How Many Tournaments Are There and Who Can Register to Play?
The PPA Challenger series is a Professional and Amateur Pickleball series that will have stops all across the country in 2025. Each event will offer skill divisions 3.0 through 5.0 as well as a Pro Division.
Competitors in the Pro Division will be awarded points based on how they finish. Each PPA Challenger Pro Tournament awards 125 PPA Tour ranking points to the 1st-place winner in men’s and women’s pro singles, men’s and women’s pro doubles, and mixed pro doubles. Each Challenger tournament will have a prize pool of $10k which will be split amongst medalists in the Pro Division. Additionally, winners of pro events will receive a wild card entry (WC) into a PPA Tour Open Main draw tournament of their choosing (Maximum 2 WC’s winners per PPA Tour Open event). PPA Tour Professionals ranked inside the top 20 of a division will not be eligible to compete in that division at PPA Challenger Tour events. The 2025 PPA Challenger Tour calendar includes 16 tournaments across 14 states.
*PPA Tour Professional ranking eligibility is determined on 12/30/24 and 6/30/2025 for the 2025 season.
How Do Player Rankings Work?
The PPA Challenger Rankings award professional players points based on their results at PPA Challenger tournaments. The deeper a player advances at a tournament, the more points they earn. Winners of each PPA Challenger event will receive entry into the main draw of one PPA Tour Open event!
The PPA Challenger Rankings are updated after each tournament and reflect points earned during the past 52 weeks of play (52 Week) and points earned during the current calendar year. Players top 16 finishing events will be counted towards their leaderboard ranking. Top finishing Pros will earn their spot in the “PPA Challenger Showdown in Dallas” where players will battle for a PPA Tour Contract.
Points Breakdown
How Are PPA Points Awarded?
PPA Points are awarded for men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles, and mixed doubles events as follows:
| 1st Place | 2nd Place | 3rd Place | 4th Place | Semi-Final | Quarterfinalist | Round of 16 | Round of 32 | Round of 64 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Challenger 125 | 125 | 100 | 75 | 50 | 40 | 25 | 12 | 6 | 3 |
PPA Challenger Showdown In Dallas
The Showdown in Dallas will take place at Brookhaven Country Club during the UPA World Championships exposing players to the largest event in Pickleball! This event is the culmination of the inaugural PPA Challenger Tour Season. The highest ranking Non-PPA Signed professional athletes are invited to compete for their spot on the PPA Tour in 2026.
When
Singles will be held on Thursday, November 6th starting in the morning. Mixed Doubles will be held on Friday, November 7th starting in the morning. Men’s and Women’s Doubles will be on Saturday, November 8th starting in the morning.
The finals of each event will be held at the end of the day of which the event begins
Who Qualifies
- Singles – The top 4 players in Men’s and the top 4 players in Women’s will qualify for the event
- Gender Doubles – The top 8 players in Men’s and the top 8 players in Women’s will qualify for the event
- Mixed Doubles – The top 4 men and the top 4 women will qualify for the event
Format
- Singles – The top seeded player will play the 4th seed; 2 and 3 will play each other. The two winning players will compete in the finals. Each match will be played in a best 2 out 3 format.
- Gender and Mixed Doubles – The top seeded player will choose his or her partner for the event. The top seeds team will play the bottom seeded team in the semi final while the other two teams compete in the other semi final. The winning teams will compete in the finals. All matches will be best 3 out of 5 games for Doubles.
- Both players must agree to compete together and this will need to be confirmed by October 24th.
- For the showdown, you must choose one path, meaning if a player qualifies across multiple disciplines, they can only play in one of the Showdown draws, moving up the #5 players.
What do they win?
8 players total will be offered a PPA Tour contract in which they will be signed by the tour and receive professional status from the PPA Tour in 2026.
