Is Women's Singles Better Without Anna Leigh Waters?

[00:00:02] Well, I liked this one. If we're going to go, you know, commenting on looks. Mentazi1 wrote, woke up to an earthquake. Turns out it was just Nico's broad jump. Dude, that was great. But here's my favorite thing. After that, someone commented, trying a little too hard to make the next round of comments they read.

[00:00:25] And then Mentazi replies to that person and says, never mind. It was your mom stepping out of bed. Ted out of Ted. This is why we had this is exactly why we have this segment. All right, guys, welcome back to another episode of the PicklePod. We've got a good one.

[00:00:53] The largest court owner in the country, in the world, is going bankrupt. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about Ben Johns going three tournaments in a row in men's doubles without a gold medal. Anna Lee's 500th or whatever gold medal. We'll actually debate whether she does get to 500. She got to 200 in Chicago and everything else that went down in Chicago, including Hayden Patrick Quinn's potty mouth and what should be done about it.

[00:01:20] We go through your guys' comments. You guys actually weren't crap this time. You gave us good comments to go through, so we spent a good amount of time reading those. That was fun. And yeah, it's a fun episode. I'm over here in Brisbane, Australia at a hotel to be determined. And I'm in my parents' house. Nico, where should we even start?

[00:01:44] Well, I guess one thing that we can no longer do is guess your hotel room, which is like, honestly, my favorite part of the pod. I mean, I get people come here to listen to pickleball and pro pickleball talk. And I think my favorite part is just trying to see if I can get where you're at. But somebody in the comments was like, don't you guys understand that our time is valuable? And then they're just like, I'm not following you anymore. I was like, OK, what the fuck?

[00:02:11] So we piss somebody off just by guessing your hotel room. But I'm going to guess anyway, because that person doesn't watch anymore. So I don't give a shit. Perfect. Nico, you are just never in a billion years going to guess this one. There's a 0% chance. But also, as you're saying that, that just reminded me. Not the Ritz-Carlton. I have stayed at one before, courtesy of the New Jersey Fives. OK, I was going to say.

[00:02:41] This just reminded me of the Dave Chappelle skit where they're like, the customer? F*** the customer. F*** the customer. The listener. F*** the listener. They're already subscribers. But by the way, please subscribe and don't leave us. Unless you are S3 Loma who says, do you not value people's time more than talking about a stupid hotel room someone is staying in? Pickleball crap content. I'm out.

[00:03:10] By the way, it's not even pickleball content. We're talking about hotels. Anyway, and because of you, this has dragged on for an additional four minutes. Where are you staying, Zane? I am staying at the Hotel Diana in, oh wait, it's got a cool name. It's like Woolungaba or something like that. It's in Brisbane, but it's got some funny, funny name.

[00:03:34] Let me actually find the, it is Woolungaba. Woolungaba, okay. Woolungaba. Woolungaba. I'm for sure butchering that. But yeah, anyway. And so that I understand, today is Monday or today is Sunday where you're at? It is Monday morning, 1030 a.m. Monday morning. So do you play today? No, nor tomorrow. Tournament starts on Wednesday over here.

[00:04:05] Oh, okay. All right. All right. Well, Zane, we will get to PPA Australia and all over the country. Why don't we start with PPA Chicago? Zane, you were there. First, this is the first PPA stop that they had in Chicago? That's what I heard. It can't be right. Yeah, no. First ever. Obviously, there's been a lot of APPs at that Highland Park venue for forever and like Nike Park back in the day. But this is the first PPA stop.

[00:04:34] It's the same venue that we had MLP at. The MLP that I left, obviously, back in July, I think that was. So, yeah. And it's cool. Like, it's a, I think it's a phenomenal venue. And it's cool to have something in, you know, one of the biggest cities in the country. Now we just need to have something in a New York PPA. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Where does Chicago rank in your top cities of the United States, Zane? Putting you on the spot. Give me your top four.

[00:05:04] I want to know your top four cities. Does Chicago crack the top four? No, it doesn't. Now, I grew up close to Chicago. I'm from Wisconsin. Maybe it was because I was so close to Chicago all the time. But like, yeah. Chicago slice. Love it. I'm going to piss off all of those. Chicago, I feel like, is not in my top five. It's probably just outside my top five. I'm going to be really biased and go Austin number one. I absolutely love Austin.

[00:05:32] I'm going to go St. Pete. Sneaky number two. Because it feels a lot like Austin. It's the true pickleball player list right here. Yeah. Let me go Charlotte, North Carolina. Or just kind of like the eastern side of the Appalachian Mountain region. I don't know why. I really like that area of the country. And then after that. Chicago might be after that.

[00:06:01] We'll go Chicago after that. And, you know, I like, you know what? Anything other than Sacramento at that point, basically, afterwards is good for me. I'll take anywhere. I'll take Gary, Indiana over Sacramento. I was in Sacramento thinking of you getting, I had to get deodorant in Sacramento. And it was not locked. So I think Zane is full of shit and he's slandering Sacramento.

[00:06:30] But I was there for my son's cross-country meet and then a soccer game like right after. So Sacramento all weekend. But okay. So Chicago ahead of Sacramento. That's what the people want to hear. I think my top list is like New York, San Francisco. I like D.C. I like San Diego. But sleeper pick. I love Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. You been? They should have a pickleball tournament in there. It's like a bizarro.

[00:06:57] It's like if there was like if you took Vegas and Disneyland and smooshed them together and made it for, I don't know if it's for kids or not, but they got like a Dolly Parton land and they got like the Hatfield and McCoy, Lumberjack. Is that bullshit? Not like Gatlinburg? Yeah. Right next to Gatlinburg. It's right next to Gatlinburg. Okay. Got it. Got it. Yeah. If you guys have not been, one, the Great Smoky Mountains are one of the greatest places that you can go in America.

[00:07:22] But then right outside is like Jackassville, which is Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. So anyway, check it out. It's actually we had a bachelor party for my brother at Pigeon Forge. Fantastic. Anyway, so with that, let's get on to a Chicago PPA. Like I said, we're probably pissing off every fan. I know that there's like a clock in everybody's head and they're like, I'm checked out. So we now have the diehards. I appreciate you guys.

[00:07:52] Love you guys. Let's talk Anna Bright, 200. She had to wait an additional tournament, which like made me feel good. Oh, cry me. Oh no. Not having to wait another tournament for 200 gold medals. 200 at 19 years old. 200 gold medals. I think 45 triple crowns. Unstoppable.

[00:08:16] But she's not even trying for triple crowns anymore because she's taking singles off like every other tournament, if not more. Right. So like I'd be curious how many she double crowned in. Right. Double crowned and didn't play singles. That's got to be like at least another 10 more. Yes. How many undefeated tournaments does she have? That's a great question. Anybody that's listening, please put it in the comments or in the pro pickleball discord. Let us know. I need we need a fact checker.

[00:08:45] We do not have one. JB, our producer. We don't pay him enough to fact check that shit. So somebody let us know. Yeah. So, yeah, 200 wins. And my hot take is I feel like I've been sort of trending this this way. I keep saying like I enjoy it more when Anna Bright isn't playing singles. There's one match I kind of look forward to and that'll be the Annalie versus Kate final because I feel like Kate's kind of one of the few people that's actually can get something out of Annalie.

[00:09:15] Meaning like, OK, maybe that's a bad way of putting it, but like can actually hold up with Annalie enough to like make it interesting. So her first four rounds are just boring to me. And then also knowing that the finals is like a foregone conclusion is also boring. So my hot take is women's singles is better without Annalie. I think that's like the coldest of cold takes. I agree. I 100 percent agree. I usually disagree.

[00:09:44] And I know that there's probably like 25 percent of people that will come for your head for that that really love Annalie. And I appreciate people that love greatness. I love Annalie. Like it is. It's art. Zane loves Annalie. Before you come at me with the pitchfork. Just not enough to watch her play singles. I love Annalie too. Like I just say I wish I wish. OK, well, this is just never going to happen. The tournament she decides to sit out of women's singles. She should be allowed to play men's singles. And. Ooh. Men's singles. I like that. Make it open. Make it open singles.

[00:10:14] You have women's singles. You have open singles where anybody can play. But the only person that is good enough to play is Anna Bright. OK, I'm in for that. And I think she can she can win some. How far she can go, I don't know. But much better than watching her drop like, you know, 15 points for the entire tournament on the way to another singles goal. She's at, I think, 858 days without a loss.

[00:10:42] Someone said that I think it was Johnny 5.0 that said since their last loss at that point when the streak started, I think Gabe and Hayden had never won a PPA gold. That's how long it's been. That's crazy. I think most recently at that point, Thomas Wilson and Vivian David had just played their last tournament or just won their last tournament together.

