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The great singles debate of 2025
Huge upset sparks conversation about direction of singles pickleball
World No. 1 men’s singles player Federico Staksrud sparked a spirited debate on X earlier this week after being upset in the Round of 64 at the PPA Tour Atlanta Pickleball Championships, claiming that “singles pickleball has become mini tennis at this point.”
With more and more players relying on big serves, big returns and big passing shots, we agree that singles is looking very tennis-y these days and offered our own take on the topic.
Other pros also weighed in, including Alexander Crum, the 65-seed who beat Staksrud to kick the whole discussion off.
More on the singles debate below, plus a few predictions for the rest of the week in Atlanta.
Also in this issue:
It’s getting real at PPA Challenger events 😮
Last chance for early-bird pricing for The Kitchen Open KC 🏆
The JOOLA bag that earns our No. 1 ranking 🥇
National Pickleball League opens season this weekend 📆
Let’s cook. 🧑🍳
THE KITCHEN OPEN KANSAS CITY
Sign up TODAY to get the lowest price for TKO Kansas City!
The first stop of The Kitchen’s three-city amateur tournament series, The Kitchen Open, will be in Kansas City! The Kitchen Open Kansas City will be held on August 7-10, 2025 at PickleCon in the Kansas City Convention Center with a winner-take-all prize of $25,000! 💰
Early Bird pricing ACTUALLY ends tonight at midnight for TKO Kansas City ($15 off)! REGISTER HERE now to get the lowest price for the tournament. 🐦
HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
An early nominee for shot of the year on the PPA Challenger Series
The PPA Tour debuted its Challenger Series earlier this year, and already we are seeing up-and-coming players play extremely high-level pickleball at Challenger events.
That was evident at last weekend’s PPA Challenger event in Westbrook, Maine, when Max Wild gave us the shot of the year so far on the developmental tour.
His reaction says it all.
FEATURED STORY
Federico Staksrud says singles pickleball has become 'mini tennis' … and we tend to agree
After being upset in singles in the Round of 64 on Tuesday at the Atlanta Pickleball Championships, Federico Staksrud offered the above take on X.
It’s actually a topic our team has discussed recently, as it seems the strategy in singles has been dumbed down to this: Hit ball hard.
One of our writers went so far as to say singles could be eliminated entirely from the pickleball landscape and nobody would miss it. That might be a stretch, given that it does occasionally produce amazing displays of athleticism, but on Wednesday he offered his 5 arguments against singles:
Nobody plays it in the wild (because it’s not very fun). Enough said.
Singles doesn’t have any of the things that make pickleball interesting. No hands battles, no patiently moving the ball around until you get a good opportunity to attack. Basically, there’s no nuance.
Pro singles in pickleball is starting to feel very tennis-y (as Staksrud pointed out). It’s dominated by one type of player – a 20-something former tennis stud who hits the crap out of the ball and relies heavily on athleticism over skill.
It’s becoming TOO EASY to break through at the pro level. Because the strategy has become so unsophisticated, there are literally hundreds and hundreds of players who can compete now at the pro level on the men’s side. If everybody is good, are we sure anybody is good?
Women’s singles is a one-horse race. It’s been the Anna Leigh Waters show for 2+ years. She hasn’t lost in more than 340 days, she’s 24-0 this season and has only dropped one game in 2025.
POLL
Which pro event do you prefer to watch most? |
THE PROS
Upsets and instant classics at the Atlanta Pickleball Championships
The Atlanta Pickleball Championships got started earlier this week and we’ve already seen some crazy results and epic matches — and it’s only Thursday.
The tournament is one of four Slams on the schedule this season, offering 2,000 ranking points to the winner in each division.
It marks the first tournament in more than a year in which Anna Leigh Waters is playing women's doubles with somebody other than Catherine Parenteau or her mom, Leigh Waters.
Waters and Parenteau ended their longstanding partnership last month after losing to Tyra Black and Jorja Johnson in the finals of the North Carolina Open.
Waters’ new partner is Anna Bright, and they won their first match of the week 11-1, 11-0 on Wednesday. Decent start.
ELSEWHERE IN THE DRAWS
Singles slander aside, Christian Alshon and Julian Arnold put on an incredible show on championship court on Wednesday. The match featured plenty of chirping, some next-level gamesmanship and in the end it was Alshon who got the last roar.
The results in men’s doubles and mixed doubles have been more predictable to this point, but we’re expecting plenty of fireworks and some must-watch matches deeper into the tournament.
BECOME A PICKLEBALL FRANCHISEE
Pickleball Kingdom, an indoor pickleball facility chain with 12 current locations in Texas, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Washington, is expected to open several more clubs soon and is on track to have 40-45 clubs open by the end of the year.
The brand has already sold more than 350 franchise locations, with each club emphasizing community building and providing robust support to franchisees.
If you’re interested in becoming a franchise owner, learn more about Pickleball Kingdom here.
PODCAST
PICKLEBALLERS podcast host has his own singles take
The Kitchen’s new podcast, PICKLEBALLERS, is set to drop in the next few weeks. 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 the first episode, in which Bellamy — who is a great singles pickleball player and in a previous life was a star junior tennis player — comes to the defense of singles from a player standpoint. Follow @pickleballers for new clips.
NATIONAL PICKLEBALL LEAGUE
NPL opens 2025 season this weekend
The National Pickleball League’s third season gets underway this weekend with the first events of 2025 being held in Columbus and Los Angeles.
If you don’t already know, the NPL is a team-based league for Champions Pro (age 50+) players. The 2025 NPL season will include 12 teams representing cities across the country. Each team has a roster of at least 14 players, and more than 200 Champions Pros total will compete in the league this season.
PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
Breaking down the popular JOOLA Tour Elite Pro pickleball bag
After using the JOOLA Tour Elite Pro pickleball bag for several months, our team recently decided to move it up to No. 1 on our list of the best tour bags designed for pickleball.
If you’re a true pickleball junkie, you might be carrying several paddles, a change of clothes, towel, shoes, snacks, a massage gun, etc. This bag fits it all with room to spare.
Plus, it’s available in 7 eye-catching colors — we bet you can find one you like.
QUICK HITS
Great tip: Every beginner should save this one
That’s cold: A walk-off Nasty Nelson at the U.S. Open
What did you think of this week's newsletter? |