Fair Haven’s Kate Fahey is the 2026 Sacramento Open champ, winning her sixth career pro pickleball singles title.
COURTESY PPA
By Rich Chrampanis
SACRAMENTO – Kate Fahey was a long way from her Jersey roots, but Sacramento is becoming a second home to one of the best pickleball players in the world. Fahey won the Professional Pickleball Association’s (PPA) Faserna Sacramento Open for a second consecutive year. Fahey was dominant in the finals, scoring an 11-3, 11-0 win over Kaitlyn Christian to repeat as champion.
“I felt really, really good this week. I felt like I was striking the ball well. I had my favorite crowd behind me,” Fahey said in her post-match interview on court. “This has been an incredible tournament, an incredible week. I hear so many Kates in the audience and you don’t know how much that means to me.”
The Rumson-Fair Haven graduate was a two-time New Jersey state singles tennis champion in 2014 and 2015 before going on to a stellar collegiate career at the University of Michigan. She spent four years in the corporate world after injuries derailed her pro tennis career before she found pickleball.
Fahey is currently ranked second on the PPA singles list behind Anna Leigh Waters and has now won six career titles on the PPA Tour.
The article originally appeared in the April 23 -April 29, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