[00:11:08] I haven't heard them in forever since both retired, basically. Yeah, a lot has has happened in the three years, basically, since she's lost. And nothing's changing. No one's getting close. Kate is trying. And I agree. It's fun to watch Kate because I feel like Kate can upset Annalie from like a combination of she's good enough to compete and she is frustrating. So I don't know.

[00:11:37] But besides that, Annalie is just going to roll through everybody. I guess my question here is if you were to put a number on how many gold medals Annalie is going to win in her PPA career, what? Like if I said over under is 500. Yeah, I feel like 500 was going to be my number.

[00:12:03] Like you got to think she's got at least, let's say, at least three more years of just sheer dominance. Right. So that probably means let's say dominance is actually only winning 50 percent of your your tournaments. Right. So if she's got if she's playing. 20 tournaments per year, that would be 30 gold medals for three years.

[00:12:33] That's another 90. That seems I would go. Yeah, that does seem low. But 500 is insane. But then again, she's only 19. She's only 19. So what's the max she could win in a given year? So she's playing 20 tournaments and she wins. She triple crowns everything. That's 60.

[00:12:59] So can she do another five years of winning everything? Obviously not like that. That would put it. But like. So I feel like 500 total golds is like a pretty good. And honestly, that would put her only at 24 years old. Man, that's such a hard. That's such a hard question. I feel like something's got to give.

[00:13:27] I feel like somebody's got to come in one way or another. Yeah. And she's been so dominant. But to continue that and win more than she already has would be kind of nuts to me to win another. But to win 300 more. I guess I'll go the under. I think I'm going under too. Maybe 400 is the right number.

[00:13:54] Like I think she maybe wins 50 for the next two years. That's like 100. So that's 300. And then she maybe like wins like 30 to 40 the rest of the time. Like I don't know. But I think the other thing that's tough. That's maybe like her sure thing of Ben Johns is less and less of a sure thing. Right. And so I think that one of the biggest problems for her is that either eventually she has to move on from Ben Johns.

[00:14:22] Because either one he's going to get bored or he's going to get old. He's actually not that old. He's like 27. But or he'll get old or he or somebody will pass him. And then I don't think there's going to be another Ben Johns level discrepancy in men's anytime soon. Right. So let's just say she ditches Ben for Hayden. Right. And we're going to get to the comments in a bit. But they talk a lot about this.

[00:14:45] Like even if she takes Hayden, Hayden and the next guy is way closer than Ben Johns and whoever the next person was last year or two years ago. So, yeah, I don't know. I think maybe we'll say 400. But, yeah, that's it's just crazy. I don't know. To me, I just don't know what what they're what is there left for Annalie to chase? So, like, if you were to say, Zane, like, what does she have to live for? Like, what does she have to play for? Like, she just won MLP. What does she have to live for? Oh, my.

[00:15:13] She is just she at this point, she should go into corporate tech. It might like be a new challenge. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know. But like, should she she own a pickler? I don't know. You know, like, what could she do that could be really tough? That's funny. Despite what Jimmy says, you're actually kind of funny, Nico. She's going to corporate tech. I love that. Then I think that should be the thumbnail of this. Annalie Waters should retire for corporate tech.

[00:15:43] Yeah. Honestly, dude, I don't know. But like, that's what I mean. But we talked to her right after MLP. She like again, she's a psychopath in the best possible way. Like she's never going to be happy. Like on with how much she she wins. Like it's it's one tournament after another. She wins MLP. She goes and has cake and she's like, all right, it's time to lock in for North Carolina. Yeah. That's just crazy.

[00:16:13] Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, she just doesn't think the same as you and me. So like you and me would be like, yeah, 200. All right. We're good. Like I can't we're chilling now that chilling doesn't exist for for her. So it's just like getting into the mind, a completely different mindset, which is, you know, no wonder you and I aren't number one. And anything really. But it's weird because it's like I would probably say that you and I are both happier than Annalie. I don't know.

[00:16:41] Like, I'm not saying that she's not happy, but I think that she's still different where she probably can never really, truly be happy, even though she's won 200 times. Like, I'm sure she loves winning. I mean, but it's just it wears off so quick. Like literally she, you know, she's she's not Federico celebrating, you know, his drunk ass, you know, with the trophy. She's grinding again. So I don't know. Yeah. But like, aren't you so I mean, this is this is we're reading deep here. I always find myself happiest when I'm like grinding at something.

[00:17:11] When I am pursuing something. And so, yeah, I suppose she doesn't give herself much of much time to like enjoy that. But I feel like I find more enjoyment out of the the process than I do the the milestones. And I think that's what they love. Like she's. She's enjoying the process. Like, I think she's enjoying the process more than the than the outcomes.

[00:17:41] Yeah, I agree. I think you're right. I actually I spoke to James and that was the other day and he was talking about the same thing. He was just like, I just want to I want to build companies. I want to, you know, I enjoy creating RPM because I'm just I'm building the entire time. And I think that you're probably right. I just don't see. I don't see the enjoyment and that she probably celebrates in a different way. She's a different. You know, different than you and me, but you're probably right. So for her, it's all about the process. And then I think that the gold medals are a sign of relief.

[00:18:11] You just won your 200. You figured out how to move your feet. You won your 200th PPA gold. What are you doing to celebrate that? Oh, my gosh. I don't at that point. I don't even know. Like retiring. Maybe I don't know. Like, I think I think the thing is like for her, she's so good that she's no longer celebrating when she's just exhaling. You know what I mean? Like, she's like, all right, I didn't lose. You know, I think that's the thing. I heard Anna Bright talk about this before, like the pressure playing with Anna Lee. It's like you're not necessarily enjoying the win.

[00:18:40] You're like, OK, I can't fuck this up. And I feel like that's what's happening for her. You know, like so I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm definitely I'll never get there, you know, obviously. But I'm saying quick, quick, quick aside. I just want to say I played in a in a semi-professional pickleball league today. And for the second time in the last two games, I lost it.

[00:19:08] Once again, it's, you know, Sausage Fest UPL. Shout out UPL. It's fun. But, you know, five guys, one girl. The girl can play wherever at whatever rotation you want. I lost again. You're making Grindr's comments to me. Yes. Just saying. You know, this is that. So I was playing with another male. We lost to a mixed team for the second time in a row. And when there's a lot of pressure playing against a team that's worse than you, like we're definitely the favorites by a lot. And so I can't I don't understand how Anna Lee does it.

[00:19:38] But anyway, just to pull out and, you know, just to toot my own horn. It goes into a dream breaker. I go five and one in singles. Nico, the lefty five and one in singles. I asked them to put me first in the lineup. They said, no, you're going dead last. But I did go dead last. I did play another guy. And I whooped his ass. Shout out, John. You played much better than me in doubles. But single. Sorry. Five and one. It was fantastic. Anyway, back to Anna.

[00:20:06] I mean, I was thinking about Anna Lee the whole time. And I was like, oh, this is a perfect time to talk about me. I'm just like her. So anyway, I wish the points were recorded. You should have seen me move like a gazelle. It was incredible. So. Wow. I got no notes. Good for you. Congrats, Nico. That does. That actually does sound like fun. I love. I love that the team stuff is taking off at like the the amateur or semi pro, as you called it.

[00:20:36] Semi pro. Yeah. It's like five five ish, you know, four or five to five five football right there. Anyway. Semi pro. Is that like a Flint tropics type of semi pro? Or what are we talking here? I don't even know what you're talking about right now. Is this the movie semi pro? Yeah. I haven't seen it. Are you kidding me? This is a Will Ferrell movie. Yeah. Yeah. No, my blind spots are like Adam, Adam Sandler movies, Will Ferrell movies.

[00:21:06] Nope. I'm like a whiplash kind of guy. You know, I'd like to watch movies that make me hate myself. So. I mean, whiplash was a phenomenal film. Don't get me wrong. But like, come on, Will Ferrell. I'm just dumbfounded by this right now. What? We've had this conversation before. You talk about Annalie being unhappy. You don't even like Will Ferrell movies. What is wrong with you?

[00:21:32] There's no way this is a happy existence if you've never seen semi pro or some of of Adam Sandler's films. Guys, come on. Give me some support in the comment here. I'm not crazy. I feel like I'm being gaslit right now by Nico. No, I agree. Like I said, it's my blind spot. You know, I find enjoyment in jumping on a 90 minute pod once a week with Zayn Avertil. I hate myself. And I have never watched half of the Will Ferrell movies.

[00:21:58] So maybe I'll do that before the next pod and we can power rank Will Ferrell movies. Let me know in the comments what is the best one. My favorite super sleeper pick, Kicking and Screaming. Fantastic. RIP Mike Ditka. If you know Will Ferrell Ball, that's a deep pull. Kicking and Screaming. You don't know Will Ferrell Ball. You haven't seen semi pro. Stop. Stop. You're not allowed to say you know Will Ferrell Ball.

