It’s not every day that you qualify for pickleball’s biggest event of the year. 

Paddle reviewers and avid players Louis Kobetz and Justin Barton punched their ticket to the 2025 Pickleball World Championships in Dallas, TX thanks to their recent success in men’s doubles (4.0) at the Louisiana Amateur Pickleball Championship powered by the Carvana PPA Tour and Southern Pickleball. 

“Justin and I have played a few tournaments together, and every time I’d been underperforming,” said Kobetz. “It’s been depressing, so to get this win was great.”

Kobetz has been documenting his pursuit of 4.0 gold by posting high-quality videos on YouTube, and he enjoys sharing the journey with viewers across the globe.

“I wouldn’t say it adds any pressure. It’s actually pretty fun to see how people are so supportive,” he mentioned. “Obviously, there’s going to be a few haters, but their opinions mean virtually nothing to me.”

Kobetz achieved his first goal of medaling in 4.0 in 60 days, and now he’s documenting a new goal of raising his DUPR from 3.6 to a 4.5.

That's no easy feat, so this recent win marked an exciting achievement that will contribute to his pickleball goals.

“Most likely, we’ll be playing 4.0 ages 35 to 49. Potentially, we’ll register for 4.5, but we’ll see how we feel and progress over the next couple of months because things could change and we could be very different players by that time,” said Kobetz.

Kobetz has four months to prepare for Worlds.

“The most important thing for me is drilling and working on consistency. I don’t want to focus on too many specific things, just getting the balls back. I feel like my biggest thing is inconsistency, so I’m looking to avoid simple mistakes and drill for consistency of serves, returns, thirds, all those shots,” he shared. “Having more consistency is going to be my main focus.”

This will also be Kobetz’s first time attending Worlds.

“The biggest thing I’m looking forward to is hanging out with other pickleball players and creators,” he said. “Competing in the tournament is going to be added fun.”

Kobetz has been playing for two years now, and in that short period of time, he has turned his passion for the sport into an expert level paddle review podcast alongside Barton.

Since he’s played with just about every paddle in the game, what paddle will this aficionado be using?

“Things change so much month to month. It’s kind of crazy. Paddle technology is changing drastically and there’s a shift to foam core right now. To project what paddle I’m playing with in four months would be virtually impossible,” shared Kobetz. “But I played the last tournament with the Franklin C45 and I’m really loving the J2NF from Honolulu Pickleball Company, so if nothing beats those, those are the paddles I’ll be playing with.”

Click here to register for the 2025 Pickleball World Championships. 

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