Anna Leigh Waters (foreground) swipes a backhand volley winner while partner Mari Humberg … [+] (background) provides cover just in case.
Major League Pickleball
Major League Pickleball (MLP) went to one of its showcase venues of the season, setting up shop at CityPickle at Wollman Rink, which sits at the base of Central Park within walking distance of the Central Park Zoo in New York City. The sightlines from the event were amazing, watching the sport’s best playout in the shadow of the famous NYC midtown skyline, the weather held for the weekend, and the event featured a number of the sport’s most visible stars. A couple of teams in particular really came to play, as we’ll discuss here.
Key Links for tracking the event this weekend, which featured livestreams from the primary courts at the facility on MLP’s YouTube channel and on PickleballTV.com.
Six teams from each of the Premier and Challenger came to play, playing 4-5 matches each and helping to really clarify the status of teams as we grind towards the end of the MLP 2024 regular season. Teams are jockeying for both playoff eligibility and playoff seedings, and this weekend saw some statement performances.
There was no transaction news ahead of the event to report, so let’s get to the recaps.
Premier League Recap
Ben Johns (foreground) slaps a winner with his brother Collin (background) looking on during a … [+] rebound NYC event for the Carolina team.
Major League Pickleball
Day 1 Observations
Ben Johns looks rejuvenated in the MLP NYC kickoff, but his team falls in the DreamBreaker to the home-town NY Hustlers.
Last Place Utah makes a statement with a win over NY as Sock’s struggles continue in MLP.
Day 2 Observations
New Jersey gets into the action with two ALW-led blowouts in a win over Columbus, a sign of how things would go this weekend.
Utah came back down to earth, getting trounced by Columbus in the battle of the two worst premier teams.
Day 3 Observations
In a battle of #1s, ALW and Johns each go undefeated but NJ takes the DreamBreaker over Carolina as the construction of both teams plays out precisely as designed.
Johns brothers continue to make a statement this week with the first 4-0 whitewash of a team of the weekend, defeating the hapless Columbus Sliders.
New Jersey exposes New York late Saturday afternoon with a 4-0 sweep.
Day 4 Observations
NJ completely overmatches Utah, including a 25-7 win in women’s doubles.
Columbus couldn’t beat anyone, but they beat NY on Sunday.
New Jersey finished off DC 3-1: This was a marquee match heading in, but ALW made it seem otherwise with a dominant performance
Challenger League Recap
Miami’s dynamic duo of Milan Rane (L) and Eric Oncins (R) helped power their team to 1st place in … [+] Challenger with their undefeated weekend.
Major League Pickleball
Day 1 Observations
Miami upsets 3rd ranked Las Vegas with a back and forth tie led by Noe Khlif.
Las Vegas rebounds with a solid win over Frisco in one of the ties of the weekend; it would be their high point of the event.
Day 2 Observations
Chicago knocks Brooklyn out of 1st place with a dominant win.
Miami jumps from 7th place to now be in 1st place with a dominant win over Frisco.
Day 3 Observations
Chicago sends Frisco to its 3rd straight loss
Miami’s NYC statement making continues with the first Challenger 4-0 sweep, embarrassing the Florida Smash.
Day 4 Observations
Chicago has gelled since its reformulation mid-season and looks great, topping LV 3-1 to finish a solid weekend.
Miami finishes off an undefeated weekend by preventing Chicago from doing the same with a 3-1 win.
In what looked like the best match of the weekend heading into NYC, Las Vegas squeaks out a DreamBreaker win over Brooklyn. Both teams leave New York reeling, as Brooklyn goes 0-5 for the weekend.
Team Standings Update post Event
We’re deep enough into the season that there’s not a ton of movement, but here’s the teams that made notable movements in the standings. Reminder: because teams have not played the same number of matches, I use average points/match standings instead of the pure points-earned standings for this analysis:
In Premier:
New Jersey jumped from 4th place to now sit in 1st place. They leapfrog the three teams formerly ahead of them who sat idle this weekend (St. Louis, Dallas, and Texas) and are now in the driver’s seat for the #1 seed.
DC and NY switched spots in the standings after up-and-down weekends; DC now sits 5th overall while NY clings to the final playoff spot at 6th.
Carolina was able to move up to 7th, but still face a decent gulf of points per match to get into #6. They trail New York by 4/10ths of a point per match and will need to manufacture a few dominant wins here on out to qualify for Dallas in November (MLP’s first week of playoffs are the 11/3/24 weekend in Dallas).
In Challenger:
Miami jumped from #4 to now sit #1 in Challenger behind a dominant weekend.
Brooklyn came in #1; they leave clinging to #6 after a brutal weekend where they went winless in five matches.
Chicago jumped from 6th to 3rd and is just a couple hundred points out of second place. They’ve been re-awakened with the addition of Fudge.
Player Standings/Stats Analysis for the Weekend:
In Premier:
The cream rises to the top: ALW and Ben Johns were 1-2 in the player rankings for the weekend, going 10-0 and 9-1 respectively. Waters is now an astounding 26-2 in games for the season.
Apparently Johns (and his brother Collin) “got the memo” from the league after their less-than-100% effort in the last MLP event; Johns was as dominant as he normally is in MLP, while Collin went 6-4 and finished ranked 9th of 24 players in Premier.
All four of New Jersey’s team members finished in the top 6 for the weekend.
Utah’s women finished ranked 22nd and 23rd of the 24 players, while Carolina’s Brooke Buckner finished last for the weekend and sits ranked last of the entire premier league for the season. The challenge for both teams is simple: the depth of the professional ladies just isn’t there, and short of an expensive trade, there’s little these teams can do to improve. Neither team spent its full allotment of draft day dollars (or “units” as MLP liked to call them) and now we see the consequences.
In Challenger:
As did New Jersey, Miami placed four of its players for the weekend in the top 6 of the players playing.
Well, she wasn’t the #1 overall pick in Challenger for nothing: Eva Radzikowska was the #1 ranked player in Challenger for the weekend, doing her best to keep Frisco afloat.
At the other end of the spectrum for Frisco, it was a rough weekend for John Cincola: he went 0-10 and won just 42% of his points.
Pickleball looks awesome with the New York skyline in the background.
Major League Pickleball
Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, there’s no rest for the weary for most of our Challenger teams: they’re right back in action just a few hours south of NYC, heading to Virginia Beach for the first ever pro event held in the commonwealth. The event is being held at Pickleball Virginia Beach, which is a relatively new facility that I look forward to seeing for the first time. I’ll be onsite all day Saturday for MLP matches and look forward to watching the action and networking with the community.
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Publish date : 2024-09-23 03:35:00
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