PPA Tour this Weekend: A Changing of the Guard Atop Pro Women’s Doubles?

Will Anna Bright and Rachel Rohrabacher topple Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau as the pro women’s doubles team to beat at the top during the CIBC PPA Finals?

The most dramatic win so far in 2024 has to be Anna Bright and Rachel Rohrabacher’s win over Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau at the Lapiplasty Pickleball World Championships in Dallas on November 10, 2024.

It was not that Anna and Rachel won. They had already done that twice before this year. And there is no reason to think that Anna and Rachel cannot, from time to time, beat ALW and Catherine.

It was the way Anna and Rachel won. They flipped the script on the most dominant team in recent pro women’s doubles and dominated them for the entire match.

Some background for context:

ALW and Catherine have been the most formidable pro women’s doubles team since they paired up:

• A total of 24 women’s doubles gold medals over their partnership, including 13 gold medals in 2024;
• They beat every team they have faced in a gold medal match other than Anna and Rachel.
• And it has not even been close:
  • They have lost a grand total of 14 games across their 24 gold medal matches
  • That’s less than 1 game lost per match – and this is in matches to 5 games where ALW and Catherine have to win 3 games to win the match.

But …

Anna and Rachel seem to have figured out how to crack the juggernaut:

• Of the 14 games that ALW and Catherine have lost, 9 have been to Anna and Rachel (64%);
• Anna and Rachel won 3 gold medal matches against ALW and Catherine – all this year
• The first two victories were 4 game affairs but the Lapiplasty World Championships was a 3-game complete domination by Anna and Rachel. There was no point during that match during which the outcome was in doubt.

The next clash between these two teams will likely be at the CIBC PPA Finals starting on December 4^th. While it is possible that another team might emerge as one of the final 2 teams, the safe money is on another gold medal battle between ALW/Catherine vs. Anna/Rachel.

The 5 keys detailed below will help you get the most out of your experience watching their likely matchup on December 8^th. The match will be televised on PickleballTV – for the broadcast schedule that day, check ppatour.com that morning.

You can let us know if we were spot on with our keys or if we missed the mark. Just come back here and put it in the comments.

5 Keys to Look For in this Match

1. Anna and Rachel can “out-grind” ALW and Catherine

The first key I am looking for is whether the match will be a grind: patient dinking and moving the ball around looking to create stress up at the Non-Volley Zone. Because in these grind rallies, Anna and Rachel have a distinct advantage.

Anna and Rachel have the most damaging dinks in pickleball. They create dipping, unattackable and stressful dinks and can place them anywhere on the court: middle, straight, and cross court. These roll dinks create a tremendous amount of stress on their opponents.

Better Pickleball coined the term “AggroDink” to refer to these sorts of aggressive dinks and Anna and Rachel are the best at them. AggroDinks allow you to create pressure on your opponents without the risk of counterattack.

At the World Championships, Anna and Rachel’s AggroDinks were devastating to ALW and Catherine. Several resulted in outright winners while others put ALW and Catherine in tough spots from which they were unable to recover. Even ALW, as athletic a player as she is, was often under tremendous duress trying to track down an AggroDink to the outside.

You can check out these AggroDinks and their effect in our “What to Watch For Video” on the PPA Tour Channel on YouTube.

Anna and Rachel are most effective when they play patient, controlled pickleball and pick their spots to attack once up at the Non-Volley Zone.

Because their dinks are so effective, Anna and Rachel can just try to out-grind ALW and Catherine without the need to make risky shots. Just a continual dose of drop, get to NVZ, and grind. Rinse and repeat.

If the pro women’s doubles gold medal match becomes a grind, then I heavily favor Anna and Rachel to win. But … they are playing two fierce competitors (and the No. 1 Seed) who are coached by two top coaches in the game. I would be surprised if ALW and Catherine don’t come to the match with a strategy of their own to avoid the advantage that Anna and Rachel have in the grind game (our ideas on this below).

Coaching Perspective: Playing solid “Chapter 1” pickleball can prove to be a very effective way of playing pickleball. Most matches at recreational play can be won by just not making mistakes. And Chapter 1 pickleball is all about not making the mistakes.

2.  Will Anna and Rachel stay disciplined or attack too early in the rally?

The second key I am looking for is whether Anna and Rachel will stick to a disciplined approach in this match. The disciplined approach is for them to play “Chapter 1” pickleball: drop, move forward, move the ball around, and wait for a clear attack opportunity (“green” ball).

During the World Championship gold medal match, Anna and Rachel were the better team. But they departed from what should be their game plan too often. Several times, one or the other would attack from mid-transition zone, seeking to just overpower their opponents. That may work in the early rounds of a tournament but not against opponents like ALW and Catherine.

You can see the difference between a patient, disciplined approach and the early attack in our accompanying video.

Most pickleball players would see tremendous improvement in their results by modifying their strategy to avoid attacking too early in a rally. This is an example of where we can all learn from the pros.

