RETIRING from singles? + PPA Masters Update!

Hi baddies!!! I apologize for the click-baity subject line, but I mean, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. And I promise I’ll make it worth your while! I felt compelled to write a quick update for you guys with my thoughts on Major League Pickleball’s new “Competition Structure Updates”. A short synopsis - I think my dreambreaker days could be done!!!

The biggest changes are:

Anyone who’s watched a close dreambreaker agrees that at their peak, they are electric, thrilling, captivating, anxiety-inducing, and absolutely unique in the best way possible. There is, truly, nothing else like it. MLP’s rule change now allows teams to play different players within the same match. You could play one person for gender doubles, and use a “bench” player for mixed. Additionally, teams can also play someone new in singles even if they didn’t participate in the doubles matches!

I am a big fan of this change as it makes both drafting and lineup creation far more interesting. In previous iterations of MLP, players like Tina Pisnik or Riley Newman were viewed as less valuable because of their below-average singles play, but now, if teams draft a good singles player as their third player of that gender, then great! No harm, no foul!

So this raises the question… are my singles days done at MLP? Honestly, I doubt it. I’m still probably above average among women, especially in the second position, but there’s always the possibility. If whatever team I’m on wanted to draft Salome Devidze I’d say it probably isn’t the best thing from a chemistry perspective, but if she wants to take my spot in a dreambreaker… more power to her, I will gladly step aside😂

Another reason I LOVE this rule change that I haven’t seen get discussed much is that it makes the 5th and 6th roster spots way more important just from a talent development/chemistry standpoint. Last year, you really couldn’t blame teams for not traveling their bench players much or for not investing much into their improvement - these players had to get so much better in order to justifiably ever see the court. But now, they just have to get good at one event to see court time and to be given a shot! Giving someone a chance is now a lot less all-or-nothing than it was in 2025. As such, I think it will be much easier for these players to truly feel as if they are a part of the team and for ownership groups to see these players as true team members as well. Bravo MLP👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

It’s no secret that the regular season format for the past two seasons of MLP has been confusing. Teams all being at different points in their seasons, with wildly varying averages and total points made things tough to follow even for me, someone who lives and breathes this stuff. While I do think the confusion of the regular season is worth it to build into a truly electric playoffs, there’s no denying the “aura” of a single event having a winner, so I also like this change from the league.

In 2026, there will be 10 teams at every regular-season event, and each team will play exactly 5 matches. Four of these will in round robin pool-play and in the fifth match every team will be paired with the team from the other round robin that finished ranked in the same position within their pool (so the winner of Pool A plays the winner of Pool B, and so on). Points for the event will be rewarded according to the final event standings.

This change is great as it allows for more consistency in where teams are at in their season while also allowing for way more storylines to be built over the course of individual events. Everyone plays just a little harder when they feel like they are trying to “win” something, even if in actuality you are just playing for an extra standing point in the regular season. I’m super excited to see how this plays out but I think it’s another great move from the league.

The main change I’m not too thrilled about is the league expanding the playoffs both from 10 teams to 12 and for the playoffs to now be over the course of 3 weekends, rather than 2. In regards to three weekends rather than two, I guess that as long as your team is good enough you will be straight into the quarterfinals and that is what I have to use to motivate myself to avoid an extra week of play. We play A LOT !!!

I am not a huge fan of expanding the number of teams that make the playoffs simply because I think it dilutes the importance of the regular season. Last season we had 16 teams and now we will have 18. With no salary cap (that I have seen), it feels entirely reasonable that the divide between the “haves” and the “have-nots” will only grow, and I don’t see why the league seems so set on most of the teams making the playoffs. Of course they are selling TV time and a lot of other things that are just above my pay grade, but I digress. Just providing my 2 cents here!

All in all, I am very excited to see how all of these updates will play out and think Samin and his team have done an amazing job with ideating and finding creative solutions to difficult problems. It’s literally 1130PM Thursday night and I feel compelled to write about it!!! Can you tell I’m fairly obsessed?

The Masters is off to a great start for me as I play in both quarterfinals today! I’m especially excited for my match with Hayden against Gabe and Catherine. I’m sure all of us want this match dearly, I wonder who wants it the most? H and I have been playing well and I am seeing the fruits of a lot of my labor in the offseason, which is always rewarding. Have you guys enjoyed the lob serves??? Hayden might not be😂

The match of the tournament so far is definitely Kate/Fed vs Rachel/Will. The way the PPA has already labeled this the “greatest mixed match ever” makes me laugh… feels like we have a new “best match ever” essentially every tournament😂. I can definitely get behind it being match of the year though!!! Unfortunately Will is going to have to grind through some tough draws until he is able to accumulate enough points to get seeded where he deserves based on his level, but this is something Rachel and Noe knew going into their partnerships with him. I remain curious and invested in Will’s development on the PPA Tour (though no one is more invested than Jim Kloss, who is perhaps Will’s biggest fanboy).

Another funny thing I felt compelled to write about is just how funny the Andrei + Fed + Julian + random Romanian guy with a flag that he had cut out a circle for his head to go through was. One thing about Julian… he makes pickleball entertaining.

I made eye contact with Federico several times during this match and we both were just laughing/chuckling. There was a lot going on. I have no problem with Julian firing up and I don’t think you can ever really fault someone for doing whatever puts them in the best possible position to win as long as certain lines aren’t crossed, which I haven’t seen Julian do. He does his thing out there, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but he put up a darn good fight today. Fun match! High octane, lots of speedups, lots of screaming - the Julian Arnold way.

That’s all I have for you guys for now - I have to get off to sleep but you will all be reading this in the morning (: PS - I made a longer form YouTube version of my Dating (Mixed) Wrapped video! Check it out if you want to be even more amazed at how funny I am!!!

Much love, always❤️ Your internet bestie, XOXO, Anna❤️❤️❤️