Hello and welcome to The Kitchen’s first Tuesday content newsletter. If you’ve been signed up for the newsletter for awhile, you’re probably used to us sending out a short, gear-focused email on Tuesdays and then a longer newsletter on Thursday full of stories and other content.

We’re switching things up and planning to send out two medium-length newsletters on Tuesdays and Thursdays going forward. This will hopefully give you, our readers, more timely content and help you break up the work week — we know that by Tuesdays you’re already daydreaming about your weekend pickleball plans or upcoming league night.

Thank you as always for reading and we hope you enjoy the new twice-weekly format.

In this issue:

• PPA Tour Atlanta Pickleball Championships were electric ⚡️

• The other side of the singles debate 🤔

• Charles Barkley takes shot at pickleball 😮

• Building a celebrity pickleball team 🤩

Let’s cook. 🧑‍🍳

HIGHLIGHT(S) OF THE WEEK

The match that kept on giving

Our team was on scene this weekend at the PPA Tour Atlanta Pickleball Championships, and we saw some amazing pickleball in every division.

But the most epic match we saw all weekend was the semifinal between Anna Leigh Waters/Anna Bright and Parris Todd/Tyra Black. The score was 11-2, 11-7 in favor of Waters/Bright, but the number of electric points within the match was incredible.

There were mad defensive scrambles, amazing hands battles and unmatched energy as the match finished under the lights.

🔗 What pickleball perfection looks like

LET’S PARTY

We’re hosting an MLP Austin kick-off party!

We’re SUPER excited to announce that we’ll be hosting an MLP Austin Kick-Off Party THIS THURSDAY at our HQ in Austin!

The event, presented by Electrolit, will be Thursday night from 7-10 p.m. It will feature a pro exhibition between the Nashville Chefs (the team operated by The Kitchen) and the Miami Pickleball Club, a full bar hosted by Dulce Vida, giveaways, music and more!

If you’re in Austin, come on by! Make sure to RSVP HERE.

FEATURED STORY

Pro player defends singles pickleball and why it’s more entertaining

You might recall the opinion piece one of our writers published last week arguing that singles isn’t really pickleball and questioning whether we need it at all in the pro pickleball landscape.

Well, on Monday, Alex Crum, the player who sparked the whole conversation by beating Federico Staksrud in Atlanta, weighed in and defended singles. His reasoning:

1. People who don’t play pickleball don’t enjoy watching doubles. They don’t understand the immense skillset required to be a top-level doubles player, and optically doubles doesn’t look athletic or challenging, even though it most certainly is. When singles is at its best, it produces an electric combination of athleticism and shot making that casual viewers find more appealing than a 75-shot dink rally.

2. There is parity in pro singles. Americans love underdogs, which is why people tune into March Madness — they love the outside chance that a mid-major will knock off a blue blood because it highlights everything that is right about sports. There is more opportunity for upsets in singles because the skill gap is smaller, and that allows new names to break through and keeps the pro ranks from becoming stale.

3. Singles is the only real gateway to doubles success. It’s virtually impossible to get good doubles partners on the pro circuits without results in singles — unless you have preexisting relationships with top pros. Singles plays an irreplaceable role in making sure the cream eventually rises.

🔗 Read Crum’s full defense of pickleball singles here

PICKLEBALLERS PODCAST

Building a celebrity pickleball team

The Kitchen’s new podcast, PICKLEBALLERS, is set to drop soon. It will be hosted by Jared Paul (The Kitchen founder) and Roscoe Bellamy (pro pickleball player) and filmed at The Kitchen HQ.

Here’s a sneak peek of one of the first episodes, in which the gang discusses who they would pick if they had to build a team of celebrities who are already in on pickleball.

Follow @pickleballers for new clips.

THE PROS

Anna Leigh Waters & Anna Bright put women’s field on notice

Anna Leigh Waters and Anna Bright claimed gold in their first tournament together this season on Sunday at the PPA Tour Atlanta Pickleball Championships, and Waters got her 150th career gold medal on tour in the process (she ended the day with 151).

Waters and Bright took down their former partners -- Catherine Parenteau and Rachel Rohrabacher -- in three games in the much-anticipated women's doubles final, 11-4, 11-7, 11-3.

It was the first PPA Tour tournament since Waters and Parenteau ended their longstanding doubles partnership and Bright ended her partnership with Rohrabacher to team up with the No. 1 women's player in the world.

The dominant performance in the 2025 debut of the Waters/Bright duo is a concerning sign for the rest of the women's doubles field, as they didn't drop a game all tournament and outscored their opponents 99-28.

PATIENCE PAYS OFF FOR JW JOHNSON/CJ KLINGER

Johnson and Klinger had won two bronze medals since teaming up earlier this year, but hadn't gotten past the top teams in their first few tries together. But in the second of four slams, with all of the top players in the draw, they took down the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 seeds en route to the title. The win establishes them as a clear threat to win in men's doubles going forward.

"I think we're feeling more confident and stronger together as a duo," Johnson said after the match. "I think we're just getting started and feeling a lot more comfortable each tournament."

Next up for the PPA Tour: The Orange County Cup in San Clemente, California on June 16-22. Here’s everything you need to know about one of the most popular stops on tour.

🔗 Results and takeaways from the PPA Tour Atlanta Pickleball Championships

POLL

TRENDING

Charles Barkley took a shot at pickleball last week while explaining why he chose golf as his preferred sport later in life.

During a PGA Champions Tour pro-am event in Birmingham, Alabama, the NBA hall-of-famer took some time on the course to discuss why he dislikes pickleball, and didn’t hold back.

“I’m not stupid enough to try and play pickleball. That’s just stupid,” he said. “… The problem with pickleball is I don’t like playing with old people. When I go to the gym, I don’t want to play with no 80-year-olds.”

If he thinks pickleball is just for old people, we're guessing he's never watched a PPA Tour match or seen any points like this one.

QUICK HITS

• Woah: What is this sorcery?

• Pickle in the rain? I don’t see why not

• Crazy: The players were too exhausted to celebrate

• That’s a bag: He didn’t see that one coming

• For real? How is Anna Leigh this good at singles AND doubles?