Major League Pickleball Playoffs: Quarterfinal matchups, analysis, schedule and viewing guide

By Alex Lantz | Aug 12, 2026

We’ve reached the second weekend of the Major League Pickleball Playoffs, and there are eight teams remaining.

One of the most interesting wrinkles of MLP is that the higher seeds get to select their opponents in the playoffs, and the top teams were faced with some difficult decisions ahead of this round. Below we’ll break down each matchup and dive into why teams might have made the decisions they did.

MLP QUARTERFINALS FORMAT

Best-of-three match series.
Seeds No. 1-4 selected their Quarterfinal opponents from the No. 5-8 seeds. No. 1 seed (New Jersey) had first choice, followed by No. 2 seed (St. Louis), etc.
Series winners advance to the semifinals in New York later this month and are re-seeded based on regular season standings points.

Quarterfinal matches start at 2 p.m. PT Friday from the Tennis and Pickleball Club in Newport Beach, California.

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MLP Playoffs – Quarterfinal matchups

No. 1 New Jersey 5s vs. No. 7 Palm Beach Royals: This is a tough matchup for the Royals, who have relied on the strength of their women’s doubles team (Tina Pisnik/Sofia Sewing) throughout the season. There are only three women’s doubles teams in the league that have a better winning percentage than Pisnik/Sewing. Unfortunately for Palm Beach, one of those teams is New Jersey’s Anna Leigh Waters/Jorja Johnson. Essentially, the 5s are betting on taking away Palm Beach’s biggest strength in women’s doubles, and after that New Jersey will be clear favorites in men’s doubles and both mixed doubles matchups. The 5s are 6-0 since trading for Federico Staksrud at the trade deadline, and one of those matches was a 3-1 win over Palm Beach on Aug. 1. That was the only meeting between the two teams this season.

No. 2 St. Louis Shock vs. No. 8 Texas Ranchers: I suspect this was a pretty easy decision for the Shock. They’ve played the Ranchers three times this season and won all three matches handily (4-0 on May 23, 3-1 on June 17 and 3-0 on July 11). The total combined score of those matches: 120-45 in favor of St. Louis. However, if Texas is able to force a Dreambreaker, the teams match up more evenly in singles. I’m just not sure they’ll be able to get to singles against the Shock.

No. 3 Los Angeles Mad Drops vs. No. 6 Dallas Flash: I thought this was an odd decision by the Mad Drops. They could have opted to play Brooklyn, who they are 3-0 against this season (and Brooklyn’s Rachel Rohrabacher has said she still isn’t 100% healthy). Instead they chose to play Dallas, who they are 1-1 against in 2026, with the Flash winning the most recent matchup on July 18 in a Dreambreaker. Notably in that match, Ben Johns lost both doubles games, and they weren’t close (JW Johnson/Augie Ge def. Johns/Max Freeman 11-3, and Johnson/Brooke Buckner def. Johns/Jade Kawamoto 11-1). This seems like the Mad Drops are out to prove that the July 18 match was a fluke instead of taking the easier path with Brooklyn. I think this will be a very close series.

No. 4 Columbus vs. No. 5 Brooklyn: Columbus didn’t have their choice of opponent because Brooklyn was the only team left. As mentioned above, Rohrabacher has said she’s still dealing with a leg injury and has been playing mostly mixed doubles and not women’s doubles for Brooklyn. If she continues to sit out women’s doubles, that makes the Sliders a heavy favorite in that matchup (Tyra Black/Parris Todd vs. Jackie Kawamoto/Hannah Blatt). Since trading for Black in June, the Sliders are 13-4, with losses to Dallas, New Jersey, St. Louis and Palm Beach. The Sliders have arguably the strongest roster on paper, with all four starters in the Top 10 of the World Pickleball Rankings, but to this point they haven’t played up to that potential. That said, we learned a valuable lesson in the MLP Postseason last year: Bet against Playoff Andrei Daescu at your own risk.