Anna Bright Joins PicklePod: Why She Challenged at 11-0, 10-0

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[00:00:21] First of all, what aggravated us, we want to win 0-0. We want to win 0-0, 100%. 100%. Take pride in killing people. Take pride in taking souls. That's why we have this insane average scoreline where like Ben and Gabe were undefeated but they're going three all the time.

[00:00:39] Anna Lee and I are up 11-0, 10-0, 2. And they challenge an overhead that was three feet in. Okay? So it's one of those BS challenges that people use as a timeout. Overhead's three feet in. So we're annoyed. We want to get off this court. All right? We're annoyed. So I say to Anna Lee at the bench, I was like, they really don't want the double pickle. Like let's give it to them.

[00:01:03] Yeah. Welcome to another episode of the Pickle Pod. We got Anna Bright from her car on three hours of sleep to come join us at the end of today's episode. We'll chat about everything that went down in Las Vegas. Whether she thinks she's the number one player in the world or not. Whether she thinks she's a better left side player or a right side player.

[00:01:28] Her iconic 11-0, 10-0 challenge. Everything that went down in Las Vegas. And me and Nico, we'll shoot the shit out of everything else ahead of time. So we'll read your comments. We'll play matchmaker. We've got a good episode of the Pickle Pod here. We even had another guest appearance from a cleaner at the hotel that I'm at. She wanted to make an appearance here.

[00:01:51] Just a great episode all around. So if you are a Pickle Pod fan, if you're digging this, make sure to like, subscribe, do all the YouTube things. I don't know. You can even follow Nico the Lefty if you want. I wouldn't advise it, but you can. You know, dink, newsletter, all the things. All the things. You know, I have to give Nico a little bit of crap for his microphone not working earlier. So as if I wasn't going to give him crap anyway. Anyway, I don't know. Nico, take it away.

[00:02:19] Wow, Zane. I mean, you roasted me last week for my introduction being the worst ever. I don't know if that's any better. It might actually be worse. But you're here. You're not in the Panera Bread. I can hear you. So it feels good. You're in Chicago right now, Zane? Yep, yep. We play tomorrow. Yeah, it's a kind of a long stretch of tournaments. You had Vegas, Chicago. Next week, I think, is Virginia Beach and Australia.

[00:02:47] So players are going to both and then Hong Kong after that. So we got like four straight weeks of PPAs here. All right. So I'm going to guess what hotel you're in. Everybody, you can also have a time to guess. You can pause this video. So put your guess in the comments where you think Zane is. What type of hotel? Yeah, let me give you a little tour. Give us a tour here. This is the hotel lobby. I don't think there's any giveaways. I don't think there's any giveaways here.

[00:03:16] Okay. Here's my guess. I am going. You are in a Hyatt place. No, I feel like this sign kind of... No, maybe not. I don't know. No, one more guess. You are in a Courtyard Marriott. Nope. One more. One more. It's... You're not that close. No. Holiday Inn Express. Holiday Inn Express. Okay. These are the hotels I've never been to ever. So I'm a Marriott person.

[00:03:44] A secondary Hyatt. Status is important. Not saying that I make you feel good. I like late check-in. I'm Delta. Look, when you have status, they allow you to check into your room at pretty much any time versus whatever the fuck you're doing right now in the middle of the lobby with a cleaner. So eat shit, Mr. No Status at the Holiday Inn Express. Yes. Maybe next time. Maybe we can do crowdfunding.

[00:04:12] Get Zane gold status at Marriott and change his life. Sure. Give me some of your points. I'll take some. You know, at one point I had over a million Marriott points. Yeah, because, Nico, everybody, everybody knows. I don't know why. Corporate tech. Everybody knows. Corporate tech. Yeah, exactly. I don't even know if there's a different type of tech that there is. But, yes. So, anyway. Yeah. So, you know, here we are now. I am not in corporate tech. I do pickleball content creation.

[00:04:41] And when I go on business trips, I get invited to the bunk bed of people's houses. Anyway, with that, let's talk about Vegas. My home state, nowhere near anywhere that I live, which people always say, Oh, Nico from Reno. Nice. How's Vegas? I'm like, well, it's like seven hours away. It's like the difference between, like, D.C. and, I don't know, New York or Connecticut. Right? So, it's far.

[00:05:06] But it seemed like, once again, maybe not the most ideal time to go to Vegas. It was like 100 degrees every day. Which the downside was everybody was, like, fighting for their life for shade. So, the entire time we're watching PPA Vegas, you don't see a single person in the stands because they're all just, like, up in a crowd trying to get the little shade that they can. They got the tennis center that already is super spread out. So, optics, not great at the Darling Tennis Center for live sports.

[00:05:36] But still a fantastic event and maybe one of my favorite championship Sundays in a while. Yeah, no, it was a good one. So, obviously, like, first part of Championship Sunday, you've got Ben going for a triple crown. And Nico, just as famously as everybody knows he was in corporate tech, everybody knows that Nico has said, Ben Johns will never win another singles tournament again in his career.

[00:06:04] Were you shitting your pants at that point? Like, you got Ben matched up against Hunter? Yes, I was still very confident in Hunter winning. And I was actually glad that Hunter beat Federico because I thought Hunter had a better chance. I didn't realize historically, I think Ben owns Hunter. But Hunter's play style and how hard he's hitting these balls, you know, down lines, I just felt like, hey, this is going to be a tough matchup for Ben. But yes, I was scared.

[00:06:34] I didn't realize our guy Eric Tice also predicted it. I actually think my prediction came from his prediction article. Nobody gives him shit for the same. He is beloved, can do no wrong. He made the same thing. But on Twitter or Instagram, I get tagged in every single Ben Johns celebration Instagram. Like there was like Ben Johns makes the finals. And there's like six different tags. Like Nico the lefty about to eat shit. Nico the lefty doesn't know what he's talking about.

[00:07:04] And so, yes, I was a little bit nervous. I'm glad that I am the spokesman for the Ben Johns sucks at singles campaign, which I don't think. It's just real tough. And then lucky for me, Hunter Johnson just beat TA. And it was over. The first game was over in like nine minutes. So I actually, I kind of agree with you. I don't think Ben wins another one if he doesn't start really grinding at singles again.

[00:07:32] Like I don't think he's really grinding singles. If he does, I think he wins another tournament again. Ben, it's really just kind of like what's his interest level. Right. And I think the WPR can potentially like sort of reinvigorate him because he doesn't have to start in the round of 64. He gets to start in the round of 16. Instead of having to win six matches, he's got to win four. Right. That's pretty big, pretty big advantage. So I don't know. I think we'll see some more runs from Ben.

[00:08:02] He's also pretty susceptible to random round of 64 losses. Round of 32 losses. It seems like put him in the round of 16 already. He can't lose in the round of 32. You're right. I actually think he is more susceptible to the round of 64, round of 32 loss than he is a round of six. Like you play Dylan Frazier in the round of 16, which is like perfect for him. Couldn't be more perfect. Right. But you play the round of 32 against Alex Crum, against Rafa Leonard or somebody like that. Like that's tougher.

[00:08:32] And those people might not always make it that far. But I think that's that's the part that would trip Ben up. And now he's like, all right, I got a, you know, a double by WPR. Surprise, surprise. Doesn't help anybody more than it helps Ben Johns. Not saying that PPA is rigged because they're doing a lot of great things. And actually, I like a lot of this stuff. But and I actually think it's fun seeing Ben progress. You know, it, it, you know, makes me nervous. But no, I think he had actually a relatively good draw.

[00:09:03] All things considered. I mean, he still had to play Luch, had to play Christian Alshon to even get to the finals, but didn't have to play Federico or Hunter or Hayworth to get there. So I think if he gets more opportunities like that, you might see Ben in the final some more. And if we start seeing more baseline Ben, you know, and he adds baseline plus cat and mouse, he'll be dangerous again. Yeah. I mean, baseline Ben just needs to add, you know, more of a backhand, right?

[00:09:32] His forehands competitive up there with just about anybody. Like I wouldn't put it better than Hunter and Hayworth or Alshon, but like, you know, he can at least, you know, it's quite good. Backhand is not close to Hunter or Hayworth. But speaking of the Ben-Christian matchup, I was like, okay, Ben beats Christian. Like, oh, is Ben back? Like, that's a pretty big upset. Yeah. No, Ben, I went and looked at their head to head.

[00:10:02] Christian has only beaten him one time. And it was a big upset back in 2023, right? That was back when Ben was, you know, pretty dominant. Christian was up and coming. Since then, it's flipped. Christian is a top singles player. Ben really isn't anymore. But Ben has won the last eight matchups and he is now 14 and one against Christian. Christian is absolutely unequivocally a better singles player than Ben Johns.

[00:10:30] But Ben is absolutely unequivocally Christian's fucking daddy. Like, that's crazy. Wow. I didn't know it was that bad. I knew that he had a good record. I mean, the first time I ever saw Christian was he was hitting tweeners against Ben in singles. Like, and everybody's just like, who's this joke? And that's wild. And actually, part of me to say, like, Christian's so good, but I don't know if he's, like, breakthrough good anymore.