In the CIBC Finals pro women’s doubles gold medal match, the more that Anna and Rachel deviate from the plan and attack early, the greater the chance that ALW and Catherine can come out on top.

Coaching Perspective: If I were coaching Anna and Rachel, I would encourage them to play a patient game, working the rallies with their roll dinks until things open up or there is an obvious attack opportunity. That is where they will find their greatest advantage.

3.  Will ALW play disruptive pickleball or let the rallies get into a grind rhythm?

You are probably seeing a pattern here: if the match is a grind, then Anna and Rachel should be heavily favored. The more that ALW and Catherine can do to disrupt the rhythm of the match, the greater their chances of success.

Let’s not forget: ALW is still the best all-around women’s player in the world, and she is the most dangerous offensive player on tour. The more she can insert herself and create offense for herself, the more difficult it will be for Anna and Rachel to control the match.

And this is the third key I am looking for: how will ALW approach this match? Will she be a disruptor, flying around and creating chaos where she can finish the rally with her power, or will she allow Anna and Rachel to dictate the tempo and wait for their opportunity to strike?

A secondary key here is how ALW and Catherine handle third shots. During the World Championships, ALW took too many third shots. When she does this, she takes herself out of the possibility of moving forward and applying pressure.

Want to see ALW flying around, creating misery for her opponents? We included that in our video for you to see.

Coaching Perspective: If I were coaching ALW and Catherine, I would recommend letting Catherine take the majority of thirds that she can reasonably take, freeing ALW up to move forward and disrupt.

4.  How to protect Catherine from attack?

The fourth key I am looking for is who will win the battle when Anna attacks Catherine.

As a general rule, Anna seems to feel that she can attack Catherine at will. Off the bounce. From a volley. Even one-handed backhand flicks are an open game for Anna.

Catherine has an effective counterattack, but only when she can slide to her right to open her 2-handed backhand and load up on the counter. If you do not know what a “slide” is, make sure you check out the video at the top of the post.

Anna, however, has adjusted and moved her attacks so that they are more towards Catherine’s body, making it harder for Catherine to get her 2-handed backhand on the ball.

So … ALW and Catherine will have to solve this. Catherine could slide over more, but that will require ALW to pinch more to the middle, opening her up to Anna’s cross-court roll dink (the one we talked about above).

Coaching Perspective: The best solution would be for Catherine to switch over to her forehand counter, but I do not think she feels as comfortable with that. The other option would be for Catherine to play more on the left, but that then limits ALW’s offense.

Anna’s constant attacks against Catherine are a quandary for ALW and Catherine. The bottom line here is that the more exposed to attack Catherine is, the harder it will be for ALW and Catherine to prevail.

5.  Can Catherine’s lob be a difference maker?

Catherine has an awesome Non-Volley Zone lob, and she has used it successfully a few times during the World Championship gold medal match. To my eye, she did not use it enough because when she used it, it was effective.

The lob is not just a tool to win a rally. The lob is also a tool to disrupt the rhythm of your opponent. If you are getting pushed around, a well-placed lob retakes control of the rally and gets your opponents out of their flow.

Coaching Perspective: If I were coaching ALW and Catherine, I would have Catherine lob a ridiculous amount. Why not do it as long as it keeps working and stop only when Anna and Rachel tell us that it is not working any longer? The alternative – getting pushed around by Anna and Rachel’s roll dinks – is much less appealing.

Wild Card – Game Management

There is one more area worth noting: the game management skills of each team. In a close match, game management is often what makes the difference between winning and losing.

The area of game management that has the biggest impact on the outcome of a tight match is timeout usage. It can break momentum, avoid big runs, and get you back on track. And in timeout usage, ALW and Catherine have a distinct advantage.

In fact, ALW is the best pro player when it comes to taking a timeout. She will take it early in a game, middle of the game, or end of game; whenever she feels it is needed. Anna and Rachel are okay with timeout calling, but they can go stretches that scream for a timeout without calling one.

If the match is tight, the edge in game management could tilt it in favor of ALW and Catherine. In fact, this is what happened at the Rate Championship the month before World’s. ALW called a timeout at 9-9 in Game 5 when Anna and Rachel were making a run. ALW and Catherine ended up getting out of the mess and ultimately winning the match.

Overall: who will reign as the pro women’s doubles team?

I expect ALW and Catherine to come out with something to prove. As the dominant team for the past 2 years, they will want to set things right after the 3-game domination of them at the World Championship.

That said, Anna and Rachel are playing very well right now. If Anna and Rachel can play to their baseline level, and they stick to the plan, I expect Anna and Rachel will come out on top at the CIBC Finals.

Remember to let us know after the match – how did the keys impact the outcome? What did you notice as you watched? No matter who wins, it is going to be a fun and well-contested match by the four top women players in our sport today.

Thank you to our friend, Jim Ramsey, PPA Statistician for the statistics used in this article. Follow Jim at facebook.com/groups/propickleballstats for the best PPA pro stats.