Opinion: Federico Staksrud is right, modern singles pickleball has become 'mini tennis'

Alex Lantz

Director of Content

Last Edited

May 14 2025

5 reasons singles pickleball stinks

Nobody plays it in the wild (because it’s not very fun). I’ve spent quite a bit of time at my local public pickleball courts over the past 5 years, and I can honestly say I’ve never seen anybody actually playing singles. Occasionally a couple beginners will be out there whacking the ball around by themselves (because they don’t know what they’re doing yet), but I’m not counting that.
Singles doesn’t have any of the things that make pickleball interesting. The strategy has become comically simple: Kill the serve, hit as big of a return as you can, rip a passing shot. Most of the time, the point ends by then. No hands battles, no up-close interactions between the players (because a lot of the time they’re not even coming to the net anymore), no patiently moving the ball around until you get a good opportunity to attack, very few Ernes, very few ATPs … I could go on. Basically, there’s no nuance, and nuance is what makes pickleball addicting and interesting for fans to watch.
Pro singles in pickleball is starting to feel very tennis-y (as Staksrud pointed out). It’s dominated by one type of player – a 20-something former tennis stud who hits the crap out of the ball and relies heavily on athleticism over skill. If you remember back to when you started playing, part of the original appeal of pickleball was that players of all shapes and sizes and ages and playing styles can get really good and compete at a high level. Not so in singles.
It’s becoming TOO EASY to break through at the pro level. Because the strategy has become so unsophisticated, there are literally hundreds and hundreds of players who can compete now at the pro level on the men’s side. That much was clear on Tuesday when relatively unknown 65-seed Alexander Crum beat Staksrud 11-9, 5-11, 11-6. We are seeing more and more “upsets” because with modern paddles all it takes is a big forehand to have a decent shot at taking down a top player. If everybody is good, are we sure anybody is good?
Women’s singles has been the Anna Leigh Waters show for 2+ years. What Waters has done on the women’s side is amazing by any standard and she should be applauded, but I feel like I’m watching a replay every time I turn it on. She hasn’t lost in nearly a full calendar year, she’s 24-0 this season and has only dropped one game in 2025. Take it away – I’m not even sure why they’re playing the women’s draw this week in Atlanta.

If I was going to say something nice about singles, it would be that occasionally a couple freak athletes do something crazy and find their way onto SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays. Since we at The Kitchen are in the highlight business, I’ll admit that it’s pretty cool when that happens. But for every one great singles point, there are 100 bad singles points.

And if I really wanted to watch two very young and very athletic players hit a ball very hard from the baseline, wouldn’t I just watch tennis instead?

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