[00:10:59] He's interesting. I actually think I could see Ben making more singles finals and singles runs than Christian at this point. But yeah, there's nobody that Christian wants to see coming less than Ben Johns in a singles draw. Wild. Yeah. 14 and one. You have a better record against Ben Johns. You, Zayn Navratil, two-time PPA gold medalist. Back-to-back? Maybe. I don't remember. Back-to-back. Back-to-back. PPA medalist has a better record against Ben Johns than Christian Alshan. Yikes.

[00:11:29] All right. Well, we've got Anna Bright waiting for us here. So let's bring her in, talk about the rest of the Las Vegas stuff. Okay. She did. She did reject you, but then said yes to me, Nico. That's true. I appreciate it. Well, Anna Bright, we'll ask you about your gold medal and shit. But first off, why did you reject Nico for coming on the pod?

[00:11:54] But how come, was it just my charm or, or take us through that? I think it's like when, when someone's assistant asks you to do something and you're like, why don't you just come directly to me? Oh, God. Maybe. I think it might be that energy. I'm totally joking. I don't know. Nico caught me. Like, I just opened my eyes on the flight. You know, like from my red eye, I'm cranky. I'm just like, screw that.

[00:12:21] Then a few hours later, like Zane texted me and I thought it was kind of funny that you guys hadn't communicated. And then secondly, I was like, well, I can't check into my hotel. I'll, I'll do it. I was like, I'll do it from the car though, but I'll do it. We, you know, we, we did communicate, but Zane's communication is on like a 12 hour delay. So I messaged him. I was like, Hey, why don't we get Anna on the pod? And then I get no response. I'm like, I know I'm not going to get a response until 5am the next day. I might as well just text her right now.

[00:12:49] And then, so I got your response at 3am my time. And to be quite honest, I was confused. The text message exactly was like, thanks Nico. And I'm all right. Sorry. Not feeling it. I'm like, I'm all right. So I was like, oh, okay. It took me like a second to realize that you had just shut us down or shut me down. And then literally the next message I see when I wake up is Anna Bright's coming on at a 12 o'clock. I'm like, okay, well, I'll go fuck myself then. But we got her. Congratulations on your devil goal. We got her.

[00:13:20] Zayn has a knack for getting people to say yes. I saw Zane's 13 year anniversary with his wife. And I'm still, I don't know how he got her to say yes. He got you to say yes. Congratulations, Zayn. He's a ladies man. Low key. I don't know. Riz or something. Exactly. Exactly. You know, Christian said no today. So, um, which by the way, I just saw the video and I did, did, well, maybe the charm doesn't

[00:13:49] extend, but, uh, did you see the video of Christian and DJ from, uh, from Las Vegas? Um, I heard them. I was walking by Grandstand. I was kind of like, what's going on over there? Like, this is kind of sad. I didn't even recognize DJ's voice. Like I heard screaming, but I didn't even recognize it was DJ's voice. He's like a little like out of sight, out of mind for me. But then I was, um, warming up and people were like talking about it, what was going on and

[00:14:18] how DJ and Christian were kind of like mocking each other and getting, getting into it. So I didn't watch the match live, but I heard it. I was close by. And then later I saw the video of like this stupid, like ball interaction where Christian's like, give me the ball, bitch. And DJ's like, come get the ball, bitch. And it's just like, oh my gosh. And then Andre just comes and snatches it, which is the best thing Andre could have done because it's like, I definitely, you get the vibe that for Christian in particular, it's

[00:14:47] probably like he's looking and there's like that, just like a loading screen on top of his head where he's like, what do I do in this situation? What do I do in this situation? What do I say? What do I do? And, uh, DJ's like just going to stand there with the ball, you know, DJ's got control of the situation. He's the one that has the ball. So very funny, very funny, very, very funny. And I loved Andre just being like, this is ridiculous. Cause he knew. Andre just finishes it. Yeah. It was, it was, it was great.

[00:15:17] That was one of my favorite, like, I feel like one of my favorite clips of the entire year. Nico, I'll send it to you afterwards. But like DJ is literally just standing up there with the ball and is like, come get it. Come get it. If you're like 15 seconds. And then Christian like won't come close enough to actually get it. He's like, they're just, they're just frozen. And Christian, it's literally, he's just loading. He's just loading. Like, he's like, how can I win this interaction? Like, he's like, he's like, I can't make him give it. You know, it's so funny.

[00:15:48] Oh my goodness. It's so good. That might've been my highlight of the weekend. Your highlight of the weekend was probably winning gold. Uh, so take us through obviously the, the whole weekend. First and foremost, coming off of Hayden's 21st birthday, were you like, all right, this weekend is a, is a wash. Like it'll be fun. We're just there, you know, collecting a check or collecting points. Or did you think, were you confident in Hayden's ability to, to rally?

[00:16:18] Um, I was making jokes that if, if we, you know, have a bad weekend, it's not on me, even though I just got off like a two week trip in Asia, I was like, it's, you know, there, there's a built in excuse here for the 21st birthday. But when we were, you know, going three with Hunter and you, I was like, oh my gosh, we have to win or I can never like ever guilt free, like let myself go on a trip ever again in my life. Um, but no, I, I thought, I thought we were going to be okay.

[00:16:43] You know, Hayden, new man after the MLP finals loss, like bringing in intensity, like never seen before as a generational lock in in North Carolina. And that seemed to have been continuing a little bit, you know? Um, I was kind of making jokes with a friend that it was like, Hayden, it's like, he's doing like 75 hard kind of, and he can make it about five to six days in and then it resets, like something's got to happen, you know? So it was like the bender was like a reset.

[00:17:13] It's like, okay, we're restarting 75 hard here. So that's kind of, and I'm sure last night they got after it. So hopefully like today it resets. It's like, we can go like hard one week at a time and then we need a reset. So I thought he'd be fine. Like Juan's there, Federico's there. I think it's good that he's staying with them. Good, good influences. That's what I'll say about that. Juan Benitez, right? Juan Benitez, yeah. I don't even know who that is.

[00:17:41] Because Juan Verana and Federico got into it or Hayden or something. Some P words exchanged over there in that match. Oh, they played him? But either way. It's so drama though, like so drama. These men are so dramatic. People say the women are dramatic. The men are like, they're always getting into tiffs with each other. They're always getting into tiffs. They can't just play. Yeah. No, Juan Benitez. I love it. It gives me stuff to talk about. No, it does. It does.

[00:18:10] You need to get more tiffs, Zane. You know, Zane, we'll read comments later, Zane, in the episode. But one of the comments somebody mentioned, they just said, from what Hayden said on the pod when we had him on in Atlanta, he might play out of his mind this weekend and will end Ben and Gabe's streak, which didn't happen. But Anna, when we had Hayden on, he had mentioned, he's like, yeah, when we won in Mesa, I believe, he's like, we were out until like 3 a.m. The night before, he's like, we had never partied harder. And then came out and played the best he'd ever played.

[00:18:40] I think it was Mesa. So maybe Zane is one of the best pickleball player at partying and winning. Maybe that's the formula. Is he the best? Is that? Did I say, did I say Gabe? He said Zane. Definitely not Zane. You said Zane, actually. Zane, no. Zane's not good at pickleball or partying. Zane's the worst. Zane's the worst at this. But I don't know. Maybe Hayden needs something like Vegas to lock in. No, I mean, I think it's totally fine. Just mid-tournament. We're past that.

[00:19:10] We're past that. So what was, like, we've all been kind of following along with the Vietnam escapades. Like, what prompted that? Why Vietnam? Like, you just needed a break? Like, yeah. Take us through that trip. I'm curious. I don't know that I needed a break. I was just, honestly, I was kind of like, I loved Vietnam when we went for the tournament this year. My first time in Vietnam was, like, super overwhelming when I was there with Yola only.

[00:19:37] And we just did a couple of exhibitions, activations. And I didn't get to see anything. It was just like, oh my gosh. Like, there's no personal space here. Like, things are really, really different. I didn't, like, dislike it. It was just, I wasn't too called to, like, come back. But then when I went for the tournament and I got to, like, experience more, I really liked it. I loved Vietnam. And I think it's a pretty common, I think a lot of Americans really like Vietnam. It's just so different. I wanted to go back.

[00:20:07] And I had been talking about how I was going to go back. And about a month or six weeks before I left, I just finally, like, booked the flights. And I kind of felt like it had been too long since I did something iconic, was partially the feeling. And I wanted, I deliberately was like, you know what? I'm going to go, but I'm just going to backpack. Like, I'm not, I'm going to truly backpack. I'm not going to bring a suitcase. I'm not going to bring anything else. And did I feel a little bit better than other people for only having a backpack? Yes.

[00:20:36] But it was also very, like, efficient and everything too. So it was, it was really cool. I had so much fun. I do want to go back to Vietnam and spend more time there, but there are other places now in the world I want to see. I feel like it gave me the travel bug a little bit. Wait, you were, you were there just completely on your own too, weren't you? Completely on my own. Yeah. Just me, me, myself. And I, my first Instagram caption was trip finally made out of the group chat. Because it was a joke because it was only me.

