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Closer look at MLP Semifinal matchups
Our reviewers ranked the best paddles for dinks and drops
There are four Major League Pickleball teams left standing with one weekend left to play — the semifinals and finals in New York City on Aug. 28-30.
In today’s newsletter, we’re taking a closer look at each semifinal matchup, including lineup stats, past head-to-head results and how we think the teams stack up heading into New York.
Spoiler alert: Both matchups should produce an extremely high level of pickleball. Learn more below.
In this issue:
Throwback to the wildest point ever 🤯
We’re giving away 20 11SIX24 paddles 🙌
These ATPs looked IMPOSSIBLE 📐
Pickleball Getaways combines travel and pickleball ✈️
The best paddles for dinks and drops 💧
JOOLA offering huge sale on Pro IV paddles 💸
Let’s cook! 👨🏻🍳
GIVEAWAY
We’re giving away 20 UNRELEASED 11SIX24 paddles
We’ve teamed up with 11six24 to give away 20 of their UNRELEASED Jelly Bean 2 paddles! 🍭
How to enter:
BONUS ENTRIES: Enter your email into the giveaway here.
The giveaway ends Aug. 25. 🥳
HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
This might be the wildest point we’ve ever seen
Every once in a while we like to revisit some of our best highlights from years past.
In this match from the Pickleball World Championships in 2024 featuring Dekel Bar, Pablo Tellez, CJ Klinger and Quang Duong (remember him?), we witnessed one of the best points in the sport’s history. It’s certainly among the wildest, with crazy defensive plays and multiple hands battles.
🔗 Check out this week’s highlight on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok
FEATURED STORY
Pickleball Getaways offers bucket-list international trips for pickleball enthusiasts
Pickleball Getaways was founded by pro players Dekel Bar and Ben Johns in 2019, and together they organize more than a dozen international trips per year with groups of 32-80 players.
The trips include clinics with Johns (No. 1 men’s player in the world), Bar (multiple-time PPA Tour gold medalist) and a rotating cast of pro players and coaches at world-class resorts and destinations.
“It’s been fun to watch the business grow over the years,” Bar said in a recent interview with The Kitchen. “We started out doing a couple trips each year, and now we’re doing about 15 trips per year, and we have a lot more pros who are involved and some really good coaches as well.”
A typical trip with Pickleball Getaways involves clinics and open play sessions each day, as well as site-seeing opportunities that are dependent on the destination. For trips to places like Mexico and Antigua, guests are staying at an all-inclusive resort and there are a couple opportunities to leave the resort to explore the area.
For other destinations like Europe and Vietnam, there’s more of an emphasis on site-seeing, Bar said.
“It depends on what you want – if you want a little bit of touring, no touring, a lot of touring – we have all those options,” Bar said. “For our destinations in Europe and Asia, the site-seeing is a big part of the trip for a lot of people, so we want to make sure we have a good balance of that as well as time on the pickleball court.”
Currently the trips involve anywhere from 32-80 guests, and Bar said he’s found that larger groups make for a better experience because it guarantees that people will always have similarly skilled players to play with.
If they have 60+ people on a trip, they split everybody into two groups for the clinics and usually have 6-7 pros – that means the student-to-teacher ratio is always about 5-1. Besides Johns and Bar, who are on a handful of the trips per year, other pros have included Lacy Schneemann, Tina Pisnik, Vivian Glozman, Irina Tereschenko, Rob Cassidy, Michelle Esquivel, Len Yang and more.
🔗 Learn more about Pickleball Getaways here or check out their upcoming trips here — use code “KITCHEN” at checkout for $100 off the price of a booking
THE PROS
Major League Pickleball Playoffs: A closer look at the semifinal matchups
There’s one weekend left to play in the Major League Pickleball season — the semifinals and finals in New York City on Aug. 28-30.