[00:22:29] You are right. You're right. Zayn, I've talked about Merrick Health for like the last nine months. And I decided it was time to restart the Merrick Health journey. I went through it. I felt good. I fell off a little bit after the lefty reset. And then I pulled my hamstring running 20 yards. And someone said that my broad jump caused an earthquake. So I thought now's a good time to go back on my health bullshit. But it's not bullshit.

[00:22:57] And Merrick is helping me out. So here's the update. Zayn, I took another blood test. I think I mentioned this. The lady asked me how I slept for some reason. Anyway, it was like weird, weird small talk. But that's not the Merrick Health employee. That's the person taking my blood. I get my information back. My health coach, Peter, tells me probably too much information. Tells me everything there is to know about testosterone, peptides, GLP-1s, Tardafafil. I can't name all the stuff.

[00:23:26] But he's got to be like almost on par with Brian Johnson who's trying to live forever. Anyway, he tells me the things that he recommends. I say, yeah, you know more than me. He's like the Ron Burgundy or the Ron Burgundy, Ron Swanson of my health. He then gets a doctor on in a couple of days. And the doctor then actually gives me all the detail and peace of mind as well. So I'm like, all right, here's an MD professional or whatnot telling me what I need to do. And so here's where I'm at. For those of you who are wondering, Nico, low T for sure.

[00:23:53] But, you know, Blaine Hovinders have a field day with that. But it is treatable. And this happens to a lot of males. Like once you, you know, you're basically peak, you know, there's a lot of people that peak in college and then it just kind of slowly trickles down. And it can help with like your energy, your mood, you know, drive whatever, you know, drive what? I don't know. But so we're going to have Nico on testosterone. We're going to have Nico on HCG. So you're going to get to follow my journey.

[00:24:22] I'm actually doing the things that I'm talking about. And we're on HCG. What is? Yeah. What is HCG? What is that? It's not HGH, not human growth hormone. But so for those of you who are wondering, so if you're in my situation, you have four kids. But because you are crazy, you think I want five kids. Right. And so HCG allows you to be on testosterone and still have kids. So that's what's happening. I'm opening up probably a little bit too much.

[00:24:51] But at the same time, it was something that I put off for a long time because I was like worried, like, all right, I don't want to do this. But they, you know, I'm worried about not being able to have kids. But now we can still have another kid. So baby Mia, who is now one and a half, maybe can have a brother or sister. I can feel better about myself. And the doctors and the health professionals with Merrick aren't just like, here, run away and go do this stuff. It's there. They're every single step of the journey.

[00:25:16] So I feel comfortable finally taking the step that I probably should have taken like five plus years ago. Man, Merrick Health. That's the last thing that we needed. More little Nico the lefties in this world. That's unbelievable. Merrick Health. We've got we've got we've got beef. Well, if if you are a pro more Nico the lefties or you want to do the same thing as me, let me know. Also, by the way, I want to hear all you guys's stories if you sign up for Merrick Health.

[00:25:44] But go to Merrick Health dot com. Use code the dink for 10 percent off. It's Merrick Health dot com slash the dink. Anyway, what the hell are we talking about? Well, we talked about Anna Bright Dominance. She won. You know, I think we can talk. Why don't we start speaking of Annalise? We talked a little bit about Ben Johns. I was worried Ben Johns was not going to win another gold medal again. This tournament as well goes out in the first.

[00:26:11] So Ben Johns has basically been undefeated for the last year with Gabe Tardio up until last tournament. Yeah, he refuses to win with anybody else. He has not won a match this year with any other partner, I don't think. So Owen won with Federico. Owen won with Jack Sock. So is Ben carried by Gabe? I don't know. It's surprising, but it's kind of like our podcast. Nico actually carries the podcast.

[00:26:41] I'm the Gabe of this podcast. So you don't think about it, but if I were to leave, you know, actually people will probably be happy. Somebody said, one comment said, I forgot why I remember why I hate this show. Nico. I'm like, okay. Did you forget like in the middle of the episode, like when I'm there the entire time? But was it? Well, I feel like there's a few things to break down from this one.

[00:27:04] First off, like I think against in Mesa when Ben played with Fed, Nico obviously played really, really well, like took over, was the best player in that entire tournament. Right. And so Ben and Fed, I think that was more Ben's fault than Fed's fault. Like Fed kind of played his role. This one was tough to watch. Like I, we talked about it. Like I actually had decent expectations for this team. Jack Sock was playing a good right side with Federico.

[00:27:32] I also said Jack Sock is a little bit more of the aggressive right side player that Ben needs, that Gabe is providing to Ben. So I think I had them as a finalist team. And also they had a, just a cakewalk of a draw had they, you know, made it past the first round. And so like I was a little surprised by it, but then I watched, I'm like, yeah, you know, this one's not on Ben.

[00:28:00] And Jack missed every, pretty much every third or fifth shot. Like from the kitchen, they were fine, but they just never could get to the kitchen. I actually broke it down, broke down that entire match in depth on my recap video. It was kind of ugly. Ben didn't play great, but also he didn't play horribly. No, Jack Sock was, that was, that was tough for Jack.

[00:28:28] I think there's like extra pressure for anybody playing with Ben. I think you see it in every single person that plays with Ben. I've seen it with Hayden. I saw it with James Ignatowich in Sacramento. I saw it with Jack. I've seen with Fed. I saw it with Anna Bright. So that's tough. Right. But it was, I even thought like, even at the kitchen line, like they're just like dinking straight across to Jack and then Jack's even popping stuff up and hitting the net to the point where Ben's like coming over, like, you know, playing mixed.

[00:28:59] And, and I like you, so we talked about this on the pod. I said quarter finals run. I think you said semis and then you backtracked to quarters. So we were almost not even close. Um, but I went up to finals. I thought I backed. No, I thought I actually went to finals. Didn't I? I don't think so. I think you went to semifinals, but I don't know. I don't remember. But in the end I was like, I thought about it over and over again. I looked at the draw and I was like, okay, this to your point, this does look easy.

[00:29:25] And if there's anybody that I need to get on their good side is Jack Sock and Ben John. So I put a tweet out that just said, hot take Jack and Ben take silver at PPA Chicago. Right. I'm like, okay, cool. I'm doing, I'm like supporting the guys. And then I just get roasted online for it not being a hot take. Why is this a hot take? Do you think most people think they'll do better or worse? Shaking my head. You said you're not a Ben Johns glazer. I'm disappointed, Nico. I'm like, okay, what the F?

[00:29:54] Um, so someone said. I did notice that. Dude, like everybody, no matter what opinion you put out there on Ben and Jack this week, it was wrong. It was wrong. It was crazy. It was crazy. If you say they're going out early, people would be like, no, you're an idiot. If you say they're winning the whole thing, no, you're an idiot. Like you just, this week in the comments, you could not have an opinion on, on Ben and Jack before the tournament. Dude, it was insane. Some guy told me it's not how hot takes work. I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, they're the two seed. It's not a hot take. I'm like, it is a hot.

[00:30:23] I was like, if you know ball like I don't with Will Ferrell, you know that Jack and Ben are going to get fucked up. We all knew it in here, but our hearts wanted them to win. We talked ourselves into Jack and Ben because I think it's the most fun pickleball to watch. Uh, but sadly it did not happen. And dude, the guys that beat them. It was not a fun pickleball to watch. I thought that they would be like, I thought that they'd be like joking around, like driving crash, playing athletic.

[00:30:53] It was not fun pickleball to watch. Fun pickleball to watch was on the other side of the net. Like you said, Bruno and Anwar played fun freaking pickleball, dude. And talk about guys that you just don't want to end up in a dark alley with. Holy crap. Those guys like they've got to be the one seed for like PPA bar fights. Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent. I was looking at, uh, what's his name? Bruno. I was like, dude, this guy, he, they hit hard. They look scary.

[00:31:23] They're huge. Like, and less like Jack sock is not a small guy either, but these dudes just, they look like it looked like Thanos and, you know, as they're playing and it just felt like every hands battle, they even won too. Like it was, they played great. And so, you know, it was, it was fun to watch good run by them. I think, you know, do you think that, uh, that's like a Cinderella run one and done? Or do you think you see Anwar and, and Bruno again, uh, making quarterfinals or, you know, sticking together?

[00:31:52] I don't know what they have, uh, together, um, or not, but now, I mean, I think Anwar has proven it a little bit more. He had a nice upset over, uh, Noe and Tina with, um, with Maya Bowie. Um, so that's a nice mixed doubles win. Like Anwar might be the hardest hitter in pickleball. He hits harder than Jack sock. Um, you see some of those overheads. He hits some of those drives and stuff. He's playing a really chaotic right side.

[00:32:22] Bruno, this is the first time I've really seen him so much. He's playing, he's playing well. So I don't know if they're playing together more. Um, but they followed it up with two more pretty good wins. So I don't think it's a fluke. That's for sure. Nope. All right. So, uh, so they knocked Ben out. Uh, Nico makes it to the finals again, finals, right? Again. Um, and so, I mean, his, his, his runs continue.