[00:21:06] So the group chat was my notes app. Yeah. I think a lot of people have told me like they could never do something alone like that, uh, be alone for that long. And so a lot of people are surprised that I could do that. A lot of people think I'm this complete psycho extrovert, you know, all the time, but it's, uh, and I, I can be, but it's kind of like a persona. You know, I, I like, I like my, I like my alone time. So. I feel that.

[00:21:34] Were you, did you have any like anxiety while, while you were gone? Like, Hey, I've got, you know, Las Vegas three days after I get back. Like, I'm assuming you didn't bring a paddle. Maybe I'm wrong. Like. Yeah. Any, any anxiety on a trip like that? No paddle, no shoes. Um, I did a few small Yola things. I told them to have them for me. I was like, I'm not bringing, but, um, yeah, definitely a little anxiety towards the end. It's actually funny. I, so I had a week before Vegas when I got back.

[00:22:03] So I felt like that was a good amount of time, but, um, I landed in Miami at 5 PM. I was on the court playing at 8 PM. Uh, and Miami is about an hour and a half from where I live at that time of day with traffic. So yeah, I, I had some anxiety to ensure I was still good at pickleball, but I was actually great. I was doing some things better and different than I was before. Like some, some shots were kind of new and we're kind of clicking in a new way.

[00:22:32] I think pickleball, you know, it is easier than tennis. I'm not saying it's easy, but two weeks off of tennis. Oh, I would be a disaster. But with pickle, you get it back so fast. Yeah. A lot more rhythm, obviously in, in tennis and more intricate strokes and everything. I don't know. Whenever I take a long time off, I'm like, shit, I'm kind of like, uh, it's like Sunday scaries almost during the trip. Yeah, I know for sure. I definitely had that.

[00:23:00] Like the last, the last like couple of days, like I was ready to get home and I was like, okay, I need to grind like so hard this week. So I definitely have some anxiety. Well, I mean, I don't know. My, my, my solo trips are days are done. You know, my family is huge now, but, uh, and then I was thinking about like, and I think people don't realize like how, you know, like all of you, like your hiking and all the stuff that you've done. And I was thinking about your partner, Anna Lee.

[00:23:26] And I was like, I wonder who would or wouldn't survive a two week trip to Vietnam. Like who would be like the best or worst person to just like put, like if you put Federico with a backpack in Vietnam, like how is he, is he going to survive? Like who, who, who's the person you think you would be most afraid to send with a backpack to Vietnam? You know, I was actually talking to Federico about this. I love Fed. And Fed was like, I couldn't do it. No, I would, I would never do that. I would die. And I was like, really?

[00:23:53] And Fed said that he hates being alone. He hates like eating alone. He always likes to do dinner with other people. And I was like, you wouldn't just like get Chipotle alone and eat it all. He's like, I will, but I fucking hate it. I was like, you don't just want to be with your, you can't just like be with your thoughts. And he was like, no, fuck that. You know? So I don't know if it's for, for King Federico, but I thought, I thought that was really funny. Like I wouldn't have thought that Fed felt so strongly about, about that. You know?

[00:24:20] Um, I think you need, um, I think, I think a lot of people could do it. I think they, they think that they couldn't or that it would be so awful or something, but it's, you just have to kind of enjoy being a little like whimsical, I guess. I think, you know, a lot of the day you could have like super structured days and super structured itinerary, but that's not me. I'm just kind of figuring things out on the fly. It's like, I am getting woken up by people screaming in Vietnamese on the sleeper bus that we're at our destination.

[00:24:50] And I'm like, oh my gosh, like groggy waking up. It's like 2 30 AM. And I find out the hotel I booked is 20 minute drive from where the bus is dropping us off. And these men in Vietnamese like taxi, taxi, taxi. I'm just like, screw it. They're like, I'm like, how much? They're like 400,000 dong. I'm like, I don't know how much that is, but like we ball, you know? And then I'm like getting in this taxi, like doesn't say taxi. It's just a dude's car and we're driving and I'm just laughing.

[00:25:19] I'm like, it would be so easy for me to get sex trafficked right now, you know? And I'm just like over here laughing about it. And then we get to the hotel and it's like not a 24 hour check-in. There's like a closed iron gate. And then I'm like, okay, okay. What are we going to do here in this situation? I can't really communicate with the taxi driver. And he's just like screaming in Vietnamese, you know? He doesn't have my money yet. He's just trying to get someone's attention. Someone comes, they open up the gate.

[00:25:48] But I was thinking, I was like, man, I might just have to like chill outside here for a couple hours while it's raining. But I was like, all right, I'll do that. Like it's just, you have to be really okay with like all of these like random things that happen. A lot of little random things like that. And it's just, I don't know. I think it's, Vietnam is a very safe place. Also, that was one reason why I chose it. It is very safe there generally, especially like as a girl alone, it's a common destination.

[00:26:15] But, uh, it, you get a lot of like confidence and pride in like figuring things out. So I had a great time and it was, you know, you could do the same trip very differently from how I did it, but I did it like, I liked it in Vietnam for like me. I can choose to either be treated like a queen or be like a grungy American. I liked it. I have that choice. Interesting.

[00:26:42] It, you know, so, I mean, this is, this is awesome. I, it makes me, I don't know if more or less excited at the fact that I can't do this. I'd love to try, but, uh, Anna Bright built different, built different than Federico than most people, than most pickleball players. Way different than Federico. I, I, I, I want to, I'm going to bring this back to PPA Las Vegas. Uh, the most built different thing anybody has ever seen on the pickleball court also occurred,

[00:27:09] I think in the, was it the quarterfinals, uh, of your women's doubles match? I believe. Uh, where you are up 11-0, 10-0. And everybody breathes a sigh of relief when Lane and Alex overcome all adversity, score a point. And you guys say, no, fuck that. We're going to challenge this ball.

[00:27:36] We're going to win the challenge, get the ball back 11-0, 11-0. We placed a large bet on ourselves to not get an entire point scored on us in the whole match. I'd never seen anything like it. I don't think anybody has. What goes through, whose choice was that to challenge? What goes through your head? It's just like, and who else is doing that besides you two? Well, I think this is, I think this discussion is a little bit of like a, is the word litmus test? Is that like the correct word? Like IQ test to an extent? That's not exactly the right word, but it's very interesting.

[00:28:06] Um, how some people disagreed with what we did. First of all, what aggravated us? We want to win 0-0. We want to win 0-0. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Take pride in killing people. Take pride in taking souls. That's why we have this insane average scoreline where like Ben and Gabe were, were undefeated, but they're going three all the time. Um, Zane is just funny. But, um. I was just laughing at the person. Zane, are you in Panera? Is this Panera? No, I'm in the hotel.

[00:28:37] I couldn't get the early check-in. But, um. Yeah, me and Zane are grinding right now. Not as hard as she's grinding, but we're grinding right now. Um. Okay. Focus, Anna. Focus. Okay. So, they, they call the timeout early in game two. Okay? Annalie and I are up 11-0, 10-0-2. And they challenge an overhead that was three feet in. Okay? So, it's one of those BS challenges that people use as a timeout. Overhead's three feet in.

[00:29:06] So, we're annoyed. We want to get off this court. All right? We're annoyed. So, I say to Anna Lee at the bench, I was like, they really don't want the double pickle. Like, let's fucking give it to them. So, now we're like locked in on the double pickle because they BS challenge an overhead like three feet in. Nothing personal. I respect that they didn't want to get double pickled and that they did that. But as a competitor, I'm like, oh, I'm going to, I want to give it to you now. You don't want it. I'm going to, I'm going to shove it. I'm going to give it to you.

[00:29:34] So, then, yeah, that point happens and that ball was close. And it was kind of a mutual. So, we were like, we should just challenge it. Like, we should just challenge it, you know? And we ended up getting it. And everyone was kind of laughing. All four of us were kind of laughing. Me and me were kind of laughing at the situation. And, yeah, we got the double pickle. But I think it's so funny. I got a lot of DMs of people telling me that, because I thought this was funny. Like, I did an Instagram story about it. People saying it was cruel.

[00:30:04] People saying they deserved a point. I said to someone, I was like, if they deserved a point, they would have won a point. And I also said to someone else, someone told me, like, be better. Like, this was cruel. And I said, you can't be better than 11-0, 11-0. Someone else said, you know, I hope your soul feels good about this. And I was like, my soul is incredible.

[00:30:32] Like, people really, I don't know. And it's just kind of like, if you can't challenge, if it's wrong to do that at 10-0, is it wrong at 10-1? Is it wrong at 10-2? Is it wrong at 10-3? When do you draw the line? I mean, me and Annalie choked a 9-0 lead. Like, I don't know. I think, and someone was like, I said to someone else, they were like, I was like, you are asking me to pity them. I do not pity them. And they were like, it's not pity, it's compassion. I said, we're speaking different languages.

