament Series

The Champions Series Pickleball (CSP) organization started life as the National Pickleball League (NPL) in 2022 and is the leading Team based competition for senior pros. They’ve just finished their third season of team competition. I wrote about the league at the end of 2024, with interviews of their founders Rick Witsken, Beth Bellamy, and Michael “The Hammer” Chen. The team competition concept draws its inspiration from Major League Pickleball, but NPL teams are much larger and the matches are comprised of 12 games a tie.

Since the end of 2024, there’s been big changes for the league. They doubled the number of franchises from their first season, had 12 teams in 2025 and are expanding to 16 for the 2026 season. NPL rebranded itself in late January 2026 in conjunction with the kickoff of a new Tournament Series and is now known as “Champions Series Pickleball.” There was some confusion in the space related to the name “National Pickleball League” (with word of a trademarking issue domestically and confusion with the Australia-based pro league of the same name), but with the new name has come the new stand-alone tournament series launching in 2026. CSP has already hosted two such events; the 2026 Suncoast Open in Florida in January, and the 2026 Music City Open that finished up mid February. These tournaments have featured the top NPL players, and also have expanded age group offerings to have 40+ divisions in addition to its 50+ and 60+ disciplines.

Top players in the CSP mirror some of the names already mentioned, who have made their bones on the APP and PPA senior events. They’ll kick off a 6-week team competition for the 2026 season at the end of May and will have a combine for try-outs the first week of March in Texas.

The Senior Pro Tour

The Senior Pro Tour (SPT) was founded in late 2023 by two leading senior pros Mattias Johansson and Dave Furman. They had a slew of 2024 events in their first full season, many of them West Coast based where the founders reside. They also tend to focus on the central and west coast to contrast where the APP generally has their events (which feature a ton of Florida and east-coast based locales).

Their 2025 slate of events was pared back significantly, running four events, mostly in partnership with the National Pickleball group, which is one of several non-pro national tournament organizers operating in the US right now. Their 2026 slate has a couple of events announced as of this writing, continuing the partnership with NP, with more to come.

Per Furman, the plan for 2026 is to have between six and eight events. “Our goal is to pair up with local and regional directors and facilities to bring high-level senior pros to their events in areas where they focus on Amateurs.” This is an alternative for local communities to see high-level pickleball without having to pay to enter or attend a pro event.

The SPT’s claim to fame is their consolidated rankings effort; they maintain a master Senior Ranking system that takes into account results from all the organizations running senior tournaments (APP, PPA, SPT, US Open, and USAP Nationals, now presumably to include whatever NPL/CSP and USLPL run as well). Unsurprisingly, the prolific tournament player Johansson ended up ranked #1 in 50+ singles ahead of the top APP players.

The US Legends Pickleball League

The US Legends Pickleball League (USLPL) was founded in mid-2025 by Northern Virginia-based Ron Cortese and Richmond-based senior pro Michael Cao as an alternative team-based competition to the NPL (now CSP). The founders wanted a different approach to team leagues, focusing on affordability and fun for both the players and owners.

The “Legends” moniker comes from a long series of sports programming that Cortese has been running in the Washington DC area, and dates back to his involvement in recreational Baseball and Racquetball programming over the past 30 years. Ironically, Cortese and I have known each other from our days in the racquetball community in Northern Virginia dating to the mid 1990s.

The USLPL had its initial combine in August 2025, which led to the formation of a 12-team 50+ league (with some slots reserved for 60+ pros in the initial season) that just finished up its inaugural season with a January 2026 final. Most of the teams are geographically based on the East Coast, and the USLPL events thus far have stayed mostly east of the Mississippi river. The 2026 schedule for its 50+ league is coming imminently, as of this writing.

Like their rival senior team league, the USLPL is expanding operations in 2026 and is doubling down on age group inclusivity. They’re launching a 60+ only league later in 2026. Furthermore, they’re starting a 35+ division that will cater to the 35-49 players, owned under the USLPL brand by Heidi Sung and Waymon Peet, which already has several “showdowns” scheduled and has its first six teams already drafted and competing, in some cases with some familiar names from the “main” pro circuits (Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez, Johnny “Pickleball” Andrews, Sarah Bowman, and the like).

Senior Open Divisions at US Open and USA Pickleball Nationals

The two mainstay events in the sport have long-offered “senior” divisions, and these two events remain the gold standard of competition for senior pros to this day, despite the loss of UPA-exclusive pros from these events. The US Open offers “Senior Pro” events for the 50+ level, and the winners over the years are a who’s who of senior pro talent.

Thanks to partnering with the APP, USA Pickleball Nationals expanded its “Senior Open” divisions to mirror the 50+ Champions/60+ Masters divisions that the APP uses, which has resulted in two sets of Senior USAP champions crowned in the last two years.

We are still in the process of building out the older US Open/USAP Nationals Senior medal tracking online; earlier than 2018 the results are challenging to find.

US Senior Pickleball

US Senior Pickleball (USSP) is, per their website, is dedicated to promoting and supporting pickleball for players aged 50 and above. The difference with USSP is, they’re not offering “pro” divisions at their events. The highest level of competition at their 2025 Nationals event were “4.5+ divisions” in their various age groups, and they are mostly serving the amateur senior population in their events.

That’s not a knock on USSP: their 2026 tournament schedule is massive: they have 15 Regional tournaments planned starting in Mid March, leading up to their 2026 Nationals event to be held the first weekend of December in Casa Grande, Arizona (the original host site of USA Pickleball Nationals back in 2009).

For us mere mortal, non-pro Senior pro players, USSP offers another layer of competition on top of your regular local and regional tournaments.

Conclusion: there’s a lot of opportunity for Senior Pros, and Seniors in general, out there right now. Four different shops offering weekend tournaments, two team leagues, and divisions now starting for age 35 all the way up.

I continually update the Master Pickleball Schedule to add in any events that any of these Senior Pro shops are running. If you see an error or omission, by all means reach out and I’ll correct.

All Senior pro competitions Gold/Silver/Bronze medal tracking is now handled in its own Medal Tracker resource online as well.

Disclosure, I am a consultant to the APP, helping them to maintain the rankings for the Masters and Champions Senior Pro divisions on an ongoing basis.