Ahead of this weekend’s Major League Pickleball Semifinals and Finals, we’ve asked our team of esteemed pickleball experts what they think we’ll see in the coming days.

Both rounds will be a best-of-three match series, with the Semifinal matches starting Friday afternoon from Central Park in New York City. Here’s the matchups:

New Jersey 5s vs. Brooklyn Pickleball Team
St. Louis Shock vs. Dallas Flash

The winners will play in the Finals, with Match 1 scheduled for Saturday evening. Find the full match schedule here.

Read next: Check out our in-depth analysis of each MLP Semifinal matchup, including lineup stats, past head-to-head results and how the teams stack up heading into New York. Click here.

MLP Finals on CBS

CBS will carry exclusive coverage of the MLP Finals on Sunday at noon ET. The national TV window will feature Match 2 of the Finals. All other matches will be available on Pickleball TV and the Pickleball TV app, in addition to select time windows on MSG Network and Tennis Channel.

Major League Pickleball Finals on CBS.

Expert picks

Our panel of experts includes three people who have been following pro pickleball since pro pickleball has existed.

Jared Paul: Founder of The Kitchen Pickleball and former General Manager of the Nashville Chefs, who played in the MLP Challenger Division during the 2025 season (and finished runner-up).

Chris Cali: Host of the Sorry Not Sorry Pickleball Show. Expect hot takes and plenty of entertainment anytime Chris is involved — he’s also in the hunt for this year’s MLP Media Pick’em Contest title, which features more than a dozen media personalities in the sport.

Alex Lantz: The Kitchen’s Director of Content. Alex has been writing about pro pickleball for 2 years and also participates in the aforementioned MLP Media Pick’em Contest, although his picks this season haven’t been as good as Chris’.

Let’s cook!

Expert review: New Proton Project Coyote is powerful but also very predictable

NEW JERSEY 5s vs. BROOKLYN PICKLEBALL TEAM

Jared: New Jersey sweeps, taking the first match 3-2 (21-17 in a Dreambreaker) and then 3-1 in the second match. Brooklyn has played really well lately and their win over Columbus in the quarterfinals was very impressive, but ultimately I think a locked-in Anna Leigh Waters is too much to overcome.

Chris: The 5s win in 2. Both will be 3-0 sweeps. New Jersey’s women obviously are not going to lose, and I don’t think they will give up more than 4 points in both games combined. Although on paper the Brooklyn men are much better, I think Fed will inspire Will to battle even harder to prevent Cringe-stian Alshon from doing that strange Gladiator flex-pose-thing after every point that goes his way. My prediction is we will see Fed do one to mock him, and fire up the crowd/5s bench. Both games are won by 2 or 3 points. Once mixed is underway, the cringe will carry over, and distract Rohrbacher from being able to lock-in. Noe plays the best game of his life in the first match, and then will struggle under pressure in match 2. We will see a chirp-sesh between ALW and Alshon in the 3rd game of Match 2, but the 5s will come out on top. 11-4 in mixed in the first match, 11-7 in the 2nd match.

Alex: 5s in 2. I think they will split gender doubles, with New Jersey taking women’s and Brooklyn winning men’s in both matches. That means it will come down to mixed, where I think the 5s have a clear edge. Anna Leigh Waters has historically dominated Christian Alshon in their mixed matches on the PPA Tour, so I like that matchup for the 5s. And Federico Staksrud/Jorja Johnson are 7-1 in their short time playing together since Staksrud was traded to New Jersey, so I expect that duo to continue play well. It’s very close on paper if it comes down to singles, but I trust New Jersey a little more given that all four players in their Dreambreaker lineup — Staksrud, Howells, Waters and Johnson — have a ton of experience in high-pressure situations.

Read next: The Kitchen’s Top 13 paddles on the market right now + in-depth reviews for each one

ST. LOUIS SHOCK vs. DALLAS FLASH

Jared: St. Louis wins both matches 3-1, 3-1. The last time we saw Anna Bright and Kate Fahey play together, they handed the Texas Ranchers an absolute drubbing. I think the Shock women will continue to be dominant, and if I’m the Flash, I’m simply not going to stir the pot in these matches. The last thing you need is a pissed off Anna, Hayden or Kate, although I don’t like Dallas’ chances either way.

Chris: The Shock win in 2. Both will be 3-0 sweeps. Similar to New Jersey, the Shock are going to completely dominate in women’s doubles. Match 1 will be 11-3, Match 2 will be 11-5. For mens, it will be even worse. JW will have a slow start, combined with Gabe being on fire, leading to a 11-1 victory for the Shock in Match 1. Match 2, the Flash figure some things out, JW has more energy, but it will never be enough. Shock take Match 2 11-4. For mixed, this is where things get ugly. I am predicting A PICKLE in Match 1. I think this is going to fire up the Flash, and for Match 2 they give us a close battle that leaves all of us depressed, wanting more, and feeling like we got robbed. Shock win 13-11. Unfortunately, we will get very little smack talk from the Shock during this match. I think they are going to be dialed, ready to give themselves a shot to take down New Jersey in the Finals. This semifinal probably seems like a tedious task to just get over with. My heart wants Dallas to make this interesting, but I don’t think the Shock will give them any wiggle room.

Alex: St. Louis in 2. The Shock were by far the most impressive team coming out of the quarterfinals in Newport Beach, and I expect them to raise their level even more to get over the hump and make the Finals (St. Louis has been eliminated in the semifinals each of the past 2 seasons). That said, I think both matches will be fairly close. JW Johnson is on my short list of players I trust the most in high-pressure MLP situations, so I think he can steal a couple games for the Flash. But ultimately I think the Shock are just too talented and too deep — both gender doubles lineups and both mixed doubles lineups are in the Top 5 in the league in terms of winning percentage. They have a lot of ways to win.

Expert review: New 11SIX24 Jelly Bean 2 Series delivers soft feel, predictable power

FINALS PREDICTIONS

Jared: New Jersey over St. Louis, 3-2 in Match 1 (21-17 in a Dreambreaker) and then 3-1 in Match 2. Too much Anna Leigh.

Chris: Shock over 5s, 2-1. ALL matches go to a Dreambreaker. Expect a lot of screaming at unforced errors from Kate Fahey, expect lots of Anna Leigh complaining to her mom, and expect some top-tier chirping between Fed & Hayden. This is going to be the best 3 matches we have ever seen in pickleball history.

Alex: New Jersey over St. Louis, 2-1. Bet against Anna Leigh Waters at your own risk. The one thing she doesn’t have on her resume is an MLP title (since the league moved to a season-long format in 2024), and I think her performance this weekend could go down as one of the highlights of her career … and there are many. Mostly I’m rooting for a close series that forces everybody to raise their level, and I think we’ll get it.

The Kitchen community weighs in

We included a poll in our newsletter earlier this week asking readers who will win the MLP title. Here are the results:

St. Louis: 43%
New Jersey: 41%
Dallas Flash: 9%
Brooklyn Pickleball Team: 7%