[00:31:01] There's no room for compassion in professional sports. So, I don't know. I went back, I was kind of in a bit of a mood and I went back and forth with a few people about this. But I thought I had some good quips. Like, be better. I was like, you can't be better than 11-0. I felt good about that one. I was like, what? Damn, we should have, rather than reading our shitty comments, we should have ran Anna's comments. Dude, I get crazy stuff. She's got some good ones. I get crazy stuff. I don't respond to a lot of it. I don't see a lot of it. But every now and then, I'll just go open a few

[00:31:30] and I'm just like, oh my gosh, these people are wild. And some people are really funny. Some people are really funny. Some people are, yeah, come at me for things like that. I get a lot of, like, smile more. That aggravates me. But, especially when it comes from women, honestly. I liked the dark energy after MLP. That was a wild one. I've been using that. Oh, yeah. There's this girl on Twitter. She's going to see this. Like, Hope is unhinged.

[00:32:00] Hope hates me and Kate so much. I don't know if that was Hope, but Hope once called me pure evil. Hope once hit me and Kate with a one-two. She said, like, I feel so bad for Kate. It must be so much pressure playing with Anna. It must be so tough for her knowing what she did to Rachel. So it was like a one-two. It was like she was insulting us both at the same time. It's so funny. We just laugh at her. We check in on her a lot. Yeah.

[00:32:30] She's got some interesting takes on some things. She does. She was the one where I made that call against – She doesn't hate me either, yeah. I always talk about this one. I made that call against Ben and Dekel in Vietnam last year. It looks super in from the camera that's like three football fields away behind the court. And, like, thank goodness – It's a terrible angle. It's the worst angle. There was a side angle that showed the ball literally like three, four inches out. Three, four inches out. Right.

[00:33:00] And she's like, nope, I still think that that was in. I was like, all right, well, let's just not – let's just ignore all of the actual evidence. And that's when Hope lost credibility in my mind. Maybe she should have lost it long before that. Love you, though, Hope. Zane, would you have done what I did, 11-0, 10-0, and do the challenge there? I don't know. Probably not because, like, I'm – I mean, I think in my prime maybe, right, when I was in, like, fuck it, step on their throat mode.

[00:33:30] Like, but now I'm like, yeah, probably not. But, like, if you're an objective competitor, like, trying to do it, you know, the right way, like, yeah, what you did was correct, I think. Yeah, it's just – I also think it's interesting that people – it's kind of like how you do anything is how you do everything. Like, Annalie and I are psycho. And then you're going to be like, why would you be psycho then? It's like, you stay psycho. Like, I'm sorry.

[00:33:58] You know, it's not just something that turns on or off unless we're playing, like, 4-0s or, like, exhibition play. That's different. But, like, I don't pity the girls in the quarterfinals of the PPA playing on center court. Sorry. Yeah. Well, going back to the other results, I was a little surprised by Catherine and Tyra. Like, it's no real secret that I feel like Catherine's been somewhat struggling. I mean, ever since the breakup.

[00:34:28] She hasn't been meddling too much, like, a lot of random upsets. And then kind of out of nowhere, they played, like, phenomenally against you guys. Yeah. They played incredible. That's close. No, even if we won 11-8, 11-0, I was impressed with both of them. Like, even if we closed out game two there, like, I thought that they played really well. I thought Catherine was very creative, the most creative I've seen her. Also, the most confident that I have seen her.

[00:34:54] And usually you can kind of count on Tyra to miss some drops, miss some dinks, pop up some dinks. But she was not giving us any of that on top of having her usual, like, lethal offense out of the air and her second-to-none, like, ability to put the ball away. You know, you put Catherine in or Tyra in with the men, I think she still has, like, top eight ability to put the ball away. Like, she's just so good at it. And she wasn't giving us those free errors or, you know, like, the pop-ups. So it was, they played really well.

[00:35:25] And, yeah, Catherine was super creative. And I do think Annalie and I got a little frantic, maybe, when they started to kind of mount their comeback a little bit. And I think we did a good job of, like, calming back down. But I thought they played great. I thought they played really, really well. And I think they are, it might be a situation where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Because I, they also played well in Vietnam. Vietnam was, of course, strange conditions, you know, different ball.

[00:35:54] But they, they played well there, too. And I, I kind of, a fluke is not the right word, but I kind of attributed that performance more so to the, you know, the rollout court, the conditions, you know, it being so humid in there, the ball. But after this, I'm like, no, I think they play very well together. Maybe better than, you know, you would expect. But they seem to, to work well. I was very impressed. Yeah, I mean, it was close, you know, up until, you know, the middle of game three, too.

[00:36:21] And I guess my question, and I forgot about this midway through watching the finals, is that it's only two out of three. And I wanted to get your take on, do you like this? Like, I think as a, as Anna Lee and Anna Bright, I would feel like it's a little bit scarier as Anna and Hayden maybe want that. I'm not sure. Like, what, what are your thoughts on, on the two out of three versus three out of five?

[00:36:44] Um, uh, I think it's good to do something to, like, distinguish the majors from, I don't know what the cups are. But, uh, I, I don't really mind it. For me and Anna Lee, I definitely don't like it. For each and I, it's probably good. But, you know, regardless of my personal feelings and how it impacts me, I think it's good to do something to differentiate. Would be how, how I feel about it. And a two out of three is still a proper match.

[00:37:14] It's not like you can be like, oh, shoot. Like, you know, like, we got screwed because we didn't play best of five. Like, not really. Like, most of our matches are two out of three. Like, you need to be able to win in two out of three. So that's how I feel about it. Yeah, I like it. I like it better. You get more upsets. Like, you know, Ben and Gabe going down in two straight. Like, I don't know. Maybe they turned that around in a three out of five. I mean, they have. They did it in Vegas against Matt and Riley a couple years ago.

[00:37:44] They did the reverse sweep here. There. So, yeah. I was actually thinking that. I like it. Well, take us through, take us through. We talked a little bit about mixed with age. Take us through the final. Like, obviously Ben and Annalie have got to be the biggest rival on the mixed court for you guys. It's been a little while since you've taken him down. Anything in particular, like, stand out to you in that match?

[00:38:11] Or do you think some of it was attributable to potentially, like, just a slightly off day from Ben as well? Yeah, I was actually just talking to my dad about this. I was like, I don't really know how much of that win can be attributed to us playing well versus Ben being a little off. I also don't think Annalie was her sharpest either. But definitely Ben was giving us way more opportunities than he usually does. Usually you can count on the machine-like precision from him.

[00:38:41] And I don't think he was awful. I think some people are overstating, you know, that he was so bad. It's like, no, we still barely won. But definitely, like, giving me way more looks than I usually get in particular, like, out of the air, which has become my best thing. So I'm not really sure. But I think for me, I was trying to—I went into the match, you know, planning on having a pretty aggressive mentality. It's something I'm working on.

[00:39:07] I think mixed is kind of becoming a more dynamic game in general, shifting towards being a little bit more like men's sometimes, where the women are getting—the top women are getting so good that it's tough for the left side guy to, like, attack us effectively. So then you either get into, like, these really grindy points or you're relying on the woman to generate more offense. I don't know. I think mixed is just—I think mixed is becoming very dynamic. There are a lot of different ways to play and ways you need to be able to play.

[00:39:36] So I thought it was important that I be fairly creative, and I was. It was cool to see some of the things that I've been working on show up in a match. But I was really glad we got over the hump. You know, it would have been, like, such an elite performance for me if I didn't get tight and lose confidence and miss, like, three dinks down the stretch and almost let them back in the match. But still generally pretty happy with my level. But that was frustrating.

[00:40:07] A win's a win over Ben and Annalie any time. This is random. You mentioned that you're trying to, you know, be a little bit more offensive. I'm curious. I've seen this on the guy's side a little bit. When a guy sometimes gets a little bit pigeonholed into just a right-side player, they can excel on the right side. But when they have to go be the alpha from the left side, they sometimes, like, take a little bit of a step back.

[00:40:33] Like, I feel like we saw that with Dylan Frazier for a little while when he was playing with J-Dub a couple of years ago. Like, you are now basically exclusively right-side in doubles with Annalie and H. Can you be the best player in the world as a right-side player? Um, that's a good question. I don't know. I would probably say no.

[00:41:02] But I think you can relative level. Like, of course, Gabe and Ben lost and Gabe wasn't his best in the final. But I would still say the difference between Gabe and the next best right-side player is bigger than the gap between Ben and the next best left-side player. But does that mean you can say Gabe is the best overall? Like, I would probably say no. I think the left side just has a lot of gravity. So, that would be my take on the matter. Uh, I... We'll see.

[00:41:30] I think last year at MLP, I did not play a very good left side. Obviously, Kate and I saw a winning record. This year at MLP, I thought I played very well on the left, generally. And actually, even in rec lately, I've actually been feeling quite good on the left. Um, and I would be lying if I said there isn't a, you know... Especially North Carolina, my first tournament with AL after MLP, I was kind of like, man, this is a lot more boring than, you know, playing the left. Right? I definitely did kind of feel that way, especially in the first couple of rounds.