The New Jersey 5s, as the No. 1 overall seed, had their choice of opponent between the Brooklyn Pickleball Team (No. 3 seed) and Dallas Flash (No. 4 seed). The 5s opted to play Brooklyn, which means the St. Louis Shock (the No. 2 seed) will play Dallas.
Here’s a closer look at each matchup:
NEW JERSEY 5s vs. BROOKLYN PICKLEBALL TEAM
2026 head-to-head: New Jersey won the lone matchup between the two teams this season, 3-0 on June 28 at MLP New York.
New Jersey 5s projected lineup
Anna Leigh Waters/Jorja Johnson (33-1, 97%)
Federico Staksrud/Will Howells (4-3, 57%)
Noe Khlif/Anna Leigh Waters (29-5, 85%)
Federico Staksrud/Jorja Johnson (7-1, 87%)
Dreambreaker: Federico Staksrud, Will Howells, Anna Leigh Waters, Jorja Johnson.
Brooklyn Pickleball Team projected lineup
Jackie Kawamoto/Rachel Rohrabacher (12-5, 71%)
Christian Alshon/Riley Newman (22-4, 85%)
Christian Alshon/Rachel Rohrabacher (20-5, 80%)
Riley Newman/Jackie Kawamoto (13-8, 62%)
Dreambreaker: Chris Haworth, Christian Alshon, Hannah Blatt, Jackie Kawamoto.
ST. LOUIS SHOCK vs. DALLAS FLASH
2026 head-to-head: They didn’t play each other this season.
St. Louis Shock projected lineup
Anna Bright/Kate Fahey (30-4, 88%)
Hayden Patriquin/Gabe Tardio (30-4, 88%)
Hayden Patriquin/Anna Bright (25-7, 78%)
Gabe Tardio/Kate Fahey (21-4, 84%)
Dreambreaker: Hunter Johnson, Hayden Patriquin, Kate Fahey, Anna Bright.
Dallas Flash projected lineup
Danni-Elle Townsend/Alix Truong (15-12, 56%)
JW Johnson/Augie Ge (25-12, 68%)
JW Johnson/Brooke Buckner (22-12, 65%)
Danni-Elle Townsend/Augie Ge (19-4, 83%)
Dreambreaker: JW Johnson, Augie Ge, Brooke Buckner, Danni-Elle Townsend.
GEAR
Ranking the best paddles for dinks and drops
The number of pickleball paddles that have been released in the past couple years is hard to comprehend. And for the most part, they are all good at something — sometimes multiple things.
Companies have experimented with different core materials — polypropelyne, EVA foam, EPP foam, MPP foam, etc. — to produce a variety of performance characteristics. Some are very powerful, some feel stiff, some feel plush, some grab the ball better than others, and so on.
Today, we’re focusing on the soft game. Our reviewers (both 5.0 players) have tested hundreds of paddles, and below you will find a collection of paddles that we think excel on dinks and drops — two of the most common and important shots in pickleball.
BEST IN CLASS
JOOLA Pro V Series: It’s hard to beat a really good “Gen 3” paddle when it comes to shots that require a lot of feel. The plush response (especially on the 16mm versions) is exactly what we’re looking for when we want to prioritize dinks and drops. Shop here
ELITE
All of these paddles are exceptional on dinks and drops. Maybe you’re looking for a certain brand or price point. We bet there’s something here that fits your needs.
PADDLE CORNER
Select JOOLA Pro IV paddles now 35% off!
JOOLA this week announced MAJOR markdowns for select Pro IV models.
The Hyperion Pro IV, Magnus Pro IV and Graf Pro are now $149.95, down from $229.95.
That’s 35% off a paddle that we still consider to be among the best on the market.
VIRAL VIDEOS
These ATPs shouldn’t be possible
You know we love a good highlight here at The Kitchen, so we recently put together a compilation of the best ATPs we’ve seen over the years.
These shots are INSANE, and we can only hope to pull off a shot as good as these someday.
QUICK HITS
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