I’ve been preaching about ditching dating apps and hitting the pickleball court instead to meet your doubles partner for life.

And it was finally time to put my claims to the test. 

I never thought I’d ever try a dating app, and yet, here I am, using this weird platform to randomly match with men who may be catfish or worse… a ball hog. 

I put a rather adorable picture of myself playing pickleball to lure in potential players, and the response really was something special.

If you want matches, put pickleball on your profile. My pickleball picture gets the most comments by far.  

My least favorite (so far) is: 

“I would absolutely destroy you in pickleball.” – Brad, 32

Brad seems like an absolute delight, doesn’t he? I bet he’s the type that swears he would’ve been in the NFL if it weren’t for that injury in high school. 

Enter Pickleball Bachelor #1. We’ll call him Evan. He messaged me and asked to play pickleball on Friday. Evan also had pickleball in one of his prompts when he said he’s looking for a pickleball partner. I agreed and we set the date.

As the fashion aficionado for the PPA Tour, I wore my favorite little black tennis dress from Z by Zella and my brand new K-Swiss Lucky in Love lavender court shoes. I topped that off with my pink Versix Genie Bouchard signature pickleball paddle. Cute, but not too over the top because I was literally meeting a stranger. 

Driving to the court, I was absolutely stressed that this guy was going to be too good. He was going to be a classic 5.0 who would be extremely disappointed when he learned that I just work for the pro pickleball tour and can’t actually play as good as the pros he sees on his Instagram feed. 

As soon as I saw this man’s pickleball paddle, though, I realized my fears were for nothing. 

Evan pulled out this atrocious plastic paddle that’s thinner than my pinky finger and a sleeve of neon orange pickleballs from a brand I’ve never heard of. Oh boy. 

Now, I’m no 5.0, but I can hang. I’m not out here trying to be Anna Leigh Waters, but I felt like I was playing as good as her compared to this poor guy who’s clearly only played pickleball once in his entire life. 

“So did you ever play tennis or ping pong growing up?” I asked him casually while attempting to get him to just dink across the net.

“No, not really,” he said, whiffing an easy ball for the 30^th time.  

Well, Evan, I hate to tell you, but I can tell.

I watch him miss easy shots, unintentionally lob way too many balls, and swing his paddle like he’s going for a homer. 

This was the first time ever that I thought, “Man, I could go pro!” I played some of the best pickleball of my life with Evan as my opponent - perfectly placed thirds, expertly crafted drives, and call me Connor Garnett because my twoeys were immaculate. 

And at the end of the date where I beat him game after game after game, he enthusiastically says, “Let’s play again sometime!”

I proceeded to give him a fist bump because we were playing pickleball outside in the Florida heat.

Bottom line, Evan is not my doubles partner for life, but this date was great for my pickleball ego. Maybe next time I need to include my DUPR to weed out total beginners. 

Wish me luck on my next pickleball date!

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