[00:41:59] Um, but winning is winning. And I play a mean right side. I play a really, really mean right side. And, uh, I enjoy it a lot. I think playing the right side, you can really get in rhythm. On the left, you have to think about a lot more. Generally, the right side, you can kind of... You get more of the same look repeatedly. Um, so it's fun. I think there's a lot to work on, on both sides. But I think the left side has more gravity. And that will not change.

[00:42:29] Which side do you think is... You're actually, like, better on? Obviously, a lot of it depends on partners and whatnot. But if you just looked at yourself in a vacuum, would you say you're a better right side player or left side player? I'm inclined to say right, honestly. I think I've gotten very good on the right. Uh, but I am... I would still probably say I'm the second... After Anna Lee, I would say I'm the next best left side player. I would.

[00:42:59] And that's one reason why it makes sense from her perspective to play with me. It eliminates the probably biggest left side threat to her as well. And same for me. I don't want to play against her on the left. You know? You saw how I played her at MLP. I didn't hit her the ball. I don't have any shame about that. You didn't play her at MLP? I tried not to. She got a few... She got a few too many touches there in the last match. But, yeah.

[00:43:28] I don't have shame about saying that. Like, I... But, like, I think the difference between me and Anna Lee, like, left to left is much bigger. I think the difference between us right to right is a lot smaller, if that makes sense. Which is why mixed is... Mixed is a little different, you know, than gender. And I asked the same question to Anna Lee when we had her on the pod. I would love to get your take as well.

[00:43:56] We asked her, who does she enjoy beating the most in pickleball? Her response was Ben. And she specifically said it's because if I beat Ben, then I've earned my spot as his partner and he's not going to ditch me. Which is never going to happen anyway. But who is your favorite person to beat on tour? Ben, Anna Lee, anybody else? Tyra? Christian. Present company excluded. Christian.

[00:44:26] I think I... It's actually funny. When you guys said Ben and Anna Lee are your biggest rivals, like, I kind of thought... I kind of feel like Christian to an extent. Just because when you play Christian, it's like you are playing Christian. It's almost like you are just playing Christian. Like, he takes the whole court. He speeds up every ball. He hits you with a... You know, and I do... I like... I never want to, like, mock someone. But I wanted to mock Christian so bad in the mix.

[00:44:55] I did once quietly. Like, I hit, like, a winner off the counter. I was like... Only Hayden heard me. But... Yeah. Probably Christian. I love beating... I really like beating Ben and Anna Lee because that's, like, the pinnacle of the sport. You know, but there's not really, like, a personal, like, component so much. Not like it's personal with Christian, but I just find him aggravating.

[00:45:24] I think almost everyone playing against Christian finds him aggravating. I like him off court. He doesn't, like, cheat. Like, you know, it's totally fine. I have no real problem with it. But it's... He is aggravating. So... And the way he plays is aggravating. And it forces you to do things differently. So... I like beating Christian the most, probably. Whereas I love... Like, if I have to choose a win against Christian Austin or a win against Ben and Anna Lee, I will choose the win against Ben and Anna Lee. 100%. But, like, enjoy.

[00:45:53] Enjoy the process. Like, you know? Like, that's... That's savory. That's sweet. I'd say Christian. I think before I would have said Anna Lee more so before we became, like, genuinely good friends. Now I actually, like, care. I care about her. It's kind of interesting. Like, in North Carolina, when the Johnsons beat her and Ben, I, like, wanted Anna Lee to win that match. Even though if Anna Lee wins, I play Anna Lee the next day.

[00:46:21] Like, I wanted Anna Lee to win. And I felt sad for her when she lost. Like, genuinely. Whereas before, I would have just been like, oh, yeah. Like, huge opportunity. And of course, I do. I'm like, okay, this is a big opportunity to win. But it's kind of interesting to me that I cared about her enough that the stronger feeling was, like, that I wanted her to win. I thought that was interesting. Yeah. Does that, like, sort of impact your killer instinct against her at all?

[00:46:50] Like, because, I mean, it doesn't sound like you want that for anybody else other than in mixed doubles. I feel the same way about Kate. Like, I always want Kate to win, no matter what, I would say. I think, I don't know. I don't really think it impacts it too much. But I do expect that the next time I play Anna Lee in mixed, like, she will be, like, she will be insane. I expect she'll be insane.

[00:47:17] You know, she'll be, like, we'll finish women's or maybe we'll play mixed first, whatever. And she will just have, like, red tits. Like, she'll be just seeing me in red. You know, and that might be the energy that she feels like she needs to play in to play her best. And I don't care. I have no problem with that.

[00:47:39] But I probably have a little more experience than her with, like, having close friends and playing against them too. You know what I mean? I just kind of am more connected with the other pickleball players than she is. So, I think I, you know, I think it'll be interesting.

[00:48:01] You know, when you say that, the one thing that I think I sometimes I still get sad about, and I think a lot of players do, and wanted to talk to you about this, lastly, is that that intensity of, like, Anna Lee wanting to kill you because you beat her, right? Doesn't really exist in women's doubles at all. And, like, is there any world anytime soon or any mindset that you have of, like, I miss or I want to beat her in women's doubles?

[00:48:31] And I think about it or any of that. Like, have you just... Because I just think, like, hey, sometimes I'm fighting in the comments. Like, I think Anna Bright might be close to the number one female. It's possible, right? But I'll never know. So, does that... Do you miss any of that that you might have had when you were with Rachel and competing against Anna Lee? Not really. I see these discussions all the time. Dane Gingrich right now is, like, my champion.

[00:48:59] He's like, you know, I think you're just as good or whatever. I'm just like, okay. Thank you. Thank you very much, Dane. But I... People say this. It's like, the way I see it is, why do I need to play against her in women's? Why can't I play with her in women's and we win women's? And then I keep grinding my ass off and I win mixed.

[00:49:24] Like, why is it necessary that we play against each other in women's? Like, we both want to win. Playing with each other is a winning recipe. Like, our... Not only our record this year is undefeated. Our points... Like, our points average across all rounds is, like, better than 11-3. You know? And I guess, yeah, you could say that's bad for the sport and, you know, fans don't like it. But my job is to win. And I want to win.

[00:49:53] And I had, you know, the first year on guaranteed money, a big motivation to play with Rachel and why I was okay with taking more of that risk. Because I was like, I'm going to make the same amount of money no matter what. You know, I kind of want to make a name for myself a little bit. And, you know, me and Rachel were able to do that. We did great. But now it's like, we're playing for prize money very soon. You know? Legitimate money. And, you know, the sponsorship numbers are way more real now. Everything.

[00:50:22] So it's not something that I have this strong desire to do. I think I'm at a place in my career where I am not too motivated by, like, external things like that. Like, I need everyone to think I'm so good. Like, I just kind of want to get as good as I can. And I feel like I have the ability to keep improving and mixed, you know, and push in that way. I see some people say Anna could never be number one. She doesn't play singles. I'm like, so true.

[00:50:52] So true. And I'm never going to do it either. Like, screw. You got me there. Round of 16s. Call on your name. Oh, man. There you go. I might play a little round of 16 tank job. Never hurt anybody. All right. Well, Anna, we'll let you go check into the hotel. Rebound for Chicago before you got on or before we started recording. He told us had like two hours of sleep coming over from Vegas.

[00:51:20] So we'll let you go get a nap before you get in some work with Elsie. Some tough two-on-ones with me and Elsie a little bit later. Yeah. So you need to rest up for that. Yeah. I was actually thinking about canceling. I felt tired. But now you said that. So I have to do it. I'm going to rally. I'll be there. Now it's in the public domain. No, I'll be there. I'll be there. For Elsie. Not for you. Awesome. That's understandable. All right. Thanks for coming on, Anna. Appreciate it. Thank you, guys.

[00:51:49] Pickle Pod. Pickle Pod Hall of Fame close with Anna Bray. Wow. All right. So the other thing about Las Vegas, and I'm not sure if there's more or less parity in PPA than there is in MLP. I think it's going to be a problem with Top Heavy either one. But we saw, once again, the resurgence of some new names. We saw Nico Acevedo kicking ass again. We saw Kiora Kunimoto make a deep run.

[00:52:18] Why don't we start there? And first off, I would like to defend. I don't know if to defend. I am Team Kiora Kunimoto. Friend of the pod, hopefully. Come on eventually. I've been, you know, singing her praises ever since the first time I saw her play. But I heard on the finals, it said the Cinderella run continues. I was like, she's the five seed. Like, I'm not going to call this a Cinderella run, but she did beat Kate Fahey, which Kate

[00:52:47] was, I think, 36-3 in like her last 39 matches. All losses to Anna Lee, loses to Kiora. What was your thoughts on Kiora's singles run? She was 36-3 against everybody but Anna Lee. She was 36-3 against the field, and I think like 0-8 against Anna Lee this year. So like, funny enough, like, I went to say, like, I started writing my recap video, and I was like, the field is wide open without Anna Lee. I'm like, shit, it's really not.

