Dallas will become the center of the pickleball universe beginning October 31.

 

We have the Edward Jones MLP Cup, followed by the Jenius Bank Pickleball World Championships. Can the Columbus Sliders defend their 2025 MLP championship? We will look at the likely contenders. 

 

The MLP Cup places the 17 Premier teams into four groups for pool play. Within each pool, the teams will play a round robin. One winner will emerge from each pool, advancing to the playoff semifinals, and then a final.

 

Here are the pools:

 

1. Brooklyn, Columbus, Phoenix, Atlanta

2. New Jersey, LA, Chicago, Carolina

3. Dallas, Texas, Miami, SoCal

4. St. Louis, Orlando, Utah, New York, Las Vegas

 

As you can see, pool four has five teams, and thus they will play a four-match round robin, while the other three pools play a three-match round robin.

 

 

Now, let’s highlight some key matches and predict some winners.

 

In pool one, the winner of that pool will come down to the Brooklyn vs. Columbus match. That match will take place on day one of the event, which is Friday. It is the last match of the day on championship court. Both teams are solid, with no obvious weakness. Columbus has Andrei Daescu, CJ Klinger, Lea Jansen, and Parris Todd. They will take on Brooklyn’s Riley Newman, Dekel Bar, Jackie Kawamoto, and Rachel Rohrabacher. Bar had been out for some time with injuries. He still does not look to be 100%. The teams are pretty even, but with the Bar injury history, I favor Columbus to take that match and be the pool one winner.

 

In pool two, we have the most interesting and even lineup. New Jersey will be the favorite with Will Howells, Noe Khlif, Anna Leigh Waters, and Meghan Dizon. But they have to face a tough LA team that closed the 2025 MLP regular season strong. LA has Ben Johns, Hunter Johnson, Catherine Parenteau, and Jade Kawamoto. Chicago is also capable of an upset. Chicago has James Ignatowich, Max Freeman, Callie Smith, and Vivian Glozman. The key match is New Jersey vs. LA, which will be the last match of the day on championship court on Saturday. The winner of that match should win the pool. While LA closed the regular season well, they do not match up that well against New Jersey. Parenteau/Kawamoto are a very good team, but Parenteau never seems to play well against Waters. If that match should go to a DreamBreaker, look for LA to put Kawamoto out third and Parenteau fourth, just so Parenteau does not have to face Waters in singles. I like New Jersey to win that match and the pool.

 

 

In pool three, Dallas is a solid favorite, although Texas could win this pool. Dallas has JW Johnson, Augie Ge, Jorja Johnson, and Tyra Black. The men’s doubles team has underperformed, but Jorja Johnson/Tyra Black is the best women’s lineup in MLP. Texas has Christian Alshon, Eric Oncins, Tina Pisnik, and Kaitlyn Christian. Oncins has been playing particularly well, so they should take the men’s doubles match against Dallas. But the Texas women are not strong enough to withstand the Dallas women, so Dallas will have the advantage in the other three doubles matches. Dallas vs. Texas is the second to last match on championship court on Friday, and the winner of that match should win the pool. I will go with Dallas, but a Texas upset would not be too surprising.

 

Finally, pool four has St. Louis as an overwhelming favorite. Utah is feisty, but does not have the talent of St. Louis. Orlando has two good men in Federico Staksrud and Dylan Frazier, but their women (Milan Rane and Lacy Schneemann) cannot compete with the St. Louis women. St. Louis (Hayden Patriquin, Gabe Tardio, Anna Bright, and Kate Fahey) has too much talent and depth for the other teams in the pool. St. Louis plays Orlando in the second match of the day on championship court on Sunday. The winner of that match will go on to win the pool and play again Sunday in the semifinals.

 

The predicted semifinalists are Columbus, New Jersey, Dallas, and St. Louis. St. Louis is at a bit of a disadvantage in that they will have to play an extra match on Sunday, leading to them needing to win three straight matches on Sunday to prevail. Will that be enough to derail them? Any of the four teams could easily win (as could LA if they win pool #2). St. Louis continues to have the best team, but that schedule is not an easy one for them. Let’s therefore take New Jersey to win it, in a minor upset. The one thing we know is that effort in MLP is key. The #1 player in the effort category is Anna Leigh Waters. She just never takes a point off, much less a whole match. Her relentlessness should serve her team well at the MLP Cup.

 

Every match will be on Pickleballtv beginning on Friday. Tune in to see it all.

 

Follow me on X for updates @pickleball_jim.