Yufei Long wins her second straight PPA Tour Asia singles title.
PPA Tour Asia
The Pro Pickleball Asian Tour held its second event in as many weeks, and once again drew a smattering of US-based pros to travel across the Pacific, this time landing in the racquetball-crazed nation of Vietnam for the 2025 Vietnam Open, held in Ho Chi Minh City in the Southern part of the country.
Click here for the PickleballTournaments.com home page for the event.
As with last week’s Fukuoka Open in Japan, we’re doing brief recaps highlighting the winners and notable Asian tour pros that regular followers of the US-based pro tours may not know, but who are names to know. The Vietnam event drew a few more of the regular Australia-based pros than last week’s Japan event, which we’ll talk about in below.
Men’s Pro Singles Recap
Vietnam star Phuc Huynh, who boasts the No. 3 Men’s Singles DUPR in all of Asia (behind only Duong and Bhatia) trounced the No. 1 seed Hong Kit Wong early, then cruised to the gold medal without dropping a game. The hometown favorites played well, eliminating all the Australian entrants in the opening rounds.
Women’s Pro Singles Recap
Yufei Long, who nearly won a triple crown last week in Japan, cruised into the final as the No. 1 seed without being seriously challenged. In the final, she faced Australia’s
Sahra Dennehy, who gave Long everything she could handle before falling 11-9 in the third. Danni-Elle Townsend, who’s made a solid impression in PPA internationals this year, was upset in the first round by 43-yr old qualifier and eventual Bronze medalist from Japan Rika Fujiwara, a former WTA tennis pro who toured for more than 20 years before retiring from Tennis in 2020.
Mixed Pro Doubles Recap
Joey Wild & Dani-Elle Townsend surprise the field to take the Mixed title.
PPA Tour Asia
The four US pros teamed up in their natural partnerships: the brother-sister duo of Alix and Jonathan Truong (who have Vietnamese roots) on one side, and the off-the-court pair of AJ Koller & Meghan Dizon on the other side of the draw, the two top seeds and destined to reach the final. The domestic players had other things to say, as Australian Jamie Haas and top Indian player Harsh Mehta (who took bronze with Indian No. 1 Armaan Bhatia at the 2025 US Open) upset Koller & Dizon in the first round. Unsurprisingly, Haas & Mehta cruised into the gold medal match from the top half after taking out the bracket favorite.
There, they met the Australian No. 3 seeds Joey Wild & Danni-Elle Townsend, who had a solid come-from-behind victory over the Truong team in the semis to earn the final. In the final, Wild & Townsend outclassed Haas & Mehta 4,9 for the win.
Tangent: who did the seeding here? How is one of India’s top players in Mehta, a guy who’s got multiple titles internationally, the 16th seed here? Even playing with Jamie Haas, a 5.6 doubles player but no slouch, it seems like they should have been a higher seed.
Men’s Pro Doubles Recap
AJ Koller (L) teamed with Jonathan Truong (R) to take the Men’s Doubles title.
PPA Tour Asia
Two of the leading US-based pros to travel to this event were newly-signed DC-area native Jonathan Truong and MLP Super-Sub AJ Koller; the pair teamed up in Men’s doubles, got the No. 1 seed, and ended up with the gold medal. However, it was far from smooth sailing for the duo, who survived an 11-9 third game thriller in the semis against Hong Kit Wong & Eunggwon Kim (who hail from Hong Kong and Seoul respectively).
In the final, Koller & Truong outlasted two of Australia’s best in Joseph Wild & George Wall. Wild’s name may be familiar; he paired up with Zane Navratil at the January PPA Australian Open and is currently the No. 1 ranked player by DUPR in Australia. Wall, coincidentally, is No 2, both with DUPRs eclipsing the 6.00 range, so it is no surprise they cruised into the final.
Women’s Pro Doubles Recap
Two more US-based pros in Meghan Dizon and Alix Truong teamed up at this event and were the No. 1 seeds, and as with the Men’s top US-based team ran into a bit of trouble at the hands of top players from the region before advancing and taking the gold. Dizon & Truong had to play last weeks’ Japan Open champions Yufei Long & Ting Chieh Wei in the quarters before getting stretched to a third game by two of Australia’s best in Nicola Schoeman and Danni-Elle Townsend in the semis.
In the final, Dizon & Truong took out two players with US-ties. Xiao Yi Wang-Beckvall hails from Hawaii but has been primarily playing the Asia/Australia circuit this year. She teamed with Lauren Mercado to make the final before falling to the two PPA regulars.
Again, I have to ask: who did the seeding here? How are Long & Wei winning an event one week as the No. 4 seeds, then here they’re No. 8 and playing what should have been a final two rounds early?
Next up for the PPA Asian tour? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, there’s a break for a few weeks, then they head to Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia and home to the Petronas Twin Towers, which were officially the world’s tallest buildings from 1998 to 2004. Then they head back to Vietnam, to Da Nang, in early October for the Vietnam Cup, a 1,500 point event that could be a sneaky way for a PPA tour regular to take a long flight for a weaker draw for some added ranking points.
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