Court chemistry: How Grayson Goldin won the heart of a pro pickleball girl
Finding your perfect doubles partner can be tricky.
Sometimes, it can be just as tough as finding a life partner.
Every once in a while, though, two players just seem to click together.
Enter Grayson Goldin and Hannah Blatt.
Admittedly, Goldin wasn't interested in playing mixed doubles at first because finding a partner can be challenging.
“I didn’t want to play with anyone until I thought they were a good partner because the dynamics are so different in mixed,” he explained.
Then, he met Hannah on a court in Florida.
“We started playing mixed together and we just had good chemistry, which transferred over to real life, too,” said Goldin. “Then, we played an APP tournament together and we made it out of the qualifying round for the first time and she hadn’t made it out of qualies before. We started beating good teams in the bracket, and it was just history from there.”
Goldin felt that their on-court chemistry translated especially well away from the court, so they quickly became a couple.
With that in mind, what's the key to impressing a pickleball girl?
“I say you’ve got to have a big forehand. That’s the key,” he replied. “And you want to be dominant on the court and take up space because that’s the dynamic of the mixed game.”
While a powerful forehand is a major asset at the pro level, Goldin added some general advice for picking up a pickler as well.
“All in all, be yourself out there and be authentic. Play how you normally do, and don’t ever try to be someone you’re not,” he shared. “It’s not going to work if you’re not being you.”
Now that they’ve been dating for almost a year, Goldin and Blatt are navigating the next steps in their relationship.
“It’s relatively fresh, so maybe that’s why we’re able to play together right now. But, I have noticed it gets harder because I think we say things that we wouldn’t normally say to strangers that we say to our loved ones because we feel comfortable around them,” confided Goldin. “We say the first thing that comes to our mind without a filter sometimes.”
And in the pro ranks, everything is definitely more intense because the stakes are high.
“When you’re more comfortable with that person, there’s more pressure because you want to win and we’re playing a competitive pro sport,” mentioned Goldin. “We can put added pressure on our significant others because we don’t want to disappoint them, we want to play well, and we want to win together.”
But as they continue to grow as a cohesive unit, they’re just having a lot of fun.
“We get to travel together, and it’s honestly amazing to be able to do this together,” concluded Goldin. “She’s always got my back on the bench when I’m playing. It’s really cool to have that support.”
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