Doubles For Munro And Van Reek At The 2026 English Pickleball Open Powered By The APP In Birmingham

The largest indoor pickleball event held anywhere in the world was held last weekend, with 3,400+ players descending into Birmingham, England for the 2026 English Open, powered by the Association of Pickleball Players (APP) and continuing a multi-year relationship between the US-based tour and the biggest European organization out there.

Let’s do a quick recap of the results, highlighting the winners, the upsets, and the top International players who made waves. The event featured a slew of pros from the US, joined by some of Europe’s top players and even some visitors from the East.

Ignasi De Rueda, who plays out of Barcelona and is one of the top Spanish players who plays primarily out of the continent survived the massive draw to take gold. In the final, he topped APP Next player Jake Bower. Bower had taken out top APP player Livornese in the quarters and Poland star Mateusz Matysik to earn his finals spot. Meanwhile, De rueda crushed another APP Next star Jayden Broderick in the semis before a tight 11-9 third game win for the title.

In a great display of the spread of the game, the semis of the Women’s draw featured players from Spain, Croatia, Netherlands, and the USA. Of course, the Croatian actually plays in the States, while the Dutch player primarily plays in Australia, so you just can never tell. Dutch star Roos van Reek topped APP next star Brooke Revuelta in one semi, while Croatian-born Domenika Turkovic (currently No. 4 on the APP tour) made fast work of Barcelona-based in the other. In the final, Turkovic outlasted van Reek for the title.

Roos van Reek & Jack Munro stayed out of trouble and avoided the early knockout round upsets that be felled many of the other top seeds to claim the Mixed title and guarantee the double-double for themselves on the weekend. They repeat their title winning ways from a few weeks ago in Malaysia. In the final, they topped Domenika Turkovic & Jae Centonze, a great run for the APP next star. The husband/wife team of Glauka & Brandon Lane took the bronze.

Richard Livornese & Jack Munro, winners of the last three APP Men’s Pro doubles events, cruised through the draw and took the title as the top seeds. The beat fellow US-based top APP pros Tristan Dussault & Ronan Camron in the final of a draw that was pretty heavily weighted with US-based pros at the end. Shout out though to Rosen Naydenov & Balint Bako, who made a spirited run to the quarters before falling to to the eventual gold medalists. Naydenov is a top player in my home town of Richmond and represents his home country of Bulgaria professionally. It is always cool to see a name in a pro draw of someone you’ve both played with and against on the court.

Shelby Bates & Roos van Reek, who teamed up to win gold in Ho Chi Minh City earlier this year, cruised into the final without dropping a game. There, they faced off against two top APP pros in Katerina Stewart & Bobbi Oshiro, who pressed them to a third game before falling. Bates & van Reek take the title. Megan Fudge, the winningest player in APP tour history, teamed with Kara Wheatley to claim the bronze.

With this story published, the Medal Tracker is updated online. Please visit the “APP Intl” tab for a complete list of all prior Medal winners at all APP International events. If you’d like to see how the international players fare, you can also check out other tabs in the same spreadsheet for other international competitions.

Next up for the APP Tour? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, the APP is right back in action domestically next weekend for the APP Detroit Open, hot on the heels of last week’s Chicago Open.

Resources I rely on while covering the APP International events:

• APP International Schedule, with upcoming international events.

• APP Pro Tour Rankings for its Domestic events.

• Global Pickleball Alliance: This is where the Global Rankings will be calculated for these International competitions. The staff at National Pickleball League in Australia are taking the lead on keeping these rankings.

• Mydupr.com for DUPRs and player bios and home towns (requires a login to search players)

• Medal Tracker XLS with all APP competition medals on separate tabs

• Master Pickleball Schedule for upcoming events on the global calendar.

APP International Schedule, with upcoming international events.

APP Pro Tour Rankings for its Domestic events.

Global Pickleball Alliance: This is where the Global Rankings will be calculated for these International competitions. The staff at National Pickleball League in Australia are taking the lead on keeping these rankings.

Mydupr.com for DUPRs and player bios and home towns (requires a login to search players)

Medal Tracker XLS with all APP competition medals on separate tabs

Master Pickleball Schedule for upcoming events on the global calendar.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com