[00:32:50] So I think semi final, semi finals, finals get absolutely rolled in the finals. Uh, but another strong performance by then. And then, uh, I think that, you know, obviously Hayden and fed benefited from no Gabe, no Christian and Andre and get a gold, uh, much needed, I think for that partnership. Yeah. Let's see. Anything else interesting?

[00:33:16] Oh, we have, uh, we have Hayden, uh, calling, um, Erica whiny bitch. What'd you think about that? Oh, wait, on the post game. Like when he's talking about, I didn't see it in the match, but I heard the post game presser and he's like, yeah, he's like, I can't really, he's not good to call somebody a bitch. And then you just hear fed said, no, it's good. That was funny. But what happened? Did he, did he do like, I couldn't believe he said it in the post game presser.

[00:33:43] Uh, but no, I, I, I missed it during the match. I don't know. They were like just chirping and stuff. And then like one point, Eric, uh, just gives the ball back to him. Hayden's at the kitchen. It wasn't like a DJ and, uh, Christian Alshon stare down from last week. Um, but, uh, Hayden's up at the kitchen. Eric picks up the ball out of the net and just tosses it over his head. Not hard to do.

[00:34:07] Um, but, uh, next point, uh, Hayden loses it and smacks the ball into the corner away from him and says like, you're a whiny bitch. And like, wait, Hayden smacks the ball in the corner and called Eric a whiny bitch. Yeah. After pulling a bitch move. Okay. Which dude, I feel like, okay. Hayden has the opportunity to come out of this. Are you sure you're not in Sacramento? With, is that a siren? No, I'm right next to a hospital over here.

[00:34:37] Oh, okay. Okay. I thought you were in the hood. No. Um, but, uh, I think Hayden real opportunity to go make a social media post of getting some soap and washing out his mouth, like, like old school style. Be like, I'm sorry. Yeah. I won't say, or maybe like a Bart Simpson. I will not say bitch like a hundred times on the whiteboard or something like that. Like, I think. I think I had that poster in my room when I was a kid.

[00:35:08] Oh my goodness. I think some of those, some of those players are sponsored by method, like the soap. So, uh, yeah. Oh yeah. There you go. Are you sponsored by method? Were you at? I did a method post one time. At some point I saw Zane maybe in the shower or something like that. I feel like it's scarred into my memory. Fuck. Yeah. Now it's bringing it back. Ugh. Gag reflex. By the way, speaking of gag reflex. Oh boy. I bought a tongue scraper because I was told that that's like the most bacteria is on your tongue.

[00:35:38] Proud of myself. I, I tried it once and I almost threw up immediately. So unfortunately the tongue scraper is going to the garbage, but I can't do it. Anyway. Have you ever used a tongue scraper? I've used a tongue scraper before. Um, yeah. I don't know. Where do you want to go from here? What do you want me to say? I don't remember what we're talking about. Um, all right. So guys like subscribe for thumbs scrapers, tongue scrapers. Oh boy.

[00:36:08] God. We just keep like, we just keep devolving more and more on this podcast as we get to know each other more. I feel like maybe some of the comments are right. I don't know. Yeah, I think so. Um, well, speaking of the pod, I did send out an invitation via Twitter to gold medalist Roscoe Bellamy. Unfortunately he did not respond. Uh, I said, come on the pod, celebrate your gold medal, uh, pickleballers podcast host. Uh, don't know that that's ever going to happen. Did see him on James's podcast though.

[00:36:36] So I'm still disappointed, but, um, did not think he was going to win gold and then did so decisively over Chris Hayworth. So second gold medal for Roscoe. Impressive. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like it was good run playing well, really good court or a semifinal match against, uh, John Lucian goings. But I kind of thought that that run was going to end against Chris. And the crazy part is, as I was doing my recap video, I saw, I look, I always look up people's

[00:37:04] head to head matchups and they haven't played since 2024. They've played twice. It was 2023 and 2024, which is kind of wild to me. Obviously Chris spent some time on the, on the APP tour, but like, it's weird. You got Zoe while playing Annalie waters three times per tournament, every single tournament. And you got guys like this who, who don't come across each other at all for years, even

[00:37:31] though they're both making deep runs like on a weekend by weekend basis. So I don't know. I was like looking, I was like, you've probably seen Ross Roscoe was probably played Hunter like a hundred times. I feel like that happened every single tournament. So yeah. Weird. Yeah. I thought matchup wise, um, Roscoe could maybe give some problems to Chris cause, um, cause he's just long and hard to pass. And Chris hits through the court as opposed to like, kind of like more angled passes.

[00:37:59] So that sort of plays into Roscoe's length. But honestly, it was like a lot of serve and forehand from Roscoe and Chris just didn't really look like himself. Roscoe really sort of took him out of, out of his rhythm. It seemed like. Yeah. It's what's weird about Chris is like, I think he is, he's not, he's no fed where fed is like pretty consistent all the time. Right.

[00:38:24] Chris has like the highest of high for sure, but he throw some duds. Like, you know, I watched him play half a match against, uh, Rafa Leonard earlier in the tournament and he couldn't hit a forehand. Right. Like, so I don't, I don't get it. Like, I think Chris maybe just goes for a lot. And then when he's off by a couple inches, just makes a big difference. But yeah, I mean, it was a five and four or something like that. No better example of that than when I played Chris Hayworth in Texas.

[00:38:52] He wins 11-0. I win the second game, 11-0. He wins the third game, 11-0. Like first ever triple pickle. Triple pickle. And if there was any, if there was like a score, that is a score of gummy. Uh, but if there was ever a person to guess who would be the person to get triple pickled and lose, there's no way that you're not the number one seed in that choice.

[00:39:22] Like if we were to draft people that we thought that would happen to you, I think you got to be number one. Uh, I would honestly put it. I feel like John Lucian Goins has a lot of like up and down sort of games too. Like he beat Fed seven and zero. Like I feel like he didn't need like beat Ben with like 11, two, zero, 11, 11, four or something like that a couple of weeks ago. That could have been. Yep. Like I feel like maybe John Luch would be up there too. Cause nobody had me winning any game 11-0 against Chris Hayworth.

[00:39:52] You gotta have the upside, which I don't really. So the fluke of all. But you had the wind or something like that. I don't know. There was some wind. Yeah. That certainly helped. But we can't stop talking about singles without talking about the, the new flying Frenchman, Emmy Burnell. Right. Is that, um, just one played fantastic.

[00:40:16] I, once again, um, the king of premature takes said, I think this guy like is going to be number two in singles by the time he's done. Like for sure. Like I, in my head, I'm like, is he better than Chris? I don't know. But I watched him play cam Chafin. I watched him play some other points before that. And like the backhand was fire. Uh, it good angled cross, you know, just ripping backhands cross and then coming in ending points

[00:40:44] early and still having like way too many, like tennis slice volleys. I feel like he can like roll some of them. And like, so I thought like, all right, this guy's only going to get better and he's beating cam beat Hunter. And then this gets absolutely just, just, I don't know. I don't want to say it's, it's a PG podcast. So I can't say what happened against Chris Hayworth, but it's really not. It was belt to run. Yes. So, but, uh, what do you think about his run?

[00:41:14] Oh, I mean like, yeah, I think once is, can be a fluke, but he did follow it up with a couple and I did, you know, or I saw some post. He's like a grad student in St. Louis and he's not even like full-time pickleball right now. Um, he's going to go full-time pickleball next year. Um, so yeah, I mean, he looked great, uh, but seems like more and more guys are coming into singles and then that's the easiest place to sort of break in.

[00:41:44] Also like he followed it up, but you got to kind of feel for Hunter. So he wins Vegas. He probably doesn't get a flight out until Monday morning, right? Maybe, maybe Sunday night if he's lucky. Right. So let's say he's Monday morning or a red eye. He's got like one day to recover and hit, and then he's up again on Tuesday. Like that's, that's kind of brutal.

[00:42:11] He's got like 36 hours between his final on Sunday and, and, uh, playing on Tuesday. That's brutal. Yeah. I, I, you got to give the guy one buy, like, can we make, can we change the rules right now? Because that's insane, especially if he's going to be playing on Sunday. Um, so that is what we call a schedule loss. Um, you know, they talk about those in basketball or in football when you play the game on Sunday night.

[00:42:38] And then the next game you have to play is on the road in for some reason, like Australia and it's on a Thursday night. Like you just chalk it up for like, well, you know, we're just happy to be here. And so, and then Hunter gets, you know, the, the best qualifier maybe of all time. So, uh, yeah, poor Hunter. That's insane. Um, also Zane, do you think this was the best qualifier run ever? Does this, I know Colin Schick made the finals. I remember that one.

