A Pickleball Video Game...

SUNDAY | JULY 2, 2023

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It’s time to wake up!

It’s Sunday, we’re two days away from celebrating America’s independence and pro pickleball is back! Catch the APP live on ESPN+ starting at 1 p.m. EST today and then catch the PPA in Denver on July 12.

Grab your coffee, read the newsletter, then grab your paddle… It’s DINKING time.

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DINK A LINK

• First-time Medals

  • The PPA & MLP are in mid-season form and the PPA released their “breakout stars” (read: players who earned their first-ever PPA medals) of the first half. Players such as Christian Alshon, Connor Garnett, Brendon Long, Mary Brascia, Lacy Schneeman and more.

    • Check out the full list of men, here and the women, here.

• Re-Draft

  • Speaking of mid-season, the MLP is gearing up for the re-draft to kick off part 2 of the 2023 season and the draft order has been announced! The Chicago Slice is getting first pick in the Premier level and the St. Louis Shock is getting first pick in the Challenger level.

    • The draft will take place on July 12 in New York City.

    • If you want to see predictions for premier level, check out this mock-draft from Pickle Juice. Only 24 men and women will be drafted onto Premier level teams. My prediction is that both Christian Alshon & Sam Querrey (maybe not the best player, but he’s a great marketing play) will be bumped up on the mens side and Lucy Kovalova & Lindsey Newman will get bumped up on the women’s side.

    • Even though the teams have been flipped and the players are being drafted, the points from part 1 of the season still matter. Check out the current team standings, here.

• Pickleballers are driving up rates

  • Health insurance rates that is. If you didn’t catch the news earlier this week, our favorite sport (loved by all ages) is sending our elders to the doctor and it’s costing Americans. To the tune of 60,000 ER visits (estimated) and a cost of $400m annually. Watch the report, here.

• James Blake weighs in on all things pickleball

  • Former American tennis star and Major League Pickleball team owner, James Blake served up his thoughts on the growth of pickleball on the PicklePod earlier this week. Watch it, here.

• Who’s got middle?

  • Ever fight with your partner over who should be taking the ball hit down the middle? Use the “X-Rule” next time you play.

• If you could change one rule about pickleball, what would it be? Chime in, here.

  • Different court dimensions were mentioned a couple of times referencing a new court size for singles as well as the addition of a doubles alley.

  • I’m personally interested in rally scoring taking over as the official scoring across pro pickleball.

• Nike’s new tennis shoe commercial which features stars like John McEnroe, Francis Tiafoe and Travis Scott also features a bigger star… Pickleball.

• Riley Newman has given out his final rose (or shall we say roses?)

  • Last week, Riley announced that he’s breaking up (or maybe mutually agreed upon 🤷‍♂️) with Matt Wright, but didn’t announce who his new partner will be.

    • This week, he took to Instagram with a spoof video of the Lebron James x Miami Heat decision video to announce his new partner(s). Julian Arnold + AJ Koller.

    • It looks like he’ll be playing with Julian first at PPA Seattle, but he’s had previous success with AJ, winning the 2021 Vegas Open against the Johns brothers.

• Selkirk officially launched their newest paddles, the 005 and 006 with mixed reviews. Selkirk sponsored athletes were all over social media, raving about the new paddles, while Chris Olson from Pickleball Studio was… well… underwhelmed by its performance.

I’m dying. Are you dying? 😂

If you enjoyed this week’s newsletter, share it with someone you’re dinking with later. Or better yet, send it to your entire group. Please?

Until next week…

– “Downtown” Logan Brown