Ace Rivera

It was one of the most eventful—and frankly, brutal—weeks on the PPA Tour so far this year. The Indoor National Championships at Life Time Lakeville, Minnesota just wrapped up, and while the action inside was blazing, the conditions outside were absolutely arctic. We’re talking temperatures hitting -20°F, with daily highs struggling to break single digits all week.

But here’s the thing about professional pickleball in 2026: the show goes on, the young players keep getting better, and sometimes the storylines off the court matter just as much as what happens during matches. Let’s break down what just happened in Minnesota.

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Let’s talk about something that just launched this week and has the entire racket sports community buzzing—a new sport called Typti.

Yes, you read that right. In a world where we already have tennis, pickleball, padel, platform tennis, racquetball, squash, and badminton, someone decided we needed one more racket sport. And that someone is Tennis Channel founder Steve Bellamy, backed by an 80-person investor group including Drew Brees, Nick Kyrgios, Tony Robbins, Chris Pine, JJ Abrams, Tiffany Haddish, and comedian Bert Kreischer.

The pitch? Typti is a cross between tennis and pickleball, played on a pickleball court with foam balls and small tennis-like rackets. Think mini-tennis meets trick-shot YouTube video. Let me break down what we know, why I’m skeptical, and why I’m also kind of excited about it.

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Hey pickleballers, Ace here, coming at you fresh off Championship Sunday at the PPA Masters in Palm Springs. What a way to kick off the 2026 professional season—we got breakthrough wins, dominant performances, historic milestones, and some serious storylines that’ll shape the rest of the year. Plus, USA Pickleball just dropped a game-changing equipment testing program, MLP unveiled their 2026 rule changes, and the US Open lottery is officially underway. Let’s get into it.

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What’s happening, pickleball fans? Ace here, coming to you in the second full week of January with some absolutely massive news from the past several days. If you’ve been paying attention to the pro scene, you know that this week brought us what might be the biggest equipment sponsorship deal in pickleball history, some serious contract enforcement drama that has the entire community talking, a major announcement from Major League Pickleball about their season finale, and the annual rule changes that just went into effect. Let’s break it all down.

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Happy New Year, pickleball fam! Ace here, writing to you from a gorgeous January week in Austin where the courts have been absolutely packed with people working off their holiday cookie guilt. There’s something special about the first week of a new year in pickleball—fresh goals, new gear under the tree, and that optimistic feeling that this will be the year you finally master the two-handed backhand. For the pros, 2026 officially kicked off this week with the PPA Masters in Palm Springs, and for the entire pickleball community, we’re confronting a serious problem that’s been growing in the shadows: counterfeit paddles. Let’s dive in.

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Happy holidays, pickleballers! Ace here, coming at you between Christmas and New Year’s with some major developments that are shaping what 2026 is going to look like for professional pickleball. While most of us are enjoying time off, eating too many cookies, and getting court time in when we can, the business side of pro pickleball just went through a seismic shift that’s going to impact how the sport operates for years to come. Let’s break it down.

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If you thought the holiday season was going to slow down the pickleball news cycle, you thought wrong. We just witnessed history in New Delhi, saw tennis royalty pick up a paddle in Mumbai, and now we’re staring down the barrel of the final PPA event of the year where a certain mother-daughter duo is making a comeback.

The garlands have been handed out, the draws are out, and the jet lag is real. Let’s dive in.

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Hey there, pickleball fam! Ace here, and what a week it’s been. While most of us in the States are knee-deep in holiday shopping and trying to squeeze in court time between family obligations, the pickleball world has been absolutely buzzing with international developments that are legitimately changing the landscape of our sport. From dramatic finals in India to a game-changing global alliance, plus some killer last-minute gift ideas—we’ve got a lot to cover. Let’s get into it.

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