[00:43:07] I think in like, uh, where was he? Um, Daytona or something like that a couple of years ago. I think you answered your own question there, Nico. No, but, but, but here's the thing. Colin Schick made a finals run, did not beat Hunter Johnson. You know what I mean? Like, I think the run is a little bit more impressive. Yeah. Beats Hunter Johnson, beats JW Johnson, beats Cam Chafin, like, and then loses to Chris Hayworth gets absolutely demolished. Right.

[00:43:36] I know that I think Colin Schicks was also fantastic, but it's gotta be right up there. Like, I mean, that I haven't seen a run like this by qualifier in a while. Yeah, no, it's been, it's been a minute. Um, really good one. I, uh, I'm sure there's maybe some other ones that we're forgetting about. I don't know. But yeah, it's up there. I think you got to call Colin Schicks probably the best. Yeah. Congratulations to the semifinal run.

[00:44:03] Um, my prediction is this time next year, he's top 10. That's what I, that's, that's my prediction. So with an outside shot of top five. Okay. I like it. We are probably going to forget about that hot take, uh, between now and then, but Hey, you know, maybe one of the commenters will, uh, will remind us when, when it's wrong. Oh, that for sure. For sure. They will. If it's wrong, somebody's going to go find it. If it's right, you know, it'll be forgotten about. Don't worry, Nico. Yeah.

[00:44:34] Exactly. So should we get into, uh, women's doubles? Um, we had basically what we expected to happen and up until the finals and first game of the finals when, uh, Anna Lee and, uh, Anna Bright just get absolutely whooped, uh, to 11, uh, but then come back, uh, and win. So they win their hundredth in a row. I don't, I'm not sure how many, but Tyra is looking great. It looks like the resurgence of Catherine Parenteau. So any, any thoughts there on women doubles? No.

[00:45:04] Uh, so I actually asked some people, I don't know the answer to this. Why, um, Georgia and Tyra aren't playing together. Uh, somebody did tell me that like, this was maybe like a late edition or something like, so I'm curious if Georgia and Tyra are broken up. I actually don't know the answer, but, and we're not going to get the answer for the next couple of weeks because there's several tournaments.

[00:45:31] We've got Virginia Beach and Australia going on this week, followed by Hong Kong. So I think the partnerships are just going to be a mess for everybody for those. But it'll be very interesting to see if Tyra and Catherine are playing worlds together. I think you've got to think that Georgia and, uh, Tyra are broken up. If they're back together at worlds, I think you could chalk it up to just some scheduling stuff, right? So I actually just don't, don't know. Do you think they should break up?

[00:46:01] No, no, I don't think so. I mean like Tyra, Tyra and Catherine have been doing really well, but also like Georgia and Tyra do quite well together as well. So I didn't think it was time for, for Georgia and Tyra to break up. Here's the question is, is Tyra the third best women's doubles player? On an average day, I would say maybe. So like Tyra has- Thank you, this is great.

[00:46:34] So like, I think there's an obvious, Annalia's number one, Anna Bright's number two. I think Tyra at her best and Anna Bright near her worst. I think Tyra is a better player. Meaning like, I think Tyra at her ceiling is better than Anna Bright at her floor. But also, I think Tyra at her floor can also fall below a Georgia, Paris, and even a Rachel.

[00:47:00] So I think Tyra's kind of got like a wide gap between her best and her weakest. I would say, in women's doubles, on average, I'd call Tyra the third. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I think you're right. The floor, and that's, I think the knock on Tyra is like inconsistent. You know, return to Tyra, it pops up some things, pops up some thirds, right?

[00:47:26] But she's now made four finals in a row, three different partners. Like, and so when you're talking about the breakup with Georgia, you know, I had posted that it was a good day for the Kate is better than Georgia contingency, which I am a part of. In the match where Georgia and Sophia Seving, who I thought were going to do fantastic, ended up losing to Kate and Millie when they completely iced out Georgia 100%. But I don't know.

[00:47:54] I think for me, I'd love to see Tyra play with Kate. Like, I think that maybe that team has the highest floor. I don't know. Maybe. I don't know. Like, is that team better than Tyra and Georgia? I don't know. Yeah, that's an interesting one because you just don't see some of these matchups. I mean, Kate's playing really well right now, too, on the right side. All right, well, let's do this here.

[00:48:23] Before we get off of women's doubles, I want you to give me your top 10 in women's doubles. In women's doubles. Okay, so not the top 10 women, but the top 10 in women's doubles. Top 10. No, no, no, no, no. Sorry. Let me rephrase that. Top 10 women's players only doubles disciplines. Women's doubles and mixed doubles. You have to combine the two. Ooh, okay. All right. Annalie, Anna Bright.

[00:48:48] I think you got to go probably Georgia next because she's really good at mixed and very good at women's. After Georgia, I'd put probably Tyra. It's kind of flipped in that position. Really good at women's. Slightly weaker and mixed probably. I think you got Paris and Rachel right after that.

[00:49:17] Both pretty well-rounded. And I'd put them neck and neck. Yeah, I'd say Paris is probably higher ceiling, lower floor than Rachel. Rachel's a little more consistent. So I'll give the edge to the player with the higher ceiling in Paris. Rachel, or I'm sorry, Catherine is playing pretty well again the last two weeks.

[00:49:43] But I really feel like Kate has upped her game. I'm going to put Kate, Catherine, Tina, give me Danny Townsend. I think, again, Tina probably more consistent. Danny a little bit more volatile. I think on a given day, Tina's still probably better than Danny. Okay.

[00:50:12] Sophia's probably right around there. You got Lacey right around there. Meg Dazon. The Kawamoto's. The Kawamoto's. Yeah, all right around there. Are the Kawamoto's still top 10? Yeah, I mean, probably. Kawamoto's going to Kawamoto, you know what I mean? All right, so are both the Kawamoto's in the top 10? I'm going to make you kick somebody out here. Oh, don't make me do it. We're doing it.

[00:50:39] Here, we got Anna Lee, Anna Bright, Tyra, Georgia, Paris, Rachel. That's six. Then I think you had Kate, seven. Did you put Catherine in yet? I think so. Because we have Catherine or Tina. I think I put Catherine right after Kate. Okay, that's eight. And then you had Tina and Danny. That's 10. So that means no Kawamoto, no Sophia's having no Lacey, no Megan Dazon. Yeah.

[00:51:09] I'm going to stick with that because the Kawamoto's aren't playing as much anymore. They did one of those contract extensions where they split up half of their tournaments. So they're not playing quite as much anymore. I've probably got to take them. I'm liking my rankings over there. Okay. All right. What are your notes, Nico? The people are dying to know what Nico's notes on that would be. Yes.

[00:51:38] Okay. My thoughts. Oh, my gosh. I want to take Catherine out of the top 10. I'm not going to lie. This is tough for me because she's played really good for the last two tournaments. I think that would have been easy had it not been. I would have had the Kawamotos ahead of Catherine. I probably would have had Sophia ahead of Catherine. Yeah. But she just made back-to-back finals. I feel like you can't take her out of the top 10 after back-to-back finals. That's true. And she played great. And that's the hard thing.

[00:52:07] I want to give all the credit to Tyra. And I understand Tyra has now been to four in a row. She's great. I honestly, I might even switch Tyra in Georgia. If you gave Tyra JW for five years in a row, probably she's doing better than Georgia. I don't know. Tyra's problem is she's so good on the left and not as good on the right. So I think Tyra is probably number two, maybe number three left-side player in the world. But yeah. No, I think your list is probably good.

[00:52:38] And I would put Catherine at number 10 and just bump the other people up. So I'd much rather play Catherine, especially in Mix, than Danny Townsend. I'd probably rather play Catherine in women's too because I'd be more afraid of Danny. So whether or not Danny or Catherine win more, I just think like in me, in my head, I'm thinking about who I'm afraid of. I'm afraid of Danny and not afraid of Catherine. So, all right. Fair enough. We'll lock it in. Catherine, you're back in the top 10. Congratulations.

[00:53:07] For putting Catherine in. Because once again, I get Hayden every single comment I do. Said that she's not top 10. I'm eating my words. She is number 10. Congratulations. All right. All right. Now here's... Are we done now with PPA Chicago? Should we move on to some... Anything in mixed doubles that we want to talk about? No. No. Not really. I mean, J-Dub and Georgia also gave Hayden and Anna the belt.

[00:53:38] Yeah. Yeah. That's probably... That's about it from my end. And I hate it when that happens because usually what then happens is Georgia and J-Dub historically get rolled by Ben and Anna Lee. And so I am always rooting... And this is the hard thing. It's like, I like J-Dub and Georgia, but I am always rooting for Anna Bright and Hayden because I'm like, the finals is going to be so much better with those two. And so I don't know if it... Is it matchups or is it mentality?

