​Vivian Glozman (L) and Roos van Reek celebrate an embrace after winning the Women’s Pro Doubles title.APPAfter a few weeks away, and with a number of international events under their belt, the Association of Pickleball Players (APP) returned home this past weekend for the 2026 APP Chicago Open benefitting Shriners Children. Chicago is where the tour was founded back in late 2019 and is the home of the APP’s founder Ken Herrmann, despite its operations being centered at the Fort in Florida.Click here for the PickleballDen.com home page for the event, where you can get tournament details, draw sheets, and results.News and Noteworthy ahead of the EventHere’s a quick recap of notable news items of import to the tour or this event. It’s been a busy couple of months for the APP.On 8/5/26: Spain-based Top Pickleball Tour announces a new European tour in partnership with the APP, created to boost the sport of pickleball across Europe, with events starting in 2026. Their first four events will be centered on the Iberian peninsula before expanding across Europe in 2027. This comes on the heels of a similar European expansion plan announced earlier this summer from their rival tour.On 8/3/26: The APP announces that its doubling its 2027 total tour purse to $3 Million. It also announces it is going from 10 to 12 domestic tour events, part of a global slate of 50 events for next year, notes that they now have nearly 70 players under contract, and announces expanded live streaming to show all four days of its 2027 events. On 6/25/26, the APP announces that its APP Asia Tour circuit has become the world’s first to be officially dual-sanctioned by the Asian Pickleball Association (APA) and Asia Federation of Pickleball (AFP). On 6/18/26: Jay Devilliers, #12 ranked doubles player on the PPA, announces in conjunction with the APP that he’ll be leaving the tour after the MLP season and will rejoin the APP tour in September 2026. This is a super interesting bit of news, and is the latest of a slew of APP Player signings that have been announced throughout 2026, kept track in a running fashion on this page. Is this the first of many PPA defections that we’ll see as the Aug 2023 “Tour Wars” contracts start coming to an end?On 6/18/26, just a few days after announcing with Pickleball England, the APP also expanded its relationship with the European Pickleball Federation.The enhanced partnership will see the APP and EPF collaborate across tournament operations, athlete development, event promotion, international competitive opportunities, and grassroots initiatives, with the ultimate goal of fast-tracking the growth of pickleball across Europe. The highlight of this new partnership will be the APP “powering the upcoming EPF flagship event, the 2026 European Pickleball Open,” set to beheld in November in Turkey.On 6/11/26 the APP announced an expanded partnership with Pickleball England, with whom they’ve already been partnered since 2022.