All three matchups in the first round of the Major League Pickleball playoffs resulted in sweeps for the higher seed, but there was still plenty of drama in Dallas to kick off the MLP postseason.

  • Both matches in the Texas vs. Atlanta series went to a Dreambreaker — with the Ranchers winning both.
  • SoCal made things interesting against the heavily favored Brooklyn Pickleball Team.
  • Chicago’s Zane Navratil turned heads with an over-the-top celebration directed at Palm Peach’s Casey Diamond, which led to a somewhat heated exchange between Navratil and the Palm Beach bench.

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Here’s a look at the highlights from Round 1 of the playoffs and where things stand heading into the quarterfinals next weekend:

Major League Pickleball Playoffs — Round 1 recap

BROOKLYN PICKLEBALL TEAM DEF. SOCAL HARD EIGHTS 2-0

Brooklyn was a heavy favorite coming into this series with SoCal’s Armaan Bhatia out with an injury. But it ended up being much closer than many fans and pundits expected. SoCal forced a Dreambreaker in the first match and nearly pulled off the upset in singles.

But Brooklyn’s Jackie Kawamoto came through when her team needed it most, earning the last two points in the Dreambreaker and outscoring SoCal’s Meghan Dizon 8-2 in their portion of the singles tiebreaker. The second match was more in line with how many expected this series to go, with Brooklyn closing it out in regulation.

DALLAS FLASH DEF. LAS VEGAS NIGHT OWLS 2-0

The Flash continued their hot streak and have now won 13 matches in a row dating back to July 12. Both gender doubles games were close in the first match, but after that it was all Dallas. The Flash dominated in mixed doubles in Match 1 (11-4, 11-1) and then swept the Night Owls in Match 2 (11-5, 11-2, 11-1).

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PALM BEACH ROYALS DEF. CHICAGO SLICE 2-0

Palm Beach won 3-1 on Friday and Saturday, but most of the games were fairly close. Ultimately it came down to AJ Koller/Elsie Hendershot vs. Casey Diamond/Sofia Sewing in both matches, and Diamond/Sewing won 11-9 both times to seal it for Palm Beach.

Saturday’s match is when things got a little heated between Navratil and the Palm Beach players. After tagging Diamond in the shoulder with a backhand counter, Navratil let out a huge yell directed at Diamond. Diamond’s men’s partner, Dekel Bar, was not a fan of Navratil’s conduct and said so on social media after the match.

He called it “embarrassing and unhinged” in a comment on Instagram and said Navratil “crossed the line a few times.”

In a text message to The Kitchen, Navratil said, “I’ve always been a fan of players expressing emotions on the court, but I recognize that there’s a balance. I exceeded that balance and I apologized to the Palm Beach team for taking things too far.”

TEXAS RANCHERS DEF. ATLANTA BOUNCERS 2-0

This was the closest matchup on paper coming into the week, and that proved to be the case on the court as well. It was the strength of Texas’ singles lineup that made the difference, with the Ranchers winning both Dreambreakers (21-14 on Friday and 21-11 on Saturday). All four Texas players did their part in singles:

Nico Acevedo: 12-7 in the two Dreambreakers
Eric Oncins: 8-8
Lea Jansen:11-5
Kaitlyn Christian: 11-5

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Top seeds will select opponents for quarterfinals

In Major League Pickleball, the top seeds get to select their opponent in the playoffs. As the No. 1 overall seed, the New Jersey 5s will be able to pick from the No. 5-8 seeds (Brooklyn, Dallas, Palm Beach and Texas).

In all likelihood they will steer clear of Brooklyn and Dallas, but deciding between Palm Beach and Texas is a tough decision. Both the Royals and Ranchers have played well at times this season, and Texas is responsible for one of New Jersey’s four losses this season — the Ranchers beat the 5s in a Dreambreaker on June 28. But that was before New Jersey picked up Federico Staksrud at the trade deadline.

New Jersey played Palm Beach at MLP Orlando last week and won 3-1, although all of the games were fairly close.

Regardless of which team New Jersey opts to play, the 5s will be heavy favorites to win the best-of-three series. I suspect the St. Louis Shock (No. 2 seed) will select either Texas or Palm Beach (whichever team New Jersey doesn’t pick), which will then leave Los Angeles (No. 3 seed) with a tough decision between Brooklyn or Dallas.

The Mad Drops have played both teams within the past month — they beat Brooklyn and lost to Dallas. Given those results and the fact that Brooklyn’s Rachel Rohrabacher has said she’s still not 100% healthy, I expect Los Angeles to select Brooklyn as their opponent.

Columbus (No. 4 seed) will be stuck with whichever team is left, which I think will be Dallas.

Matchups for Round 2 will be announced early this week. Matches start Friday from Newport Beach, California.