[00:54:04] Like, do you know, like, when it comes to, like, Hayden and Anna, I would say, are at similar skill level as Georgia and J-Dub, but when Georgia and J-Dub play Ben and Anna Lee, 23 out of 25 times they're getting rolled. Yeah. I don't know. I really don't. I'm like, I was kind of trying to figure that out too. Even the matchups between Anna Lee... I'm sorry.

[00:54:30] Even the matchups between Anna Bright and Hayden and then J-Dub and Georgia, they're 3-3 all time. They have played zero good matches. It is always, like, kind of a beat down one way or another, which is really odd. Like, normally if it's a back and forth sort of, like, rivalry where the teams are, like, even head-to-head, Sacramento. A lot of people... A lot of people... Brisbane must be the Sacramento of Australia. I don't know.

[00:55:00] No, I'm just kidding. I'm liking it. I walked around all day yesterday when I got in. Um... Yeah. Well, like, when you get an even matchup, it's weird that all of the individual matches aren't that close. I mean, like, it's, uh... Yeah. I think it's just whether or not Georgia and J-Dub are on and confident against Ben and Annalie. Yeah. Which is not normally the case. So, um... All right. Ben and Annalie. They win again.

[00:55:30] Um... What is the next tournament in the States? I'm... I don't... I don't actually know. Is there one coming up? There's Virginia Beach. There's Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach is going on, um... Tomorrow. While Brisbane is going on. Yeah. All right. So, what's the split? Like, is Brisbane have a lot of pros? Is everybody mostly playing Virginia Beach? Who's over in Australia? It seems like it's, I don't know, like, two-thirds, one-thirds Virginia Beach versus Australia.

[00:56:01] Um... Like, you know, a lot of... I think a lot of the lower or newer pros aren't traveling because it's super expensive to get over to Australia, right? Um... Yeah. And there's, you know, good points here. So, I think the top pros are a little bit more split. But, like, the rest of the field is mostly Virginia Beach. Okay. Well, Zane, you'll be in Australia. I'm grinding it out there.

[00:56:28] We'll see if we can get another gold medal for Zane abroad and see if it's just, you know, the special Zane, uh... I don't know, magic? Or if it runs out finally? I don't know. We'll see. Maybe it's in the paella or the Vegemite. I don't know. We'll see. But, um... Yeah. Uh... I'm not allowed to bet on pickleball. But if I was, I would probably bet on pickleball. I would bet against myself on this earth. I'm not going back to back. If Zane was allowed to bet on pickleball, he would bet against himself. Uh... But, um...

[00:56:59] All right. Um... So, Zane. A non-pro pickleball... Pickleball story of the week. Zane, we're gonna put on Zane the Auditor. Or Zane the CPA. Zane the Deloitte. Dork. Um... Um... The Pickler Files Chapter 11. Bankruptcy. Zane, can you break this down for us as someone who knows everything about spreadsheets? Pfft.

[00:57:28] I mean... No. I'm gonna... I would be lying if I didn't chat GPT the 107-page bankruptcy filing. Who's got time to read that shit? It's smarter than us at this point anyway. Claude does. So, no. I mean, like... I know... I know some of the... Like, you know, some of the basics. So... The Pickler, uh... Declared bankruptcy on Friday, I believe.

[00:57:52] But there's always, like, the, you know, declaring bankruptcy and people think, um, automatically that it's like they're going out of business. No. This one, they don't intend to go out of business. They're restructuring their debts. And so, that doesn't mean that nobody's getting screwed. Like, somebody's gonna lose money. But the Pickler will continue to operate. So, the Pickler is a franchise model where the, uh...

[00:58:20] Where the franchisees kind of run their own independent businesses. So, you know, a local Pickler could go bankrupt. And then corporate Pickler could go bankrupt. But also not affect certain local facilities. Right? So, anyway, they are restructuring their debt. Which means they weren't going to be able to basically pay off what they were owing to, uh...

[00:58:48] To different people and whatnot. So, yeah. Sounds like... I mean, I was able to pull their 2024 tax return. Which was in the, uh, bankruptcy filing. Uh, they had a net loss of about $14 million. Which is kind of crazy. Because I think their entire sales revenue was like $5.8 million. So, yeah. I mean, the real question is...

[00:59:19] Whether the Pickler is sustainable even after this restructuring. Yeah. And Zane, do you think this is a Pickler problem? Or do you think this is an indoor Pickleball problem? Like, I think that that's what a lot of people are wondering. Like, it's tough because, like, I think Jimmy in a tweet was like, Oh, this was all done by a rogue employee who happened to be the president. Who's no longer there. Like, I don't know.

[00:59:47] It's easy to, like, throw blame at somebody who's no longer there. Um, I don't know enough about it. So, cool. You know, maybe it is one employee that got them in a handful of bad situations. Corporate oversight sounds like that. Sounds like they don't know what they're doing. But, um, I think what a lot of people are saying in the comments when I was, like, looking at your post or my tweet. Like, I think people are bearish on indoor Pickleball. Because it's so expensive.

[01:00:16] Because you can only have four people on a court at once. And the court takes up so much space. Like, they were saying, like, you know, like, Chipotle operates, like, a $14 million business on the same size as, like, one or two Pickleball courts. You know, like, and the Pickleball courts generate, like, you know, $10,000 a month per court. Well, then, based on that logic, wouldn't every tennis court that's indoor ever fall apart, too? There are plenty of, like, there are plenty of tennis courts that have fallen apart, right?

[01:00:45] Tennis clubs that have fallen apart. But there are still plenty of tennis clubs that operate well. And something that's very interesting, the difference between tennis clubs and Pickleball clubs is there's no Pickler or Ace or, um, you know, whatever of tennis. Every other tennis facility has some other reason to be a member there, right? You've got Lifetime. Lifetime's probably got more tennis courts than anybody in the country. But it's a gym first, right?

[01:01:14] And with tennis on the side. Most tennis clubs are maybe, like, regional chains. Like, in Wisconsin, we had the elite clubs. There were, like, five or six of them. Maybe there's more now. I don't know. But there were also gyms as well. So, like, I think, I've said this for a long time, like, Pickleball courts are going to become commoditized. And they already have been. So, early on, the strategy, I think, from the Pickler was relatively smart.

[01:01:42] Open more courts while there's no supply. However, there are probably a bunch of Picklers that needed to be shut down as soon as supply actually equaled demand. So, you could, kind of anybody could start a Pickleball club if you're the only indoor Pickleball club in town. But as soon as there's a second one, it's what are you actually doing to keep those customers? So, I think it's going to be places that either have, like, really good programming.

[01:02:11] Or I think of something like the St. Pete Athletic Club. Like, they don't have that many courts. But they've got an awesome, like, hangout, social club sort of vibe. There's got to be other stuff beyond the Pickleball court. Otherwise, you're just selling a commodity. Yeah. It's, to me, it's tough, like I said, like, that, I mean, one, too many of these locations are opening in, like, the middle of the city center where rent is ridiculous.

[01:02:41] And so, I think a lot of the ones that are going to be successful are, like, Premier Pickleball. I think it's Premier Pickleball. I forget what it's called. That's in, like, Texas. That's, like, in the middle of freaking nowhere. The one where they had MLP Dallas at. Like, they got 20 courts, but it's, like, it's out in the nowhere, you know, industrial area. And so, I think the rent's low and they can be successful. And to me, what's interesting is, like, I don't see a lot of indoor tennis courts. So, I think you're right.

[01:03:07] One is, like, places like Lifetime can be successful because they have everything plus Pickleball. And then, I think what probably is going to end up happening also is I think that there might be more, like, public partnerships that is subsidized by the city. Like, golf has this model, you know, how does golf stay, you know, relevant or successful because it takes up a bajillion acres of land. And a lot of that is subsidized by taxpayers, right?

[01:03:36] You know, so nobody is subsidizing the Pickleball. Well, there's no free places to play golf, right? Are there any free places to play golf? So, what I'm saying is what I think, no. So, what I think is, like, you probably need to have subsidized courts. Like, can the cities build indoor tennis courts or Pickleball courts versus outdoor courts where the price of membership makes sense plus the demand plus subsidies? Like, that might be what needs to happen.

[01:04:03] But, like, it is tough, I feel like, for locations to stay afloat when the rent is $60,000 a month. You know, like, I feel like as soon as you see that, you're screwed. So, I don't know. I'm rooting for the Pickler. And I think some of these situations are it's like, all right, you need a corporate shakeup and probably need to fire a bunch of executives and then maybe things turn around. Like, it happened to Uber, it happened to a bunch of people, right? And so, we'll see what happens.

[01:04:32] I feel bad for all the people that are owed money. And I feel bad for all of their, you know, corporate employees that got laid off in two rounds of layoffs over the last couple of months. So, people are saying, like, business as usual. Probably not for them. But that is the Pickler. So, yeah. I mean, for me, I feel like it was kind of a natural, like, pullback. And, you know, there are clubs that are doing really well. I think about the Austin Pickle Ranch here in Austin. They were one of the first to offer an indoor pickleball club.

