Opinion: A defense of pickleball singles from pro player Alex Crum
Last Edited
May 19 2025
Category
News
For those who may be unfamiliar, my name is Alex Crum, and I am a tennis coach, musician and professional pickleball player.
Recently, I defeated world No. 1 singles player Federico Staksrud at the PPA Tour Atlanta Pickleball Championships, which sparked debate about singles and the role it should play in the modern pro game. Specifically, The Kitchen's Alex Lantz wrote an article lambasting singles and even questioning whether it should exist at all.
While I think Lantz is a gentleman and a scholar, I vehemently disagree with his take on singles, and I am here to explain why.
3 reasons pickleball singles is good for the sport
- People who don’t play pickleball don’t enjoy watching doubles. This is just a fact. I’ve asked hundreds of people who don’t play doubles for their opinions on the viewing experience, and almost none of them enjoy it. People who don’t play pickleball simply don’t understand the immense skillset required to be a top-level doubles player. Optically, it doesn’t look athletic or challenging – even though it most certainly is. Singles can be boring to watch at times because of short rallies and missed returns, etc. However, when singles is at its best, it produces an electric combination of athleticism and shot making that casual viewers find more appealing than a 75-shot dink rally. Until gambling is refined, those people will continue to prefer singles as their desired viewing option; and if we want the pro game to succeed, we must attract people from outside the pickleball world.
- There is parity in singles. Americans love underdogs. It is the reason why people tune into March Madness in droves. People love the outside chance that a mid-major will knock off a blue blood because it highlights everything that is right about sports. While the optics of me being the No. 65 seed and beating the No. 1 seed are misleading (I am rated No. 24 in the world on DUPR), there is more opportunity for upsets to happen in singles because the skill gap is much smaller. But to say there are hundreds of people out there capable of beating top 10 PPA players is a pretty strong exaggeration. Week in and week out, you still see the same guys progressing to the later stages of these tournaments. On the doubles side, you will never see a qualifying team make a Round of 16 on the PPA Tour. It will not happen. You could argue that this showcases the skill of the elite teams, but I personally find it to be all too predictable.
- Singles is the only real gateway to doubles success. Lantz said that he wished all of the talented singles players would just focus on doubles, but the problem is it is virtually impossible to get good partners without results in singles -- unless you have preexisting relationships with top pros. Trying to get a good partner as an outsider is like trying to pick up a hot prom date in a beat up Ford Taurus when your buddy is driving around daddy’s Porsche 911. It just ain’t happening! Doubles is pickleball and pickleball is doubles, but singles plays an irreplaceable role in making sure the cream eventually rises.
Listen, I am confident that Lantz & I are on the same team here. Healthy debate is good for the sport and I know we both ultimately just want pro pickleball to succeed. I truly believe that if singles and doubles enthusiasts unite we can ruuuuule the galaxy.
Thank you for reading.
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