Christian “Tweener King” Alshon grew up in a high-achieving Florida tennis family, went 18–0 at the University of Chicago and won a D3 national title. Then he found pickleball, and everything changed. He built a brand of trick shots early on, battled for two years before winning his first singles title and eventually transformed into […]
The Los Angeles Lakers held a team pickleball tournament last week during a 5-day break in their NBA schedule. While the Lakers have some of the best players in all of basketball on their roster — LeBron James, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves to name a few — the tournament was won by bench player […]
The RPM Friction Pro has been getting a lot of buzz since its release earlier this fall. Pro player James Ignatowich launched the paddle brand in late 2025, and it has been met with many players and paddle reviewers praising its performance and comparing it to some of the most popular paddles in the game. […]
JOOLA is officially opening its first retail store at Pike & Rose in North Bethesda, Maryland, this week. The brick-and-mortar store opens its doors on Black Friday, marking an exciting milestone for both the brand and the sport of pickleball — to this point paddle and equipment retailers have operated almost exclusively online and through […]
There are now nearly 20 million pickleball players in the U.S., which means there’s a decent chance somebody on your holiday shopping list is an avid player. If you’re wondering what you should get that person for the holidays this year, you’ve come to the right place. Below you will find our top picks for […]
The California beach town of Carmel is likely to permanently ban pickleball after years of noise complaints from neighbors who live near the only public courts in the area. The town’s city council unanimously voted earlier this month to review a permanent ban on pickleball at the courts in Forest Hill Park after initially enacting […]
This year’s Pickleball World Championships set new attendance, participation and viewership records for pro pickleball, according to a PPA Tour news release. The event — which was held earlier this month at Brookhaven Country Club in the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch — drew a combined crowd of more than 60,000 and generated more than […]
We’re now several months into 2026, so The Kitchen staff put our heads together — with the help of an anonymous pro — to come up with a current list of the Top 20 women’s singles players who compete on the PPA Tour. We set some general guidelines to help us make some very tough […]
We’re now several months into 2026, so The Kitchen staff put our heads together — with the help of an anonymous pro — to come up with a current list of the Top 20 men’s singles players who compete on the PPA Tour. Because men’s singles is widely considered the deepest division top to bottom, […]
Less than a year after releasing its most popular paddle ever — the Series Three – Project Flamingo — Proton has officially launched a new model in the Series Three line: the Project Peacock. They may have kept with the bird theme in naming the paddle, but there are several key differences in how the […]