[00:53:16] Like, Kate Fahey kind of dominates everybody else. But now Kiora is interesting. She had a really good run earlier in the season, right? Like kind of a breakthrough before MLP. I don't remember who it was that she beat. I know she then played like a pretty good match against Anna Lee, and I did see Anna Lee wrong-footed quite a lot, which was surprising to me in that match back in the spring.

[00:53:41] But she kind of had some pretty inconsistent results since then, but she just, she's one of those players that looks like she's hardly moving, but just gets there. Like, there's really nobody that glides the same way she does. So there's something about the way that she moves. It really is like gliding across the court. It looks very effortless. And I think her huge backswings, my theory here is when she's on, she's really good and

[00:54:11] deceptive. When she's off, like, obviously she's off. And I think that's gotta be partially because of the big old backswings. Like, if your timing is off, that's tough. But is the time, my question is, is the loop beneficial and something she should keep because it throws people off, right? Like, I feel like this mode, like, you know how it's like when Jack Sock or Ben Johns or whoever has an opportunity to dink with plenty of time.

[00:54:39] They throw up the Cobra and, you know, the opponent shits their pants and then they throw in a dink cross court or a speed up or a lob or whatever, right? Like, is that loop similar when it comes to Cioran singles? So like, you don't know if it's going to go, you know, down the line, cross court, drop, drip, et cetera. Is like, does that help? I think it makes it look a little bit more deceptive. Like she kind of takes the big loop and then makes like tiny little adjustments right at the last second. But the thing with, you know, Ben's big old swing from the kitchen, he only does it when

[00:55:08] he has a ton of time. And if he doesn't, he's got a compact swing. She kind of does it all the time, right? And so, yeah, I think she's going to get more consistent with it. I really think that you should judge up and coming players by their ceiling, not by their floor. I think it's easier to raise up your floor than your ceiling. That's something that I've spoken about. It's something that Anna Bright's spoken about previously as well. And she's got a really high ceiling.

[00:55:34] So I think at this point, if there's somebody that's going to beat Anna Lee or sort of dethrone her, I think you got to say Kate's still probably number one. But Kiora has got to be up there. Like she's just unconventional enough to to kind of throw her off. Do you think she's do you think she right now currently is like number three? And I'm not sure if ceiling is the right word, but like, I guess as her current ceiling is right now, not her potential.

[00:56:03] Is Kiora another number three singles player? No, I still think, you know, I think Kate playing at her best is better. I think Leia playing at her best is, I think Leia playing at her best is number two. She like, because she can just dominate the net better than any other women in pickleball. Like she's the best mover from the net, best net coverage.

[00:56:30] So I would still probably put Kate, KK, Leia ahead of her in terms of ceiling. But I expect Kiora's ceiling to probably surpass them. Yeah, I think so. I mean, she's 18, 19, somewhere around there. So yeah, I mean, she's only going to get better faster. So that's like when I watched the 14 year old kids play and in the year, like, you know,

[00:56:56] I played it in a money ball against, I forget how to pronounce it, Andrew Caldarella. I'm saying his name. Caldarella, yeah. Caldarella with Gino, my brother. And like, it was like, I think I'm like 11, nine or something like that. It was close, right? And that guy would absolutely dominate me. It's only been 15 months, right? And say something with Brayden Jacobson. So I'm just like wondering if Kiora has like that rapid trajectory still in her. Um, I'm excited to see it.

[00:57:23] Um, and hey, maybe we'll break up to Anna Lee and Kate Fest in the finals. Let's hope. Let's hope something, uh, something changes in women's singles. I would love to see some upsets. Hey, but hey, we had plenty of upsets this week. So that was nice. Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of some other good runs, um, you know, our other friend of the pod last week's guest, Nico Acevedo, uh, continued dominance with yet another partner, um, making it to

[00:57:53] the semifinals, the semifinals he made, um, with Yao Mei. He lost two matches, one to Ben and Anna Lee and one to Ben and Gabe. Um, so Nico doing fantastic, big wins with whoever he plays with. I think at this point it's top 10. Yes, for sure. At this point, is he a top 10 doubles player? I think so. Yeah, dude, he's, I mean, yeah, I would say so. Dude's a beast. Yao Mei is, is, I mean, no offense to, to Yuta.

[00:58:22] I think they play really well together, but on paper, I feel like Yao Mei is his best ML or best PPA partner so far. So, I mean, you put him in with like, uh, you know, um, another top 10 player. I really think that he could be a staple on championship Sunday or at least the semifinals. So, we discovered him last week. Shout out to us. Yeah.

[00:58:47] Johnny, Johnny Goldberg, you get no credit whatsoever for anything with, uh, Nico Acevedo. I knew him. Uh, we might be blood relatives. Someone in the comments had mentioned that we look really similar, which is absolute bullshit. Um, so, but speaking of, I'm, I'll take another victory lap. It's like, he just got announced, I think, as a Selkirk player. Um, so he's, he's joining team Selkirk and I, once again, got a ton of congratulations, uh, messages, Chris Cantino, uh, everybody.

[00:59:18] Uh, so chin up Nico one day you'll get there, um, to Nico the lefty status. But, um, so when he wins, I win. So I think, you know, I root for certain people on tour. I don't think I root for anybody more than Nico Acevedo because I'm rooting for myself. It's like when I root for someone, but I root for my 12 year old kid and I just like, I'm living my failed athletic childhood through him when he's racing. I do the same thing with Nico Acevedo and pickleball. I love it.

[00:59:44] Well, speaking of comments, um, should we, should we roll into that? We got some, we got some decent ones this week. Yeah, let's do it. Let me find the, the comment. Um, okay. Yeah. So that was actually budget tech five, five, two, six. They obviously knew that Nico was in corporate tech. Everybody knows that. Um, wow. Nico and Nico look related need to do a DNA test. Someone's dad may have some explaining to do.

[01:00:14] I like that. That's good. And I'm not going to lie. The first time I read that quote, I got confused because it said Nico and Nico look retarded, but, uh, they need a DNA test. I was like, what's happening here? But no, no, no. Good looks. You're looking related. It makes a lot more sense. Uh, yeah. My dad stepping out. Um, that was a good one. Uh, I saw, I can't, I've, I had secondhand embarrassment for a foolish pride saying they found themselves clapping in the car by myself, celebrating your win, Zane. Congrats.

[01:00:41] Like I'm just imagining this person crying as you're, as you're winning Barcelona. He's probably very emotional for a lot of people. Yeah. Let's see. Surprise. You didn't offer slam it to Nico when he said he was cramping. Honestly, really should have, uh, probably going to get dropped from them for, for missing that opportunity. Yeah. Uh, oh, here's a positive one. Hey, Nico looking good. Like the haircut. Thank you. Appreciate it.

[01:01:10] I like the ones that call people that, you know, that call Nico an unmade bed. Those are my, my favorite ones. Um, Jesse blank, you know, uh, going to more negative comments. He was popping off on some just random stuff. He commented, it was tragic. No legs. Nico brother, get a trainer. These are all different comments, by the way, Nico, you should work on your fitness. Get a trainer, bro. Two different, two different comments has to say, get a trainer. And I think this is all in reference to my 20 yard dash or maybe my, uh,

[01:01:40] broad jump. Uh, that's, that's the content that people like more than anything is seeing the broad jump. If you can call it a jump, it's like a broad stumble. The broad hop. The broad hop. Like I wonder who would do, who could do a better broad jump. Me, uh, fully functioning, ready to go with slam it or Hayden 15 beers deep, uh, after winning gold. Like, could he, could he jump further than me at that point? Oh dude, give me Hayden a hundred percent. He could, he could stumble farther than you.

[01:02:09] I think he passed out falling over. It would go farther than you. Yeah. Like as he's knocking out, he would go. Oh my gosh. Um, all right. So, so you like the bad ones that like this one, it says Nico and then it says in parentheses, the good one, uh, close parentheses should only get much better with pro experience. Muscle memory is so important. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I liked the fact that they said Nico, the good one.

[01:02:39] Uh, so thank you. Shout out the grumpy old pickleball player. Yeah. Freaking up. Next up, we've got Ruro Raggy 1313. Zane, you keep complaining about 12 PM matches. You realize that's noon, right? Yeah. I knew that's just a slip. A slip like, okay. 11 59. First off, hold on. Let's talk about this though. I feel like, I feel like maybe this is a controversial opinion.

[01:03:07] I feel like after 11 59 PM, it should go to 12 PM and then 1201 AM. Like, I feel like noon should be 12 AM. I feel like midnight should be 12 PM. Cause PM, you think night, AM morning. Anyway, that's just my own delusion. So yeah, maybe I'm making that slip in my own mind, but yes, I do fucking understand that 12 PM.