[01:05:02] And now there are, you know, tons of indoor pickleball places nearby the Austin Pickle Ranch. But they're still swamped 24-7 because it's a cool place. They've got great programming. Like, it's well run. All of that stuff. So, it's, you know, I do think it's just going to be a little bit more local operators that can tailor things to their local markets. Or, you know, being the one sort of low-cost provider in your area.

[01:05:32] So, I don't think it's necessarily flawed. I think some people are going to lose their money on this. But, yeah. Again, I don't think this is, you know, indicative of pickleball generally. Like, we're still growing, I think, in terms of participation. But, funny enough, West Shaw did a really good article for the Dink on pickleball closures.

[01:05:59] Like, a couple days before the Pickler actually announced their bankruptcy. So, guys, you guys go over to thedink.com and check that out. It's a really good article. Yeah. And I think maybe one of the reasons why people, why some of these facilities are closing, speaking of Dink articles, I saw they were talking about, like, what percentage of people are at what duper level.

[01:06:25] And, apparently, 4-0 is the top 16% of all pickleball players. And I feel like a lot of facilities cater to the annoying advanced players, me being one of them. But they're like, oh, we want this, and I want this, and I want this. And so, they always listen to the advanced players because they're like the gurus. But, in reality, they don't give a shit about people that are 2-5 that are playing. And then they make a big mistake. And, apparently, only 1% is 5-0. So, I didn't know that.

[01:06:53] So, at one point, I was part of the top 1%, and now I'm like a top 5%-er. So, Zane, eventually, you can join me in the 1% or the 5% depending on your results here over the next couple of years. But, Zane, I have one question for you. Speaking of duper, I want you to settle this for me. Is a 5-0 in Florida better than a 5-0 in Austin, Texas?

[01:07:25] Yeah, probably. I guess. I guess I don't really know. Theoretically, that's not how duper is supposed to work. But I do know that places with better players, sometimes they beat each other up so much that they play within their own community where nobody gets the right duper. And then, sometimes, you have places that are a little bit isolated where they can have high duper. I don't know.

[01:07:53] I would say, like, I can't really answer that. What do you think?

[01:08:26] I'd say no. Because somebody from Florida went to Charlotte, won or lost. They got their 5-0. And, like, it's just all in the same pool. So, to me, I'm dying on the 5-0s are the same everywhere. But, I don't know. Let us know in the comments. If you think Florida is better than everybody else, I don't know. In the States. You are going to be, like, in the States. I can be convinced. But, like, a few months ago, like, the Asian guys had no dupers, right? Like, Hong Nam-Wi and, like, Hien Truong were, like, 5.1 singles players.

[01:08:56] Like, as they're beating Federico Stocksrud in singles. So, like, at least in the States, I think I'm happy to be convinced about you on that. And internationally, like, those guys are now getting out there. And they have enough, like, overlap where, you know, they're doing pretty well, too. But there's probably some new place where, you know, the people are good. And, you know, just beating up against each other. And they're a bunch of 4-0s where they really should be a 6-0 or something like that. Well, suck it, Florida. Zane said that you guys are no better than the rest of us.

[01:09:26] Yep. Word for word. Title of the podcast. Suck it, Florida. Suck it, Florida. Our number one fan base, probably. Ooh. You know what? The one thing I hope is that I hope we don't have any fans from Sacramento. I hope I've done a good job of getting rid of it. It's like all my friends, all the people that I play pickleball with are in Sacramento. You know what?

[01:09:54] And I'm okay if I, I'm okay pissing off your friends, Nico. Trust me. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, I did have somebody actually shout out Hayden Shep. He's from Sacramento. And he was like, dude, I'll take you to some places around Sacramento. And I was like, hold on. You just said it there, didn't you? Around Sacramento. I'm talking about the city. I'm fully happy to believe that there are some great places around Sacramento.

[01:10:23] But I have completely made up my mind that Sacramento is a dump. There's no changing, Zane. All right. Sacramento, we owe you an apology. Well, Zane owes you an apology eventually. But he'll never see you again because he's not going to any Sacramento PPA tournaments ever again. Nope. All right. Let's get to the comments. We actually had, so you guys pulled your freaking heads out of your asses this week and gave us some good comments. The last week was rough before the Anna Bright episode.

[01:10:52] This week, we've got a bunch of good stuff. So speaking of Anna Bright, we had a bunch related to her. A little tirade on the challenges where she said there's no room for compassion in pro sports. 21 Moopster says that's wrong. NFL takes a knee. NBA runs out the clock. I'm pretty sure Anna Bright actually, Anna Bright did reply to that. Those sports have a clock.

[01:11:21] Racket sports don't. Kind of true. I think I agree with the no room for compassion, right? Like in soccer, they'll, you know, kick the ball out, whatever, to give somebody who's hurt an option. But like, I think this person's like comparisons were wrong here.

[01:11:46] No, I mean, I watched soccer when like Team USA women played like Trinidad and Tobago or some played Thailand. I forget. They're like just couldn't play soccer and like beat the ever living shit out of them. And like happens all the time. And so to your point, like I think injuries and I think Anna Bright and Anna Lee would like stop for an injury or something like that.

[01:12:06] Right. But like, yeah, I mean, the number one thing that's in my head is like Anna Lee's like or Anna Bright's like we choked like a 9-1 lead in the finals. You know what I mean? So like you got to, you know, step on their throat at that point. So I think she's wrong when she says there's no room for compassion. But I also don't think that not running up the score is compassionate, right?

[01:12:34] Like actually for me, if I'm getting my ass kicked, there's nothing more annoying than when the other team starts to take it less seriously and starts goofing around or like laughing and stuff. I'm like, no, kick the shit out of me. Let's get out of here. Like that pisses me off more like so them being compassionate or taking the foot off the gas. That shit pisses me off as a competitor. So like, oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm on.

[01:12:58] I think Anna's wrong and I don't think she actually means it this way that there's no room for compassion in sports. But like, no, it's your duty when you're out there to score every single point. Yeah, agreed. Agreed. I like how there's like two comments back to back. One of them says Anna Bright looks so pretty here. And then the next comment I see says Nico's bangs really set off his cinder block head.

[01:13:27] Hangover Trump's jet lag for an excuse. I don't know what that part means, but if you can tell it got to me and I took my bangs off of my forehead so that I no longer have a cinder block head. Yes, I'm not as pretty as Anna Bright. Well, I liked this one. If we're going to go, you know, commenting on looks. Mentazi One wrote, woke up to an earthquake. Turns out it was just Nico's broad jump.

[01:13:56] Dude, that was great. But here's my favorite thing is after that, someone commented trying a little too hard to make the next round of comments they read. And then Mentazi replies to that person and says, never mind. It was your mom stepping out of bed. Ted out of Ted. This is why we had this is exactly why we have this segment. Oh, my gosh.

[01:14:25] Oh, should we just keep going with the Nico haircut? Time systems are arbitrary, just like Nico's haircut. Don't know what that means, Ernie Voss, but all right. This person, as I mentioned, said, just remembered why I dislike the pod, period, space, Nico, period, another space. Seriously, make a good business decision and get Zoe Weil on here or remove Nico better either way. That is from Leia. No, it's not Leia's burner, I think. I'm not sure. It's got to be Leia's burner.

[01:14:56] But no, don't get me wrong. Hey, Zoe would be a great co-host, great person on the pod. But whoever you are, I appreciate the feedback. Eat shit. All right. Let's see. Kenneth Holden says, a lot of pros seem like a bunch of high schoolers. Yeah, that's, I feel like, fairly accurate. First off, some of them are literally high schoolers.

[01:15:26] So, yeah, or like early in college age. But I think that, like, it's really going to be any sport. Like, I think any sport, they're a little bit more media trained. But also, yeah, we're still small. So, yeah, I mean, plenty of them act like high schoolers. But you got idiots in any sport, too. And by and large, we haven't had anything super groundbreaking compared to other sports.

[01:15:52] Like, you know, you got people in other sports with massage addictions. You got, like, people in domestic abuse, like, domestic abuse scandals. Like, you've got all types of, like, way worse stuff in other sports. So, by and large, I think pickleball is pretty tame compared to that. Yeah. Oh, I agree. I agree. And if you went to college, you know what college players or people are like.

[01:16:22] It's insane. And I appreciate that. So, I find it fine. I appreciate the access. And I appreciate the fact that they're not polished, right? Yeah. This person, maybe I'll get your take on who you think this is. This person says, I have a bold prediction. ALW will dump Ben in the next six months. My even wilder prediction is that she'll pick Alshon as his replacement. Someone then said, I had the same assessment, but I would pick H instead of Alshon.

