The Biggest Pickle Party of the YEAR!

The biggest pickleball party of the year has officially begun- PPA Worlds! It’s always a fun week, and so far it has actually felt a lot like being in Asia in that fans are so engaged I feel like I can hardly walk from point A to point B! It’s fitting though, and welcome, I mean, it is Worlds after all! The Round of 16 is where the tournament really gets going, so we haven’t had toooo many upsets so far, but we have had some, and there’s plenty of other interesting tidbits and drama to cover!

AC Baby strikes again! He seems to be a bit of a Nick Kyrgios-type figure (I feel pretty confident he’d take this as a compliment) in that he brings a ton of personality off-court and is also quite the giant killer. He shows up for the big matches against the big names but hasn’t yet proven he can string consecutive good wins together. I’ll be very curious if this is the tournament where Alex makes a proper deep run and shows he is more than a one-hit wonder of sorts. Today he will face Jay Devilliers.

This result from Ben in the biggest tournament of the year really does make one wonder how long we can expect to see him in singles draws. Singles is by far the most demanding event physically, mentally, and emotionally, and watching Ben play singles it isn’t difficult to surmise that he is, on occasion, hating his life out there. This isn’t a feeling unique to Ben, I think everyone who plays singles often feels this way (including ME!!!!!!).

Ben is such a generally high performer that I think all of this losing wears on him. I haven’t spoken to him about it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if his singles days are limited. This year, we’ve already seen him skip singles at a lot of events, and I expect that trend to only continue in 2026.

Men’s singles remains the most volatile event in pickleball, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. For me, the must-watch match of the day is Chris Haworth vs Christian Alshon. The Virginia Beach final from less than a month ago being a Round of 16 at Worlds is genuinely insane. Federico vs Zane Ford also always has the potential to be entertaining.

For those that watch Chris Cali’s Sorry Not Sorry show on YouTube, you already know what the hook of the week will be! It was made by Alison Phillips and Olivia McMillan in the Round of 64 yesterday against Seina Shima and Sophia Phuong Anh Tran at 5-5 in game 3. Alison and Olivia went on to win Game 3 11-5, so Sophia and Seina failed to score a point after the call heard round Worlds (see what I did there!).

I do like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but it’s tough with this one. I have personally had absolutely zero bad experiences with Alison or Olivia- I’ve even heard some people say Olivia is known to overturn her partner’s calls on occasion. But, here, she did not. Olivia didn’t call the ball when it bounced, and she also clearly knew it was very clearly in based on her body language. That’s no bueno. I find Alison telling her opponents the wind took it out a bit ridiculous considering it was an overhead.

I feel terrible for Sophia and Seina in that this clearly affected their play and I hope they don’t leave the event with a bad taste in their mouth for pro pickleball. I hope in the future we can have systems in place that prevent such egregious calls from standing. It’s really not okay and will be needed for our sport to elevate to the next level.

I wrote on Monday about how Hunter Johnson played below his level at MLP and how I hoped he’d find some magic at Worlds, and he did! Major kudos to him for bouncing back. Him and Vivienne David beat the Sacramento silver medalists Kate Fahey and Dylan Frazier 11-8 in the third in a match that was not drama-free. There was some distraction/hindrance disagreement late in the third which is very unfortunate, but to my understanding, it didn’t have a huge impact on the match result. Vivienne withdrew from women’s yesterday but seems to be playing mixed, I hope she is alright and will be curious to see how they fare against Gabe and Jessie.

Other upsets include Connor and Milly beating Tyson/Tina, CJ/Mari beating Eric/Etta, and Riley and Layne beating James and Callie. None are huge upsets on paper, but still great results for the victorious teams. CJ/Mari are always a weird team to play, and I think that Milly and Layne, in particular, are underrated as mixed players.

Milly’s forehand is as slimy as they come, and in mixed you can’t really avoid giving them to her. Layne has quietly improved a lot over the last year. She’s always been an elite ball maker, but she has added topspin rolls and dinks that better help her male partner get involved. You combine those things with ridiculous defense and a shockingly low unforced error rate, and she is bound to be an absolute headache.

There were a few other upsets in men’s doubles, the most notable being AJ and Dekel falling to Anouar Braham and Christopher Crouch. I felt like Dekel played really well at MLP, so I don’t feel inclined to attribute this loss to rustiness from him, but I didn’t watch it. Great win for Anouar and Christopher!

If you’re reading this, I’d like to assume you think I’m pretty cool. But… last night at the celebrity showdown, I probably did one of the coolest thing I’ve ever done, I hit a clean lob winner over DIRK NOWITZKI and hit him with the “too small” celebration😂😂😂.

I have to believe that in doing this I joined an extremely exclusive club. I mean, how many people have actually told Dirk he’s “too small”? So funny. In all seriousness though, playing in the celebrity showdown with Dirk, JD Martinez (he uses my paddle!!!), Terrell Owens, and TFUE was SO fun. I got to play with all of them and honestly ended up getting worked quite hard as Ben left early and Genie was injured so I filled in for them. Terrell has gotten so much better and got SO HOT against AL and Dirk.

That’s all for now everyone! I’m off to teach a PPA Sponsors Clinic in exchange for my mom having a booth at Worlds. Excited to have another great day and I’m particularly excited (and nervous) for my match against Lea and Max which will be GS around 145pm CT. Max played so well at MLP and Lea is a great left side mixed player. Should be (but hopefully won’t be) interesting! See everyone on Monday (: