Last Updated on August 31, 2026 by Drew Pierce
Central Park, NYC — August 30, 2026
I’m sitting here at City Pickle at Wollman Rink in Central Park watching the New Jersey Fives celebrate their first-ever MLP championship, and I have to say: this was the most inevitable outcome that took the longest to happen.
Two years of runner-up finishes. Two years of winning the regular season and getting to the finals. Two years of looking like the best team in the league while somehow being the second-best team when it counted. And now, finally, they’re holding the trophy.
Here’s the thing though—it wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t dominant. It was messy, it went to a Dreambreaker in the first match against St. Louis, and it required Anna Leigh Waters to hit the final points when everything was on the line. That’s championship pickleball. That’s what separates the teams that finish with the best record from the teams that actually win titles.
Anna Leigh Waters Finally Got What She Deserves
Let’s start here: Anna Leigh Waters is the best player to ever touch a pickleball paddle. That’s not an opinion anymore—that’s just fact. She’s been #1 in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles simultaneously. She’s won literally everything. Gold medals, titles, championships at every level.
But she’d never won an MLP title until today.
That’s been bugging me for a while. How does the greatest player in the sport not have the biggest trophy in the league? How does she go to back-to-back finals and come up empty? It wasn’t because she wasn’t good enough. She was the best player on the court both times. It was because pickleball doubles is chaos and momentum is real and sometimes your partner or your teammates on a different court have an off weekend.
Today wasn’t her finest individual performance. But it was her most important. When the match was tied at 20-20 in that first-match Dreambreaker, with everything hanging in the balance, she beat Kate Fahey on the last two points. That’s the moment that won this championship—not some spectacular smash or perfect serve, just two points at the end when her team needed her.
That’s what I’ve been waiting to see from Anna Leigh in an MLP championship context.
Federico Staksrud Was the Best Trade Acquisition This Season
Let’s talk about something that shouldn’t be controversial but apparently is: New Jersey paid $400,000 mid-season to get Federico Staksrud from Orlando, and it was completely worth it.
Everyone was asking: “Is this the move that seals the championship? Is this the desperation play of a team that knows it’s now or never?”
Yes. And yes. And they were right to do it.
Staksrud won Finals MVP. He didn’t put up the most impressive stats. But he brought poise in moments when New Jersey needed it, and in the Dreambreaker situations where everything got compressed and pressure becomes the deciding factor, he performed. His energy changed the tone of the team. Watch how he carried himself out there—calm, focused, like he’d been playing with this team all season.
That mid-season acquisition changed the trajectory of this team’s season. Full stop.
The Fives Figured Something Out After Dallas
Here’s what I noticed: New Jersey started the regular season like absolute dog in Dallas. They finished fourth. Fourth! As the team with the best woman in the world, as the team that paid $800K for Jorja Johnson in the draft, as the preseason favorites, they couldn’t even crack the top three in the opening event.
Then they just… didn’t lose after that.
First, first, first, second, first. Over and over. They locked in. They figured out their rotations. Jorja Johnson and Anna Leigh Waters established themselves as the most dominant women’s doubles pairing in the league (which sounds simple but is actually harder than it sounds when both players are alpha competitors). The men—Will Howells and Noe Khlif—stopped overthinking and started executing.
By the time they hit the playoffs, they were a completely different team than the one that stumbled in Dallas. That’s the mark of a good team—not starting perfect, but peaking at the right time.
St. Louis Was Right There But Ran Out of Runway
I want to give St. Louis credit because they earned it: the Shock were exceptional this year. They spent $1.23 million on Anna Bright to keep their core intact. They made a mid-season trade for Hunter Johnson. They dominated most of their opponents.
But here’s the thing about being the favorites heading into the season: eventually you run into someone who wants it as badly as you do and has been chasing it longer.
The Fives had two years of heartbreak to fuel them. The Shock just had confidence. Confidence is great, but sometimes desperation is the better motivator.
That said, if I’m St. Louis, I’m not panicking. The team is built to compete again next year. Anna Bright is locked in at the $1.23M investment. They have the infrastructure. But they’re going to have to answer the question: do we have what it takes to finish the job when it matters?
The Semifinals Were Blowouts (And That’s the Point)
New Jersey demolished Brooklyn 33-16 and 33-13 in the semifinals. Let me be clear about what that means: that wasn’t competitive. That was a statement. The Fives came to play and Brooklyn couldn’t match them.
St. Louis beat Dallas 3-0 and 3-1 in their semifinal. Both top seeds made the finals convincingly, which meant the championship wasn’t determined by wild upsets or first-round drama. It was determined by two elite teams executing at the highest level.
The Fives just executed a little bit better when it counted.
What This Means Going Forward
This is the question everyone’s asking: Can New Jersey repeat? And the honest answer is complicated.
The salary cap and salary floor rules are going to reshape rosters heading into 2027. Teams that spent like crazy (like New Jersey with that $800K Jorja Johnson pick and the $400K Staksrud acquisition) might be forced to make different choices. St. Louis might double down. Brooklyn might go back-to-market now that they proved they belong in the finals.
What matters right now is this: The Fives won. They broke their curse. They got their trophy. Anna Leigh Waters got her championship. And they did it in Central Park in front of 2,000+ people who actually cared about pickleball.
That’s the moment we’ll look back on when we talk about 2026.
Final Thoughts
Professional pickleball just had its championship moment. In Central Park. On a weekend when most people were thinking about labor day and going back to school. And somehow, an arena that was created by recreational pickleball players got filled with 2,000 people screaming about a doubles match.
That’s real. That’s growth. That’s a sport that actually matters now.
And it’s crowned by a team that refused to quit after two years of heart-breaking near-misses.
See you in 2027 for the rematch.