[01:16:50] Last person says, ALW isn't replacing Ben unless he retires, which I disagree with, unless Ben retires soon. Zane, in this situation, for some reason, there was a gun to your head. Who is Anna Lee? Who is going to be Anna Lee's next mixed doubles partner? Probably Christian, if there is one, right?

[01:17:13] Like, he is, I would have said Hayden, but I think Christian's playing a really good left side. You know, maybe there's some chemistry there. But, yeah, I think it's probably got to be Christian, if anything. Now, here's the thing about Anna Lee. Like, she's not playing with Ben Johns until he retires. She is absolutely going to play with the best player. So, she's playing with Ben as long as Ben's number one.

[01:17:41] But if Ben does fall off and Christian is a clear number one, like, she's taking Christian. Yeah, I agree. I actually don't know if Christian's going to overtake Ben. I don't know if Hayden's going to overtake Ben. So, my thought, if I were to, like, pick somebody, I'm like, who's somebody that's really good but hasn't been playing enough? Like, is it like a Nico Acevedo or like an Elliott Shum or like somebody like that, you know? And, like, I think Nico has room to improve in his mixed doubles game.

[01:18:10] And, like, Ben has a little bit better ability to, like, take over. But I don't know. My gut was Alshon. I don't think it's going to be Hayden. But I'm going to say... It's probably somebody who we don't know, yeah. Yeah, probably somebody that's 14 right now. So, and if that's the case, you probably know who that person is. So, if anybody knows who the best 14-year-old player is...

[01:18:39] Like, can you imagine how good Anna Lee would be on the left in mixed? Oof. That'd be fun to watch. Like, they should make that... Like, if there was, like, an exhibition, I'd love to see her play on the left in mixed and just have the two forehands middle. Mm-hmm. All right. Any other comments of note here? Anybody talking shit about me? Oh. Did somebody... Oh, I know. This person was like, oh, we should have Nico and Zayn commentate a match.

[01:19:06] And then, in parentheses, it said the bad one. I'm like, okay, fuck you. I was like, Nico Acevedo wasn't on the podcast last week. We know who you're talking about. You're not saying that Nico Acevedo should commentate a match. So, why'd you have to say that? Why'd you have to throw in parentheses the bad one, period? We know who you're talking about. But, yeah. Oh, boy.

[01:19:33] But, so, our boy, I'd be a grumpy old pickleball player, said, you know, Zayn, you're the president of the Pro Player Committee. I thought we were only supposed to have a certain amount of tournaments. I wanted to just clarify that. I don't think anybody's contract that signed anything new has to play more than 24. I think it's great that they have a million tournaments. You don't have to play all of them. So, yeah.

[01:19:59] I think most people are now at, like, 22 tournaments, I think. Which, honestly, I still feel like is slightly too much. I feel like a sweet spot would be, like, 18 to 20 required for people. That's, you know, comes out to basically be, like, one one month to the next month. I think that'd be a good amount. I agree. I like that. Last one I have for me, at least, says, hey, just stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Long Island. Don't knock it.

[01:20:29] It was clean. The staff was very accommodating. We saw them cleaning while you were on the pod. Free breakfast was not bad. Excellent fresh coffee 24-7. So. Shout out Holiday Inn Express. Shout out Holiday Inn Express. Feel free to sponsor the pod. Oh, my gosh. Or we can have Hotel Diane. Man. Anything else here from the comments? Yeah.

[01:20:58] Ipsum 15 hates your AI thumbnails, Nico. And I hate to say it, like, it's just tough. Like, because you're making them yourself. Like, you're not a graphic designer. You know, the hard thing about thumbnails is this, guys. If you want a, like, true understanding, we'll give you thumbnail 101, what nobody asked for. And if you want proof, you can look at Zane's thumbnails, too, or Mr. Beast's thumbnails.

[01:21:26] The hard thing is, if you stop clicking on those thumbnails, people will stop using them. But everybody clicks on them. So, which I'm not saying do not click on our thumbnails. Please, still click on our thumbnails, right? Also, the hard thing is, if you Google any of these players to try and get a photo of them, they're not like LeBron James, who has a bajillion photos all over the internet.

[01:21:51] Almost every photo of, like, every pro player is in sunglasses with a hat in a weird location. You know what I mean? They're not, like, taking all of these shots that makes it easy to take a photo of them. So, sometimes you have to do creative editing to, like, make them look at the camera or smile or whatever. So, I appreciate it. But the goal is always no AI in a thumbnail if you can avoid it.

[01:22:16] But please, unless you would like to take an unpaid internship at the Dink or on Zane's, you know, YouTube channel, we're going to have to do what we have to do. Yeah. I hate to say it, but don't hate the player, hate the game. That is the world that we live in right now. So, yeah. Anyway, that's just us making excuses for Nico's shitty AI thumbnails.

[01:22:46] Sometimes what's my favorite is I don't use AI and people are like, this is some AI slump. I was like, that's an actual picture of Anabrite. So, I don't know what you're talking about. But, anyway. People get on me, like, for AI, like, scripts sometimes. I'm like, guys, I wish you saw this. Look, I will not lie. I tried.

[01:23:10] I fed hundreds of my personally, like, written scripts into ChatGPT to try and copy my own voice. And then I did that. And then it sounded exactly like fucking ChatGPT with the dash and everything. I'm like, go look through a hundred of my transcripts, ChatGPT. You will not find one single fucking dash in there. I'm like, make this sound like me. No chance. So, like, I tried. I wish that I could.

[01:23:36] Like, unfortunately, I am writing these word for freaking word every single time. So, would you rather that or the thumbnails be a little bit AI'd? Exactly. Exactly. You're up to you guys. And if you guys love or hate AI as much as I'm hearing, go on Instagram also. And I want you guys to watch AH.GPT. It's like the funniest content ever. Oh, yeah. So, AHH.GPT is awesome.

[01:24:07] And Husk. Husk is another good one. So, people that can make fun of ChatGPT is hilarious. Zane knows. I didn't know you knew that ball. I didn't know you knew that ball. I know a lot of ball. I am habitually, chronically online. So, I know all ball. And I have kids that are like 12 and 14 and 18. So, I know all their ball. So, I understand when you guys call me a fat chud. I know what you guys are talking about. I mean, you don't have to be a genius to understand what fat chud means. But please leave those out of the comments. I now have this one.

[01:24:36] I just have a random dude. He doesn't call me fat chud. But in all my Instagram videos, he's like, Nico, go to the gym. I'm like, okay. What is happening? Like, literally every single post, Nico, go to the gym. So, please don't do that, guys. Whatever you do, do not go to my Instagram and type that I should go to the gym. Thank you, guys. All right. Should we do Guess My Duper? Let's do Guess My Duper. Guys, first off, good news.

[01:25:02] There is a link in the Pro Pickleball Talk Discord. And you thought you would make it through a whole episode without hearing about the Discord. Sorry. But if you're interested in submitting clips to Guess My Duper, we want to roast you. I mean, we want to evaluate you on here. It's simple. It's a Google forum. Check it out. And with that, we have Guess My Duper presented by 11624. All right. We got this guy. This guy.

[01:25:34] Okay. Decent serve. All right. He's smooth with it. Oof. Oh, good dig. Let's see. I mean, he's doing nothing wrong. Look at that. All right. He's got a solid. Very, very technically sound. Yes. Not exactly like a Christian Alshon type of athlete out there. But, oh, that's tricky. I have a really hard time going down the line.

[01:26:05] This is the type of guy that you'd show up and think is like a 3-0, but then just tunes you up. And then a lob in. I don't know why he's like all the way back at the baseline after that lob, though. Moves like me. He's got to stay up there. He's got a cinder block head, too. So, oh, third shot lob. Why not? And a fifth shot lob. And a seventh shot lob. Eighth shot lob. Ninth.

[01:26:34] There's just a bunch of lobs. That's a hard serve. Oh, tricky. That's a game winner. Is that a walk-off? That's a walk-off. Okay. To win 17-15. What a battle. The dude's a proven winner. All right, Zane, you go first.

[01:27:00] I'm going to go 4.269. Okay. I think you are way too high. I'm going to go 3-6-1-3, and I'm going to say the dude is 35 years old. Oh, my gosh. That was so close. You're cooking.

[01:27:31] I was cooking. Oh, my gosh. This is so hard. You just don't know what, like, highlight points. Yeah. I mean, like, you just looked like he was one of those guys that was going to be, like, sneaky steady. You know what I mean? Yes. I don't know. Like, doesn't do anything flashy. But, Nico, that was a very good guess. Well done. Thank you. I think the points were just, like, too slow for me to think that it was above, like, a 3-5. So, that was my one guess. Even though, like I said, he didn't make any mistakes. So, shout out to Harry.

[01:28:01] Shout out Harry. Arzane, anything else you have for us today on this edition of the Pickle Pod? Nope. Pickle Pod. Pickle Pod. missing contact anyone other kasut than you are on this edition of the Pickle Pod.