Pickleball.com's Thursday preview spotlights key Round of 16 storylines at the Fasenra Sacramento Open, including JW Johnson's first singles meeting with Jack Sock. It also frames the men's singles PPA Finals race and highlights a notable women's doubles clash as Thursday play gets underway.
The operator of a 22-court pickleball complex in Hanoi said it is halting operations and preparing refunds after authorities demolished the site. Local officials said the large facility was built on agricultural land without the required land-use conversion or construction permits.
Andre Agassi and James Blake beat Anna Leigh Waters and Genie Bouchard at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida, winning the exhibition's $1 million prize. The event mixed celebrity draw with real on-court quality, especially in the doubles finale, and Agassi called it a celebration of pickleball.
Pickleball.com's latest gear feature uses recent high-profile pro paddle switches as a springboard for player advice, with Ben Johns stressing repetition and mechanical adjustments when a new shape or balance changes feel. Anna Leigh Waters adds that players should choose paddles that amplify their strengths rather than trying to paper over weaknesses, especially while they are still learning their style.
Murrieta announced that three new pickleball courts at Alderwood Park will officially open with an April 30 ribbon-cutting, raising the site total to five courts. The expansion also adds fencing, landscaping, and shaded seating, giving the city a more substantial public pickleball footprint.
Caliber and PURE Pickleball & Padel said their planned 196,000-square-foot indoor complex near Scottsdale has now received all required building permits, clearing the project for groundbreaking once financing closes. The development is being pitched as the world's largest indoor pickleball and padel facility and will also anchor PURE's Arizona high school club championship efforts later this month.
The Texas Ranchers announced BAiO as their performance intelligence partner in a deal described as the biggest single-year team partnership in Major League Pickleball. The system will give players daily recovery scores, individualized training-load guidance, and injury-risk alerts, with the same platform also extending into the Ranchers Academy program.
Parris Todd told Pickleball.com that she has adopted a dachshund puppy named Prince after searching through the Good Dog app for the right Florida-based breeder. Todd said this is her first dog of her own and that, once Prince finishes his shots and training, she hopes he can travel with her to tournaments.
The Dink previewed this weekend's College Pickleball Tour Nationals in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, where 64 schools will compete in a March Madness-style team bracket from April 9 to 12. Florida Atlantic enters with the top team DUPR, defending champion Texas is back near the top, and the event will pay out more than $40,000 across team and singles draws.
Major League Pickleball's latest rules update collapses Premier and Challenger into a single 20-team tier, with six-player rosters across the league. The changes follow the New York Hustlers-Brooklyn merger and the pause of Nashville and D.C., sending those players back into the free-agent pool while also expanding cash-for-player flexibility for teams reshaping their rosters.
A new Pickleball.com gear explainer argued that paddle color can materially affect tracking and safety, pointing back to Major League Pickleball's 2023 restrictions on certain white, gray, yellow, and neon face colors. The article says pros already treat this as a legitimate fairness issue and suggests amateurs should take the same visibility concerns more seriously.
In a Pickleball.com interview, veteran Tennis Channel producer Bob Whyley said PickleballTV has roughly doubled its numbers year after year and is now carried on Roku, Amazon Prime, Samsung, and YouTube TV. He also framed the network's challenge as building pro-quality broadcasts from clubs and parks that were never designed as television venues.
A new Pickleball.com culture piece argues that the long-running tennis-versus-pickleball feud is easing as more high-profile tennis figures, including Naomi Osaka, Jannik Sinner, Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Genie Bouchard, and Jack Sock, actively cross into pickleball exhibitions and events. The article says the tone has shifted from mockery toward coexistence, especially as players and broadcasters start treating the two sports as complementary rather than mutually threatening.
The Dink reports that JOOLA filed patent infringement litigation with the International Trade Commission against 11 paddle brands, including Franklin, Proton, Engage, Paddletek, Adidas Pickleball, and Volair. JOOLA says the case is about unauthorized use of its proprietary propulsion core technology and framed it as a major effort to defend the engineering that helped define the modern high-power paddle era.
Patch reports that Lantern Crest Senior Living in Santee, California will unveil a new pickleball court on April 29 and invite the public to celebrate with free games and a community barbecue. The project is part of the community's push to add active, social amenities for residents while previewing its new Legacy expansion.
CBS Philadelphia reports that the new Triumph Over Tremors pickleball tournament series is launching this weekend to raise awareness and funds for Parkinson's patients seeking focused ultrasound treatment. Founder Bobby Krause, a former patient whose tremors were relieved by the procedure, says the Be Still Foundation is using pickleball to help other patients who either don't know about the option or cannot afford it.
