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Whether you follow pro pickleball or not, know this: Anna Leigh Waters is one of the world’s greatest athletes. At just 18 years old, she’s setting records that will never be broken, let alone flirted with. And she’s just getting warmed up. Her historic run in San Clemente, below.

Speaking of flirting, that’s as far as adidas Pickleball and Federico Staksrud ever got; their five-month partnership has unceremoniously come to an end.

In This Issue:
— Anna Leigh joins the 50-50-50 club
— A paddle ‘hack’ for more power
— Top internet content creators try pickleball

What were you doing at 18?

The new doubles team of Anna Leigh Waters and Anna Bright is so legit, they haven’t lost a single game in all of 2025. That’s 38-0 and going strong. A poll on X poses a preposterous question: Will they lose a single GAME for the rest of the year?

Pro Christian Alshon has developed a reputation for taking protracted towel breaks between points, a clever tactic he learned during his tennis days. “If you’re winning, you try to keep it fast,” he told PickleballTV. “If you’re losing, you try and slow it down.”

Would it be better for viewership if pro events did away with bronze medal matches and just split the points instead? It could help alleviate tanking concerns, and keep pros fresher for other, higher-stakes matches. Is anyone even watching them?

We’re all for more access to pickleball, but these courts right next to a Seattle condo complex may cross the line. “This is what I listen to from 7am -9pm, 7 days a week,” one resident writes on Facebook. “The courts are 50 ft. from my condo unit.”

Over time, after hundreds or thousands of repeated strikes against a pickleball, paddles break in. In simple terms, this just means the materials in the core loosen up and the face becomes springier. The result: more power.

This effect varies paddle to paddle. Some may break in considerably in a matter of days while others can go months with minimal change in performance.

Paddle reviewer Rafa the Pickleball Tech Dude wanted to see if he could simulate long-term break-in in a matter of a few seconds. So he devised an experiment.

After serving again with the freshly stomped-on paddles, Rafa came to a clear conclusion: The serve speed for the Gen 3 paddles (including a Friday Fever and a JOOLA Perseus Pro IV) increased by an average of about 1.5 MPH — a considerable margin for such minimal time and effort.

Successful experiment? We’d say so. Should you try it at home and risk your paddle’s warranty? Probably not.

MUEV’s Chevron Tee is clean, functional, and one of those pieces that sneaks into your daily rotation and never leaves.

It’s light, breathable, and built to move with you. Cloudblue’s the head-turner, but white, black, and navy are all in the mix.

Perfect on court. Solid off court. The right shorts are waiting on the other side of the link. You’ll see.

VidCon, aka Comic-Con for creators, took over Anaheim this past weekend and for the first time ever, pickleball was part of the action.

Viewws set up the Dink + Smash 2025 Court, where attendees could jump into 1v1 matches or watch them dink it out courtside. Sydney Steinaker hopped on with creators like Jools Lebron, Lil Tay, Jenny Hoyos, DangMattSmith, and more.

Sydney wasn’t originally scheduled to appear but got a last-minute invite to help run the court. “I just wanted to make it fun and judgment-free,” she exclusively told us.

“A lot of the creators felt more comfortable learning from someone who’s solid but still relatable. Now some of them want to keep playing, collaborate, even bring pickleball into their own content.”

Even better? Their managers are already reaching out to Sydney about getting involved. Safe to say, VidCon helped put pickleball on the radar for a whole new crowd.

Five months after announcing a landmark partnership, adidas Pickleball and world #1 Federico Staksrud have agreed to part ways.

"After careful consideration, adidas and I have decided to mutually conclude our partnership," Staksrud posted to Instagram.

Staksrud played a couple tournaments with an adidas paddle, but relied more often on a JOOLA. His signature adidas paddle, presumably a key component of the partnership, never materialized.

It’s hard to say why the duo never gained much momentum together — adidas has plenty of resources at its disposal and Staksrud has all the talent in the world.

"I'm grateful for their professionalism, dedication, and trust,” he went on. “Thank you to everyone at Adidas – I look forward to seeing how they continue to grow the sport."

No word yet on where Staksrud will take his talents next, though JOOLA seems like the clear frontrunner.

You’ve heard us talk about the Franklin C45° Hybrid. Now let’s break out its two new siblings.

The C45° Tempo is short, compact, and built for control. Wider face. More forgiveness. Solid choice if you're all about resets, dinks, and clean contact.

The C45° Dynasty is longer, slightly head-heavy, and ready to drive. More reach. More spin. More pop. Perfect if you're swinging for power.

Both come in 14mm or 16mm, and yeah — the electric red and mint chrome colorways are legit.

Pick your shape, pick your color, and go from there.

Anna Leigh Waters had another banner weekend in San Clemente, CA, achieving her 35th career Triple Crown (and third consecutive) at the PPA Orange County Cup.

It was a dominant performance, even for her unprecedented standards. We’re not sure how else to say this: She’s simply the best. Hats off to the Queen.

✅ Women’s Singles: She played five total matches, all of which she won in two games. Her average margin of victory was 11-4. The Championship game, against her former doubles partner Catherine Parenteau, wasn’t even close: 11-6, 11-1.

✅ Mixed Doubles: In their five matches, Waters and Ben Johns lost a single game to Hayden Patriquin and Anna Bright. Overall, their point margin was 128-66.

✅ Women's Doubles: Waters and Bright went 11-0 on their way to an entertaining but ultimately dominant win over the team of their former partners, Rachel Rohrabacher and Catherine Parenteau.

With her mixed win this weekend, Waters is now the first pro in pickleball history to achieve 50 career wins each in singles, doubles and mixed doubles — a feat unlikely to be seen in the sport again.

ALW wasn’t the only pro who showed out; here’s who else took home gold in Orange County:

🥇 Women’s Singles: Anna Leigh Waters def. Catherine Parenteau, 11-6, 11-1
🥇 Men’s Singles: Hunter Johnson def. Federico Staksrud, 11-2, 11-5
🥇 Mixed Doubles: Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns def. Jorja and JW Johnson, 11-4, 11-9, 11-5
🥇 Women’s Doubles: Anna Leigh Waters and Anna Bright def. Rachel Rohrabacher and Catherine Parenteau, 11-2, 11-8, 11-8
🥇 Men’s Doubles: Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio def. Federico Staksrud and Hayden Patriquin, 10-12, 11-7, 11-8, 4-11, 11-3

👉 Read our full event recap.

A review from the Dink Fam...

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