[01:03:39] Wow. Wow. Um, all right. This is the other person. I mentioned this. Um, I think we've talked about it with Anna, but from what you want to get controversial here again, I've got other, I've got other 10 hit conspiracies. Yeah. Tell me. Eliminate time zones. Hear me out. It is just one time anywhere around the world. It's around the entire world. So right now it's one 13. It should be one 13 in China. It should be one 13 in Antarctica.

[01:04:08] It should be one 13 everywhere. Why not? Why do we need the arbitrary numbers? Well, I wonder what place gets the main time zone. Is there a place that gets to, I don't know. Give it London. Give it the Greenwich meantime. Okay. All right. I, I could, I could get behind this maybe, um, other than the fact that we can't even get rid of daylight savings time. Uh, so if we can't switch timing, you know, twice in a year for farmers in 2026, I don't

[01:04:36] think we're ever going to get a universal time. So universal time. What do you think? What do you think comes first, Zane? If you were to pick universal time or universal language? Oh, I thought you were going to say good. I good AI line calling. Um, uh, or Anna losing a singles man. What was the second option? A universal language. Having the whole world speak one language. Universal language. I feel like we're pretty close to English being universal language.

[01:05:07] Shout out. Shout out English. Um, oh yeah, that's, here's the, the Hayden comment from what Hayden said on the pod. He might play out of his mind this weekend and will end Ben and Gabe's win streak. Shout out Devin TSI called that. Yeah. And, and I think I honestly, I think Hayden is probably the best performing party or pro pickleball player there is. Like people like to talk about Ryan Sherry or whoever, like Hayden can party and rally.

[01:05:34] The worst we, the, the worst person at this, it's gotta be Zane, right? Zane. Is there anybody that is, could be more affected by nighttime partying than you? Like maybe, maybe Elsie Hendershot. That's like probably a close second because she's 14. But if, you know, besides her, it's gotta be her and you. So I was going to say like, I can't party or play pickleball. So like, that's a tough combo.

[01:06:01] Um, yeah, I've got to put myself up there. Although, you know, in college I did play some pretty decent hungover pickleball. I feel like hungover pickleball. Sometimes you're just in like effort mode. And I think sometimes that just helps like the not caring. Like I feel so bad right now. I do not care if I win, I lose. I just want to get off the court. I feel like sometimes that can help. So anyway, instructional tip right here from Zane Navratil. Go get plastered the night before you play. Every single time you'll play better pickleball the next day. Thank you. You're welcome.

[01:06:32] From Zane, from Hayden. Oh my goodness. Speaking of other coaching tips, we have Minguez says, the best coach I ever had. Nico Acevedo is a real one. I thought it was me. And then I got one here that says, it's good that pickleball is shown on Fox Sports 1 and CBS now, but what if someone had never watched pickleball before and the first thing they see is Annalie Waters pickling Jelena Ingram over and over with a lob serve. Awkward.

[01:07:01] Yeah, you know what? There's all this talk about the drop serve looking dumb on TV. You know what really does look freaking stupid on TV is a lob serve. Of course, it's effective. That's why she does it. But if we want to talk about things that look dumb, the fucking lob serve is up there. The only thing that looks worse than the lob serve is Zane trying to return the lob serve right into the net, trying to be Jack Sock. He is not Jack Sock. I am not Jack Sock.

[01:07:29] I am more like Sock Jack. Anyway. Sock Jack? Jock. Jockstrand? Jock. Say Jockstrand. Anyway, we've got one more comment. Chris Foster says, I love the primetime night pickleball, but we have to find a way to get the stands full. It doesn't look great with the stands mostly empty. Yeah.

[01:07:58] I mean, part of that I feel like is the tennis center. The sun there, it is just everybody crowds into the tiny little shaded spots too. Maybe it was better at night. I don't know. I wasn't watching any night pickleball. I am not the target demographic for that. But yeah, I don't know. As long as it looks good on TV, who cares what the stands look like, I guess.

[01:08:27] But I don't think that's the biggest deal. No. I don't think so either. Zane, speaking of nighttime pickleball, so we're going to get into the matchmaker segment here. This is going to be a new thing that we are doing. I'm not sure how many times we're doing it. We might just do it just this once. But Zane and I realized, and this did go to our head, that we have a lot of power. And when I say a lot of power, I mean we made the comment, PPA, play matches at night. It happened within one week.

[01:08:57] In the middle of the tournament that we made the suggestion, I think. So, with much power comes much responsibility. All right? And so we want to use this power for good. And so we're going to try and play matchmaker. So we're going to try and speak partnerships that we want to see into existence. So, if we mention you, you watch the pod, make it happen. Everybody wants to see these. Zane, I would like us to come up with a couple. We'll do, should we do

[01:09:26] one mixed and one gender partnership each that we'd like to see before the end of the year? And then bonus points, we'll keep track. If this actually happens, maybe we'll do a giveaway if this happens as well. Oh, dang. I've already got one. Number one, Hayden on the left with Andre on the right. That's my, that's my men's, that's my gender. And then mixed, I'm going to go

[01:09:55] Sophia Seving with either Eric Onsens or Nico Acevedo. Those are kind of like the, the odd people out in the partnerships of mixed, I feel like. And yeah, I mean, I think Sophia is a top six mixed doubles player, but yeah, right now everybody's kind of partnered up. So she's playing with Casey who also came over from the, from the APP. So those are, those are mine. What you got? All right.

[01:10:24] I am going Nico Acevedo and Danny Townsend, my two favorite players at this point. Love. Put those two together. I, I, I heard that she might, that they might've been trying and didn't get it to happen. I don't know. Um, but Nico answer her messages or Danny answer his messages. That needs to be one for sure. Um, and then I'm going to go Nico again here. I want to see Nico Acevedo and Elliot Shupp

[01:10:54] play together. Okay. I, I think I just want to see him play with some other, other players. So I'm like, give me a, give me him and any kind of top five, top 10 player. Um, and I think that Nico is a perfect partner because Elliot's like so mobile laterally. He's, I, I don't know if he's the most athletic guy on the pickleball court, but he's close and Nico Acevedo is steady. He's so much longer than he seems and he's got fast hands. So give me the speed, give me the hands.

[01:11:23] Like you put those two together. I feel like that's at least a quarterfinal, if not a semifinal run. And, um, yeah, I want to see Nico with a, with a good mix partner. So Nico and Danny and Nico and Elliot. Love it. Do you think any of these will happen by the end of the years? And what are the odds? I think we get one of them. I hope. I don't know. I think Danny's playing mostly over in Australia. Like, I don't think she's coming back too much other than worlds. So we could be so lucky, Nico, but worlds, it could happen. Hey, there's still time. You know what I mean?

[01:11:53] So like, I don't know. Let's make it happen. I can win a mixed doubles PPA gold. Anything can happen. Anything can happen. I love that. It's inspirational. All right. Let's do guess my duper. What do you say? Perfect. Let's do it. All right, guys, it's time for everybody's favorite segment. Guess my duper presented by six zero, the makers of apparel that I cannot keep in my drawer because my wife steals it. My dad finds out that I ordered it and then he takes it. Everybody wants it.

[01:12:23] Apparently, I'm not allowed to use it, but it is fantastic. And not to mention their paddles are amazing. They just had their fourth anniversary of being a company and there's no stopping them. So check it out. Six zero. Okay, let's do this. All right. So the guy not serving the guy not serving Oh, zoom action over there. Okay. Got the double knee. All right. He moves well for a guy with like a double knee brace.

[01:12:53] I should probably get some of those. Oh my. Oh, I thought that was his hair for a second. Hold on. Hold on. Rewind that. Wait, do you see what I'm seeing? Rewind that for a second. I thought this was his hair at first that like the black thing behind him. Okay. Oh, the blow. Oh, you thought it was just like a super long hair versus the shirt. Okay. He's in the air a lot. Yeah. Except for the one time he needs to be in the air in the overhead.

[01:13:24] Fighting off. They're just, just, oh, they're, they're picking on him. Well, what an, what an iso. Ends with the bag. Poor guy. Uh, so I, all right. So I think like good hands, the points didn't like have, I don't think I saw a dink. Was there a dink? No dinks. I would have loved to see a jump dink. I mean, he had like a jump serve

[01:13:54] and a jump drive, kind of a jump overhead. Um, no wonder he's got the knee things on. Dude's got jumpers knees for sure. That's why I don't need him. If I did that, I would, I would have crumbled to the ground. Um, all right. I'm going to say this guy is a three, nine, nine. Hmm. I don't know. I feel like this one is just like the, the points that selected were kind of crazy. He is pretty susceptible to the drive. So I feel like that's problematic. Um,

[01:14:24] or at least he was in that one game where they just drove everything at him. I'm going to go 4. 0. 5. 2. Are there four digits to do for these days? Who even knows? I think so. Yeah, there should be 4.052. Lock it in. Take it to the bank. 2. 8. 8. That's been guess my duper permanently. That's the last one. All right. Well, this is the, uh, the best 2.

