We’re seeing celebrity interest in pickleball pop off. But a little less common — celebrities defending pickleball:

His track record launching spacecraft might be shaky, but he sure can launch an efficient counter tweet.

Btw, Elon isn’t the only multi-billionaire coming to PB’s defense. Learn more here.

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We’re always looking for great content. Send us an email to learn more.

In This Issue:

• The way to defeat PB’s top woman

• States with the most courts

• The PPA winners landscape may be changing

• More money in pickleball

Happy Friday. Let’s get to it.

Cracking the ALW Code

If you tuned in to Championship Sunday at the Texas Open, you saw one of the best women's finals matches of all time.

Lea Jansen made Anna Leigh Waters appear human again and less like some pickleball-playing alien sent from another planet. ALW got the win, but this match looked very different from previous meetings.

Lea joined It Feels Right this week to talk about the match. She unabashedly shared the strategy and game changes that made the difference.

For Jansen, it was all about taking away angles.

• She elected to return the ball to the middle of the court to eliminate passing shot angles

• The key was to keep these balls deep so the passing shot was coming from behind the baseline

• Then Jansen could use the length of the court to her advantage instead of trying to play side to side

Hitting the ball down the middle in singles may seem counter-intuitive. You're not making them chase the ball. But it does make hitting a passing shot more difficult.

This lends itself to more of a cat-and-mouse style match which is exactly what Jansen was aiming for.

If you're a singles stallion (kudos to you), try mixing this in to become harder to pass. If you're in the doubles-only club at least you can point at the screen and show off your pickleball IQ by identifying the strategy.

It’s like Airbnb...but for Pickleball Courts

As if you need another reason to add a homecourt to your backyard, now you can share your court with local players when you aren’t using it.

Swimply allows court owners the chance to rent out homecourts and players the opportunity to reserve a private court for their game.

US Cities with the Most Courts

The number of pickleball courts in the 100 most populous US cities has increased by 6x over the last six years, from 420 courts in 2017 to 2,788 in 2023.

That's one court for every 24,000 people in these cities. Consider that in 2017, the figure was one court per 141,000 residents.

In fact, back in 2017, less than half of the largest US cities even offered pickleball courts.

This research comes to us from Trust Public Land's 2023 report on "The Power of Parks to Promote Health.”

According to their research, these are the US cities with the most pickleball courts per capita:

What’s more, the cities with the most pickleball courts seem to rank higher overall in terms of public health.

The ParkScore Index ranks park systems across the 100 largest U.S. cities based on metrics like access, equity, public investment, acreage, and amenities.

Seven out of 10 of the above cities landed in the uppermost percentile in the latest ParkScore index. That doesn’t seem like a coincidence.

Garnett Joins the Sunday Regulars

Top seeds were dropping like flies in yesterday's men's draw. On Wednesday we advised you to watch out for (17) Collin Schick — he delivered and knocked out top dog (1) Ben Johns in the second round. Other upsets include:

• (7) Connor Garnett ended (2) Federico Staksrud's day

• (14) Hayden Patriquin got a huge dub over (3) Jay Devilliers

• (11) Pablo Tellez reached the semis after upsetting (6) JW Johnson

(4) Tyson McGuffin stopped Schick short of Sunday. He proved again to be a beacon of consistency in the men's field, hungry to capitalize anytime Ben is missing from Sunday.

A semifinal win over Pablo Tellez qualified Connor Garnett for his second Championship Sunday of the year.

In women's singles, we’ll see another meeting between Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau. ALW had an upset scare in the semifinals against Judit Castillo but kept her streak alive for another Thursday.

The doubles pairings might look a little different than what you're used to seeing. Some players are using this tournament to get reps in with their MLP teammates.

Most notably in the mixed field, Andrea Koop and Dylan Frazier of the CA BLQK Bears. This duo poses a legitimate threat to reach Sunday and were runners-up at MLP Daytona.

A siblings showdown is projected in the quarterfinals as the Newman's (Riley & Lindsey) would take on the Johnson's (JW & Jorja) barring any upset. The victors earn the chance to play Ben and ALW in the next round.

You can catch the remainder of the weekend’s action on PPATV.

Play Like Zane

Zane Navratil’s own paddle features an Ultra-RAW carbon face that is designed to maximize spin and power.

That same technology is now available in a standard shape with 5-inch handle and wider face that allows for a big sweet spot and even better accuracy.

So whether you're a fan of the standard shape or an elongated paddle, you can play like Zane with a paddle from ProXR.

Shop now at proxrpickleball.com

Investments Galore

Money is moving and deals are closing in pickleball this week.

Major League Pickleball made a few announcements:

• Toyota: The 2023 Toyota Prius has become the first official auto partner of MLP. Their branding will be especially visible during Dreambreakers, the MLP’s version of a tiebreak format.

• OS1st: Already the official sock & compression sleeve of MLP, OS1st will begin licensing MLP Team-branded versions of those products.

• Sunday Swagger: The official polo shirt sponsor of MLP will now produce team shirts.

• Imperial: This headwear company will manufacture MLP team caps.

USA Pickleball also unveiled a new partnership this week:

• Pickleball United: This manufacturer of pickleball products and its True Court flooring system is now the “official rolling court partner” of USAP. The rollable acrylic surface is also the Official Court Partner of both the Association of Pickleball Players and MLP.

Done With the Disrespect

Lea Jansen joins the pod after an incredible women’s finals match at the Texas Open. She has a new workout routine, a new tracking coach, a new paddle and is determined to be number one by the end of the year.

Lea thinks she’s cracked the code on reaching gold. Find out her strategy on a new episode of It Feels Right.

Watch here or listen here.

Headlines & Quick Hits

• Find your next match, court, or crew

• Our latest paddle review: Welcome to Spin City!

• ICYMI: Make your third shot spicy

Highlights

• Nothing like a good celly with your partner 🤝

• Will stealing a McLaren get you into the pickleball hall of fame?

• Defend. Defend. Defend.

• The formations!

Homecourt Havens

Batman has a new bat cave. Ben Affleck and JLo snatched up this $60 million mansion in Beverly Hills. Rumor has it the pickleball court was on their list of new home must-haves. See more here.

If you have a homecourt that you’d like to start paying the bills, sign up for Swimply’s pickleball feature: coming soon.

A review from the Dink Fam...