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Anna Leigh Waters could become the first pro to reach 200 titles on the PPA Tour. But she’ll have to play perfectly in Las Vegas — she’s just two wins shy of the historic mark, but since she’s not playing singles, that leaves just two chances to hit the milestone.

More on all that, plus four other storylines from PPA Las Vegas, below.

In This Issue:
— 4 benefits of playing off the kitchen line
— Everyone’s favorite new paddle shape
— Play testing the JOOLA POWER FX

Grip it and rip it.

You can learn a ton from watching the pros play. But that doesn’t mean you should try to emulate every habit, shot or movement. Quite the opposite, says Zane Navratil. Here’s why acting like a pro could be hurting your game.

Anna Leigh Waters is hot on the heels of career PPA title 200. She’s just two wins away… but she’s not playing singles this week at PPA Vegas (she’s so far ahead in points, she doesn’t need to). That gives her exactly two chances to hit lucky 200. Will she do it?

If you’re in the market for new kicks, consult our ranking of the best women’s pickleball shoes of 2026 first. And for all the fellas out there, fear not: We’ve got a fresh roundup coming for you very soon.

The PPA Tour just held a Challenger event in Charlotte. The biggest news? The lack of big names atop the podiums. Unsigned, relatively unknown players cleaned house. The future of pro pickle is looking bright.

We’ve told you this before, and we’ll say it again: You don’t have to hug the line with your toes every time you’re up at the kitchen.

In fact, because the game has become so fast and aggressive, it can actually benefit you to take a few good steps back. As contradictory as it might sound, this can help set up better offense.

Pro Jilly B lays out a few scenarios where a bit of breathing room can go a long way.

✅ There’s a core problem with hitting a bounce speed-up from the pickleball kitchen line: your weight has nowhere to go. When you are pressed against the line and try to generate force, your body is already at the wall. No forward motion, no weight transfer, and the ball comes out flat and weak.

✅ Standing right up at the kitchen line makes you an easier target for a speed-up attack. Your reaction window is smaller, your counter options are limited, and you have no room to generate a clean response. You’re a sitting duck.

✅ Every successful lob defense begins with a quick, anticipatory step back. One nano-second too slow, and it’s already too late. But if you’re already a few steps off the line, you’re not just harder to lob to begin with, you’re that much closer to easily tracking it down.

✅ When you’re at the line, every deep dink against you requires a step back to defend. This puts you in defensive mode by default. If you start a few feet back, you can attack these balls with forward momentum instead. This applies to every point, but is probably most consequential when trying to capitalize on your fourth shot.

The through-line here is that a few extra feet of space at the kitchen gives you more time on defense and more momentum on offense. That’s a win-win no matter what level you’re playing at.

Before you knock it, give it a try. You might be surprised how advanced your game starts feeling.

➡️ Watch Jilly demonstrate.

Pickleball is hard on shoes, especially ones that aren't made for the sport. Stop, slide, cut, repeat. The tread goes first.

The CourtStrike Pro 3.0 comes with a six-month outsole warranty. Most brands avoid making promises about the part that fails first. Selkirk made one.

The grip pattern and outrigger are built for side-to-side wear, which is what pickleball asks of a shoe more than anything else. The 3.0 is also the lightest, coolest CourtStrike yet.

Most court shoes get retired because of the outsole. This one comes with a warranty for it.

Shop the CourtStrike Pro 3.0 and use code ADV-THEDINK for $20 back.

The PPA Tour heads from one desert to another, leaving Arizona in its wake to set up shop in Las Vegas.

This is the second Open of the 2026-27 PPA Tour season, meaning 1,000 PPA points are available to the winner in each division.

Unlike last week's Arizona Open, where several top players skipped, the Las Vegas field is much closer to full strength. Anna Bright, Hayden Patriquin and Gabe Tardio are all back, which means several of the tour's most established partnerships return as well.

Our guy on the ground, Erik Tice, highlights his five storylines to watch:

✅ Anna Leigh Waters isn't playing singles this week, but she enters Las Vegas just two wins away from 200 career PPA Tour titles.

✅ The big three return. Anna Bright is back alongside Waters in women's doubles and Hayden Patriquin in mixed doubles. Gabe Tardio reunites with Ben Johns in men's doubles and partners Tyra Black in mixed.

✅ Anna Leigh isn’t playing singles this event, which busts that division wide open. Can Kate Fahey capitalize, or will someone else sneak in and steal the win?

✅ The Mesa event saw four breakout stars shine: Kiora Kunimoto, Elliott Schupp, Nico Acevedo and Yuta Funemizu. Can they keep the momentum going in Vegas?

✅ Last year's Las Vegas final between Ben Johns / Gabe Tardio and Christian Alshon / Andrei Daescu lasted two hours and 28 minutes, with Johns and Tardio eventually winning 12-10 in Game 5. If a rematch happens, that is must-watch TV.

There’s plenty more where this came from.

➡️ Check out our full event preview, right here.

RPM Pickleball founder James Ignatowich checked his sales numbers. 80 to 85 percent of the paddles RPM sells are elongated, even though it also makes widebody and hybrid shapes.

His read? A lot of players aren't choosing elongated. They're copying whoever they play with.

Elongated paddles give you reach and leverage. They also usually come with a narrower face and less stability, which he said can matter more than reach for players below 4.5.

His advice is simple. Get it here.

Hybrids have been a popular paddle shape for years, dating back to the iconic Double Black Diamond from Six Zero.

That paddle featured a curved top, and most hybrids since have followed suit, touting the benefit of solid all-around performance.

The JOOLA Kosmos turned the market on its head, pushing a new hybrid silhouette into the mainstream with a flat top. All the previous attributes remained, with the added advantages of a larger sweet-spot and improved plow-through.

Now, of course, other brands are doing the same, the most notable models being the 11SIX24 Ultré, RPM Q2, and Enhance Duo, among others.

And these, unlike the Kosmos, have the benefit of full-foam cores, meaning they can remain extremely light and maneuverable despite their more forgiving dimensions.

It’s a new dawn in the paddle wars. And this shape is spreading as far as the eye can see.

➡️ Reviewer Chris Olson explains.

The new, full-foam JOOLA FX goes on sale this week. But paddle reviewer John Kew got his hands on one early.

According to him, the face of the paddle feels more aggressively gritty than JOOLA models we’ve seen in the past, despite the brand not overtly (or at least, not yet) marketing it as having a durable grit texture.

“It plays very differently than the Pro IV and Pro V,” he notes. “Most notably it’s very stiff and loud.”

It doesn’t appear to sound or play like a Selkirk Boomstik. And we’re assuming that’s by design.

As a reminder, here's what else we know right now:

We’ll be getting our hands on one soon; full thoughts to come.

➡️ More on the JOOLA POWER FX.

A review from the Dink Fam...

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