[01:14:54] 8. 8. I've ever seen in my life. If that's a 2. 8. 8. I'm a, uh, I'm a 2. 4. Zane is a 3. 1. So, justice for whoever this guy was. 2. 8. 8. Oh my God. Oh, if, if, if, if you are this person, reach out, we, we owe you a drink or something. No, duper owes you a drink. Yeah. Oh my goodness. That was great. Well, that, that,

[01:15:24] like I said, that's the best I've ever, like, I think that's literally the same duper as my mom and my wife. And, uh, they can't do any of that stuff and nor do they jump. So, uh, last but not least, my YouTube video did not get enough love. Nico. I feel like I put out an interesting one on the fact that pickleball is basically the only sport that I could find that doesn't have a pay gap between men and women. Are you subscribed to my channel? Did you see that? Did you at least see the Dinks newsletter post about it? Me? Am I subscribed?

[01:15:54] I think I, I thought you blocked me. No, that's Leah Jansen. She blocked you. Oh, Oh yeah. I get you guys confused. Um, both speak your mind. So, so well, um, I, I did see some, and, and I mean, yeah, I think it's awesome. So shout out to pickleball for, uh, for paying Annalie a ton. Um, and yeah, I think it's like one of those sports that where athleticism doesn't necessarily play. It's like plays like 5% in the, in the role of the sport. Maybe not, maybe more. I don't know how to describe it, but like,

[01:16:23] I think that's one of the big reasons why women and men have, I have a similar pay gap. Is that right? Or am I about to get canceled for that comment? Probably canceled for that comment, but I don't know. We've had a good run. Um, yeah, no, I, I find it interesting. I, I'm, I'm okay. Regardless of what you think about it, I am surprised that it hasn't been like covered more. Cause I do think it's something that is really unique in, in sports. So like, I mean, I think for the most part,

[01:16:51] I looked into it and I found that like gender pay gaps arise because for a couple of reasons. First, a lot of times these started as like men's sports. And then like 50 years later, they made the, the women's equivalent of it, like the WNBA. Like you're never going to have equal pay between the NBA and WNBA. When one of them had like, among other things, a 50 year head start. Right now, you can also argue that like the, it's way more interesting to watch the NBA versus WNBA.

[01:17:21] I'm not touching that one with a 10 foot pole, but I agree. But yeah, I mean, one, one thing that I feel like it was a big part of it is the PPA and MLP and APP started men's and women's at the same time. It didn't develop as like completely different models. Yeah. I mean, it's good. I think, I think it's going to stay that way. I think that there might eventually be like a,

[01:17:52] maybe there'll be a more of a gap. And I think the fact that Anna Lee is just by far the most marketable person in pickleball really helps like all women. You know what I mean? It's just like Caitlin Clark came into the WNBA and lifted everything for the WNBA. And I think Anna Lee Waters is the same thing for pickleball. It's just started from day one for pickleball. So shout out to PPA, shout out to pickleball, shout out to Anna Lee Waters. You guys are doing a great job. Yeah. I also feel like, you know, you talk about some of the just physical differences.

[01:18:21] I feel like pickleball did such a good job of, I think it was somewhat unintentional, like neutralizing the physical differences. Like you watch NBA versus WNBA, of course. And it's just like, you got LeBron or, you know, John Morant or somebody out there like with their head above the rim. And then, you know, you got like Angel Reese missing layups and stuff. Like there, there is, there is like a very big difference there, but like in,

[01:18:50] Zane is the WNBA. No, there are these guys, you know, sitting next to me on the plane this morning, actually watching reruns of the fever versus the Las Vegas aces. I'm like, this is, shout out aces. I've, I've never seen somebody watch a WNBA. She's, she's the Anna Lee Waters of women's basketball. She's so good. But, um, yeah. So anyway, I, I caught a little bit of WNBA this morning. Congratulations. He got offhand.

[01:19:19] Zane caught WNBA. Like you catch a cold on a plane unintentionally by the person next to you. Fuck. I just can't believe they were watching like five day old replays of the, less of the game. But anyway, um, pickleball, like I find it like if I, as a fan, right. I actually find women's doubles the most interesting of the four, like the way that the women play. And because of some of their, like, you know,

[01:19:48] relative lack of upper body strength, fewer, uh, uh, one handed punches. Right. I find the dynamic of the women's game more interesting than, than men's, the longer firefights, all that stuff. I feel like pickleball kind of, you know, perfectly designed to actually make women's more interesting. Yeah. I think, I think it is more fun to watch. Um, other than the fact that Anna Lee waters and Anna bright, uh, just dominate everything. Yeah. Like the, um,

[01:20:17] like the girlies versus AL and Catherine was like, was awesome. So I don't know. Leave us a comment as well. Which, uh, which of the five divisions do you find most interesting to watch? I'd be curious to know what the, what the viewers think as well. Yeah. Uh, so there's a couple of other things here, uh, happened in the world. James Inato, which got on, he was chatting a bunch about illegal paddles. Uh, I know that that was a thing, uh, like a year ago when the UPA like really cracked down on illegal paddles or not illegal paddles,

[01:20:47] fake paddles, counterfeit paddles. And I think that there's almost honestly not a lot you can do about it. Like there's fake everything. Um, but Zane, I did want to share, I got a, a message, uh, from a company that wanted to send me, uh, some paddles. Um, and I wish I could find it, but it was this guy that was like, Hey, I'm creating this illegal paddle company. I'm like, wait, what do you mean? You got, this is interesting. And, uh,

[01:21:16] basically this is his company. I don't know if it was called illegal paddles or outlaw paddles, but they're creating out of spec paddles on purpose just because why not? And so there were two options. He's like, you can try, if you want, you can try one of two of these options. One of them is, um, like no PB core, like just absolute trampolines, which I was like, that's a dangerous. I don't think I want to try that. And I think it's probably a bad idea,

[01:21:40] but the other one is grit and surface roughness and spin 75% above the legal limit. For pickleball paddles. I'm excited. Like, let's just not have any, I feel like we can just like, we should crank up the, the, the spin to 11 and say, fuck it. Let's play pickleball. So let's start coming out. The F I P L the fuck it pickleball league. Yeah. Like the XFL dude. What? How,

[01:22:09] how do you think like for the people that hate pickleball, if we created the XFL of pickleball, where it was like, maybe you are a helmet, maybe you don't, but we, we juice up the paddles. You got aluminum paddles. You got, uh, you know, skateboard grit on the paddles. And we just say, let's have at it. I think, I think you put people in like, like full face guard, but you also got to give like three points for anything that hits the body. Right? Like if you, if you body bag somebody, you've got to have like,

[01:22:38] it's a three pointer rather than a one pointer headshots, five pointers, something like that. Like me and my dad played this version of ping pong in our basement, where if you hit the person, you got three points. Like, I think we got to send it just full bags left and right. You hitting three dinks just to set up a fricking body bag. Like, I don't know, Nico, let's start it. You wouldn't do well in this league, but I think it'd be fun. I think I'd be, I think I'm pretty good at hitting people. I am also pretty good at getting hit.

[01:23:08] Um, I'd have a fun time with it. So, um, I don't condone this, but if anybody wants to record themselves trying this out, I'm, you know, our lawyers say that it's not. Yeah. We don't condone it, but we will probably show it on next week podcast. If you do, but we don't condone it. We don't condone it, but like, yeah, you'll, you'll be on the pod. Oh my goodness. All right, Zane, um, to wrap it up here, um, because I'm not condoning it to people that have had famous,

[01:23:39] famous full bag attempts, Ben Johns and Jack Sock teaming up in Chicago. One, are they going to start playing this? Are they going to be playing in the, uh, effort pickleball league this weekend? And is there any chance that those two can win a gold medal? Yeah. What a random, like, I wonder what is up with that. Um, I don't know. Like Jack Sock's playing a good right side. Like if he plays an aggressive, right, if Jack Sock just says effort and plays super aggressive from the right, I,

[01:24:08] I think that's better than if Jack is, you know, trying to grind 30 cross court dinks with Federico. Um, I don't know. I really don't. I don't know. I'd love to see it. What a random pairing. I just would, I really want to know how that came to be. Are they, are they the one seed? They've got to, I'd assume so. They could have said, Hey, fuck it. We hate Nico, the lefty. Let's, let's go together. Let's win a gold medal for the tennis bros, for the Ben Johns.

[01:24:37] And then we'll have a victory tour. But, um, yeah, I'm not sure what their seat is either, but I, I predict, Oh my God, man, this is, if Anna Lee or if Anna Bright and Hayden win mixed, this could be two tournaments in a row with no golds for Ben Johns. That's a big, he broke a streak of like 58 in a row. Now, maybe it's going to be two in a row. No golds. I think they make, I'm going to predict that they're out in the quarterfinals. Hmm. Okay. I'll give them,

[01:25:07] I'll give them a, uh, finals run. Finals run. Okay. They have to be the one seat, I feel like, if they want to make a finals run. No, I'm going to semi-finals run. Okay, good job. There you go. All right. All right. I got to run. Chicago. Pickle pod. Pickle pod. Wer riestert, der rostet. Zeit, Vorsorge neu zu denken. Mit dem neuen Scalable Altersvorsorge Depot

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