The Major League Pickleball season continues this week at the Advil Targeted Relief MLP Dallas, where nine Premier level teams will be in action across four days at Pickler Universe in Carrolton.

This is the penultimate regular season event, as well as the fifth of six consecutive weeks with MLP competition.

Here is the order of play for the four matches scheduled for Thursday:

Now, let’s get into what to watch for.

• Thursday marks the beginning of a new era for the Los Angeles Mad Drops (14-5, 37pts). They acquired Ben Johns from the Carolina Hogs last week in one of the biggest trades in MLP history and will have him take the place of Quang Duong, whose contract was terminated by the UPA earlier this month. Johns will play men’s doubles with Hunter Johnson and team up with Catherine Parenteau in mixed doubles for the first time since the 2022 PPA Takeya Showcase. The Mad Drops will begin their final regular season event with a match against the New York Hustlers (3-16, 8pts).

• The Phoenix Flames (4-15, 13pts) will play their first regular season match (excluding the Mid-Season Tournament) since MLP San Clemente in late June. Alex Walker will take fellow Canadian Genie Bouchard’s spot in the starting lineup and play women’s doubles with Jessie Irvine and mixed doubles with Jack Sock. The Flames’ playoff chances are slim, but they aren’t eliminated yet. They will kick off their final regular season event against the league-leading St. Louis Shock (18-1, 57pts).

• The best match of the day projects to be the SoCal Hard Eights (3-16, 12pts) taking on the Carolina Hogs (5-14, 17pts). The Hogs have a completely new look after the aforementioned Ben Johns trade and will send out a starting lineup of Liz Truluck, Danna Funaro, Brandon French, and Ivan Jakovljevic (who will be making his MLP debut). The Hard Eights will be led by Blaine Hovenier and Ryan Fu, who picked up a marquee win over the Shock’s Hayden Patriquin/Gabe Tardio at the Mid-Season Tournament. This will be an important match for both squads as they look to remain in playoff contention.

Action begins at noon CT on Pickleballtv.