Tina Pisnik and Dekel Bar celebrate a pickleball point.
Tina Pisnik and Dekel Bar competing at the Pickleball Central Indoor USA Championships. PPA Tour

Pisnik, Bar into first final together

CARY, NC - Going into Semifinal Saturday, we knew that there would be at least one mixed doubles team making it to the finals for the first time together.

We now know that team features Tina Pisnik and Dekel Bar.

Pisnik and Bar took down No. 22 seeds Maggie Brascia and Todd Fought 11-5, 11-6 to make it to Championship Sunday.

Both teams had played the ‘giant slayer’ role in North Carolina, as each one came into the match with back-to-back wins over top-ten seeds.

But Pisnik and Bar broke their opponents down with a clean performance and benefitted from Bar’s fast hands and powerful counters to win most of the firefights at the kitchen line.

Top seeds Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns await the tandem in the final, and Pisnik is hoping to close out the week on a high note.

“We hope to put on a show, bring some fun energy, and cause another upset at this tournament,” she said.