Browsing: Pickleball News

Major League Pickleball (MLP) has started its new format’s inaugural season strong and is gearing up for the third and final event of Season One: MLP San Clemente. After San Clemente wraps up on Sunday, June 18th, the following Monday, the 19th, will be what the MLP is dubbing the Super Finals. Because the 2023 MLP tournament schedule is broken up into two seasons, they’ve decided to hold two final championship matches to determine the winning teams, in both Premier and Challenger Levels, for both seasons. Based on the Total Event Points gained during the season, the top two teams…

Memorial Day weekend was full of pro pickleball action thanks to The Boca Raton 2023 New York City Open. Over 1,100 pros and amateur players came out to compete in this Golden Ticket Qualifier event, held at the legendary USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, NY. As has been true for the APP recently, Championship Sunday saw a fair mix of new and old faces in the finals. From the incredible comeback victory for 18-year-old William Sobek in men’s pro singles to Simone Jardim and Parris Todd’s continued reign in women’s pro doubles, there’s a lot…

As we recently discussed in our article about the UK’s number one female player coaching in the community, the sport is certainly catching on over in the United Kingdom. Scotland is the latest country to announce a new national competition. Judy Murray Scot Judy Murray, mother of tennis grand-slam winner Andy, is a recent convert to the sport of pickleball, after trying it out while visiting South Carolina. Judy commented, “The sport has exploded in America. I can see the same thing happening here because it’s so much more accessible than any other sport. As an older tennis player, I…

After Stu Upson announced that he’d be stepping down from his CEO position with USA Pickleball (USAP) at the beginning of the year, many wondered who would pick up where he left off. Today, USAP announced that longtime sports executive Mike Nealy will take over as CEO starting in mid-June. Upson was the first-ever CEO of USAP, having started the position in December 2020. During his time with the organization, Upson was essential to its success by helping grow the organization and leading them through pickleball’s spike in popularity. View this post on Instagram A post shared by USA Pickleball…

At 91 years old, Leurene Hildenbrand is an active participant in pickleball, playing an amazing four times a week. Her teammates admire her remarkable athleticism and find it hard to believe she only began exercising in her mid-50s. An Inspiration To Those Around Her Leurene dedicates three days to playing with adults and reserves another day to teach pickleball to children aged 11 to 18. Her commitment to fitness and late start serves as an inspiration to those around her. “A lot of people come to me and say, ‘You must have been doing this all of your life,'” Hildenbrand…

We’ve recently seen pickleball mentioned in this work of non-fiction, but how about pickleball prose? The author, poet, and pickleball Doug Snelson has released his most recent collection, Pickleball Poetry: Fun and Whimsical Verses to Dink About. Doug first picked up a paddle eight years, although he’s always enjoyed tennis and ping pong. “I’ve always liked racket sports,” he says. “I was captain of my high school tennis team, and my dad taught me a lot about table tennis. We played that a lot as a family.” Snelson has produced five children’s books, but Pickleball Poetry is aimed at readers of…

The National Pickleball League (NPL) just announced that their 2023 league play events will be officially sanctioned by USA Pickleball (USAP). NPL is the premier pickleball league for Champions Pros (Age 50+) and the new partnership further proves their commitment to bringing the highest level of standards and quality to the brand-new team competition format for pickleball’s senior pros. USAP is considered to be the primary governing body for pickleball within the nation, and has brought their expertise in the rules of the game to the sport’s professional level for many years. They officially sanction APP Tour tournaments, one of…

The APP Tour hits the Big Apple this weekend in one of the tour’s biggest events of the year! Over 1,100 amateur and pro players are registered to participate in the tournament, hosted at the massive USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens. Coming off of the incredible PPA Atlanta Open that we witnessed last weekend, we’re ready for another action-packed event with the APP! We’ve got a lot to look out for; from the staples of Andrei Daescu and Parris Todd to up-and-coming forces like Alix Truong, there are plenty of players who will make a huge…

Just last week, we discussed how pickleball is taking over under-utilized malls across the country; now, we have a massive announcement from a modular indoor pickleball concept called Picklemall. They aim to repurpose existing mall properties by installing premium pickleball spaces for the sport’s growing player base. Their first location will be in the Arizona Mills Shopping Center in Tempe, AZ. The 104,000-square-foot facility will feature 24 regulation-sized courts. According to Picklemall, the Arizona facility is just the first of fifty locations they plan to open across the country within 24 months. Their website states that after the Arizona Mills…

The popularity of pickleball among Americans has not yet translated into a large television audience. However, the major pickleball organizations remain optimistic about gaining viewers and attracting more people to play the sport. Outside Celebrities Previously, pickleball relied on outside celebrities to attract viewers, such as hosting celebrity-packed tournaments or featuring former tennis legends in broadcasts. Similar to the “Beckham effect” in Major League Soccer, these efforts aimed to grow the sport’s popularity. However, a shift is occurring, with actual pickleball players emerging as stars within the sport. Players like WNBA star Jewel Lloyd are gaining prominence through the efforts…