Pickleball.com says four-time World Series champion Tino Martinez has joined JOOLA's pickleball roster after getting hooked on the sport during the pandemic in Tampa. In the accompanying interview, Martinez described becoming fully addicted to the game's speed, strategy, and hand-eye crossover from baseball, especially the way his left-handed baseball swing translates into a powerful pickleball backhand.
The Straits Times reports that Singapore will host the inaugural OCBC-Great Eastern Pickleball Open from Oct. 23-25 at OCBC Arena, with close to 1,600 participants expected across novice, open, and corporate divisions. Organizers are also pairing the event with 24 beginner workshops across April, May, August, and September to grow the funnel before public registration opens in late July.
Vietnam outlet Dân Trí says the PPA Hanoi Cup used MK Vision's Instant Replay System, described as the first time this level of replay technology has been deployed at a PPA event. Officials and referees praised the system's multi-angle AI camera views and said challenge reviews were returning decisions in under a minute, with roughly seven to eight disputes handled cleanly during the event.
Kenh14 highlighted Christian Alshon's off-court reaction to seeing pickleball seemingly everywhere around Hanoi during the PPA Asia 1000 MB Hanoi Cup week. The top-four PPA player visited the Thăng Long Imperial Citadel and was struck by finding even a small recreational pickleball court in the middle of a historic tourist site.
A local North Carolina report says Snow Hill commissioners approved a $35,029 transfer from the general fund to finish the town's park pickleball-court project after cost updates pushed the remaining work to about $57,594. If the contractor moves quickly, the two public courts could be completed as early as the first or second week of May.
The Dink published its 2026 MiLP Regional Showdown schedule, laying out qualifying events from May through November for amateur team players chasing spots at the 2027 championships. Several stops will run alongside Major League Pickleball weekends in cities like Dallas, Columbus, Austin, New York, Newport Beach, Chicago, and San Diego, giving amateurs a clearer bridge into the pro-event ecosystem.
Florida Trend reports that a proposed 150,000-square-foot pickleball complex in Ocoee was trimmed after neighbor complaints about noise from 24 covered outdoor courts. City officials approved only the 20 indoor courts, while nearby Winter Springs is still preparing to open a separate 14-court complex.
The Dink's Hanoi Cup style roundup framed the MB Hanoi Cup as more than just a results stop, highlighting the event's atmosphere, humidity, and increasingly international brand presence. The piece called out athletes wearing labels from Nike, JOOLA, Mizuno, 11-NIL, and Vietnamese brand Olaben, reinforcing how quickly overseas PPA events are becoming full-scale showcase moments.
Pickleball.com's monthly pop-culture roundup bundled together several notable off-court developments, including DUPR's wheelchair pickleball rating system, the launch of the MATCHDAY fan app for PPA and MLP followers, and continued sponsor movement across the pro game. The recap also reflected how intertwined pickleball has become with entertainment, influencer culture, and mainstream athlete crossover.
Patch reports that the Greater Palm Springs Marriott Business Council will host its second annual pickleball tournament on May 3 at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in Palm Desert. Teams pay $150 to enter, receive at least four games, and the event will benefit the American Heart Association of Coachella Valley.
Pickleball.com's Day 4 Hanoi recap says Kaitlyn Christian saved two match points and rallied from 3-8 down in the second game to beat Brooke Buckner for the women's singles title. On the men's side, Hoang Nam Ly completed a dream week for the host country by beating fellow Vietnamese player Hien Truong, while Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters both added two gold medals in doubles.
Pickleball.com's Day 3 Hanoi recap says Hien Truong and Hoang Nam Ly advanced to an all-Vietnamese men's singles final, keeping the host-country run alive deep into a PPA Tour Asia stop. The same report also noted Kaitlyn Christian and Christian Alshon reaching the mixed doubles final, while another key point in Truong's semifinal came without review available.
Federico Staksrud advanced to the men's singles semifinals with a grueling three-game victory over Hong Kit 'Jack' Wong at the MB Hanoi Cup. Anna Leigh Waters and Anna Bright survived a scare from Zoey Wang and Brooke Buckner, needing three games to advance after blowing a 8-2 lead in the decider.
As pickleball booms in India, orthopaedic experts are raising alarms about injuries caused by playing on hard concrete courts without proper cushioning. Doctors report rising cases of meniscus tears, patellar tendinopathy, Achilles strains, and ankle sprains — particularly among recreational players on poorly maintained surfaces.