PPA Tour's Top Players Reveal Paddle Choices, Carbon Faces Dominate in 2026

The paddle market at the PPA Tour level has settled, at least for now, into a carbon-face majority. The Kitchen's April 3 tracker, a model-by-model snapshot of what the current top 10 men and women were using at the most recent event in Utah, confirmed that 16mm core paddles with carbon-fiber faces are no longer the advanced player's preference; they are the baseline expectation. If you have a retreat or camp on the calendar in the next 30 days, that tracker doubles as a purchase roadmap, provided you know how to read it by playing style rather than by ranking position.

The most instructive pairing at the top of the men's draw is Ben Johns on the JOOLA Perseus Pro V at 16mm. The Perseus Pro V is an elongated carbon-face paddle built around a 16mm honeycomb propulsion core with KineticFrame throat integration and a hyper-foam edge wall. The 16mm thickness slows ball response fractionally versus a 14mm core, giving Johns more control on fast transitional exchanges without sacrificing baseline drive power. For retreat players who identify as aggressive baseliners, former tennis converts, or anyone whose game centers on pace and depth, the Perseus Pro V is the most directly pro-validated purchase in the power category.

Anna Leigh Waters, who left Paddletek for Franklin in early 2026, is playing the Franklin C45 Hybrid at 14mm. The thinner core carries more pop and faster face response; it is a control player's specification, built for the kind of hands-battle kitchen game Waters runs better than almost anyone on tour. Players heading into a retreat focused on soft game development, dinking mechanics, or mixed doubles strategy will find the 14mm end of the Franklin C45 line far more useful than anything in the 16mm power bracket. The two setups, Johns at elongated 16mm and Waters at hybrid 14mm, define opposite ends of the spectrum and give retreat shoppers a clear self-sorting test: if you think about driving the ball, look at the Perseus line; if you think about resetting it, look at the C45.

Gabe Tardio's appearance on the tracker with the Facolos EliteX Extreme Edition is worth flagging for a different reason. Tardio signed with the Vietnamese brand Facolos after departing PIKKL, and the EliteX carries minimal North American retail presence as of early April. That means limited hands-on demo access before purchase, which matters for retreat-bound shoppers who should realistically expect to play a paddle before buying it at that price point. Tardio's choice does signal something meaningful about 2026: boutique international brands are landing legitimate tour-level endorsements, and the major-brand lock on pro racks is measurably looser than it was 18 months ago.

For anyone setting a firm gear budget before camp, the tracker maps onto two practical tiers with a clear caveat attached to one of them. The JOOLA Perseus Pro V and the Franklin C45 line both sit at the premium end of the retail market and carry direct current-cycle pro endorsement. Players who want to play inside the same construction philosophy at a lower price point can look at the Perseus Pro IV, which dominated Major League Pickleball rosters through 2025 with 10 players on that model alone, and which offers comparable carbon-face, 16mm performance at a reduced cost now that the Pro V has succeeded it. The Luzz brand, now carrying Chris Haworth's endorsement after his departure from Babolat, is the emerging mid-tier option worth watching, though it comes with a specific watch-out.

The tracker lists Haworth using the Luzz Pro 4 Tornazo while simultaneously flagging rumors of an imminent move to the UPA-approved Luzz Glider. That distinction matters because if Haworth completes that switch before or during your camp, any Tornazo purchase made on the basis of current pro usage is immediately one product cycle behind. More broadly, mid-season paddle switches are a defining feature of 2026 tour life, not an anomaly. Approval status shifts, sponsorship deals move fast, and a model anchoring a retreat's demo rack in April can lose its primary endorser by June. Verify UPA certification at the time of purchase, not at the time of research, and treat any tracker as a live document with an expiration date measured in weeks.