Minto US Open, April 2024
The Minto US Open is the largest pickleball tournament (party) in the world, with 66 courts and 3,250 competitors in 2024. Many legends of the sport have won the US Open since its inception in 2016 – Ben Johns, Simone Jardim, Catherine Parentaeu, Tyson McGuffin, Parris Todd. It is held at the East Naples Community Park. Naples, one of the wealthiest cities in the US, is one of the most popular places to play pickleball in the world and is one of the most court dense cities per capita to play America’s fastest growing sport. The US Open is a little different to other tournaments due to the entry process as well as the different events they offer. Upon entering you are put into a lottery system, along with hundreds of other people and you must be lucky in the lottery to gain entry into your events. Winning a place in one of your entered events does not guarantee you a place in any other events. One of the most fun things about the US Open is they offer mixed and gender split age Pro categories. This means an “under 50” can play with an “over 50”.
This was my first time competing in the US Open having attended the event as a spectator in 2019. I was incredibly lucky to gain entry into the 5 events I entered, Pro Women’s Singles, Pro Women’s Doubles (with Pei Chuan Kao), Pro Mixed Doubles (with James Chaudry), Split Age Pro Mixed Doubles (with Jose Galan), Split Age Pro Women’s Doubles (with Jennifer Galwas).
The tournament is sponsored by Margaritaville making it a true party for those once they are done competing for the day – the frozen margaritas are to die for and much needed after a day competing in the Naples humidity! Fan experience is so important to this tournament, there is daily live music, a beer garden and an array of food vendors.
This week for me had some real ups and downs. I had arguably one of my best showings in an elite level tournament along with some really tough mental battles on court.
It is every athlete’s dream to play the best in the world in their sport and this is something I got to experience in the women’s doubles. Coming into events I generally don’t look at my draws other than to find out the times of my matches. After winning our first match in women’s doubles against 2 formidable opponents in Riley Bohnert and Christa Gecheva on Zing Zang Championship Court – one of the most impressive Championship Courts in the pickleball world – I was told if we won our next match, we would get to play the world number one Anna Leigh Waters and her mum Leigh Waters (thank you Jared Franklin!). This was Leigh Waters first tournament back in over a year out after tearing her ACL at the US Nationals at Indian Wells in 2022. When Leigh sustained that injury her and Anna Leigh were the number 1 ranked women’s doubles pairing in the world. The US Open was the only big tournament they hadn’t won together and they decided to make a comeback at this tournament to see if they could win gold. In our second-round match we played Brooke Revuelta and Glauka Caravajal Lane, 2 ladies I know relatively well and who are a pleasure to share the court with. We played really well in this match coming through 11-7, 11-3 to be the only team seeded outside the top 8 (we were seeded 25) to make the quarter finals and setup a meeting with the Waters! What an experience! I have never had so many people watch a pickleball match I have been a part of – there must have been 300+ spectators.
We played on an outside court so the only viewing opportunities were directly behind the court – I don’t know how many deep they were, but I couldn’t see anything outside of the court other than people! Leigh is well known in pickleball for a match she was involved in where her opponents kept lobbing her into the sun and it infuriated her. My lobs had been quite successful that morning, so I told Pei on the first point I was going to lob Leigh in the windy and sunny conditions. Much to my delight I hit a clean lob winner over Leigh’s head beating both her and Anna Leigh! We ended up losing the match 11-6, 11-1 even forcing the Waters to take a time out in the first set. It was such a pleasure to share the court with 2 players who have achieved so much in the sport. Playing Anna Leigh was like nothing I’d ever experienced. She reads the game better than anyone else on the women’s side and was able to tie us in knots and take control of the court on pretty much every ball. The Waters went on to win Gold in the women’s doubles without dropping more than 10 points in any one match. As it was double elimination (you have to lose twice before you’re knocked out) we were still alive in the back draw. Next up we had Ryann Foster and Regina Franco, 2 more pros who play at the top level in the States. After I stopped trying to (unsuccessfully) lob Ryann, one of the taller women in the draw, we came through 15-13 (in the back draw matches are 1 to 15 points). After 3 great wins we came up against the pairing of Megan Fudge and Alix Truong who were sadly too strong for us beating us 15-2. We ended up finishing tied 7th out of 29 teams. An incredibly memorable showing for us and a day to be proud of.
I really enjoyed playing in both split age categories. I lucked out and got two of the loveliest partners in Jose Galan and Jennifer Gallwas. Sadly, with Jennifer we went 0 and 2 but had a lot of fun playing together, her infectious personality brightened up my day as well as the “Pickle” jumper she gifted me. Playing with Jose was also a total joy and we went 2 and 2 overall. The US Open truly exemplifies the ethos of pickleball, bringing people from all walks of life together to create an incredible community of people who love the game and love hanging out with like minded people. In 2023 I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to play pickleball with Ivan Lendl. A legendary athlete and one of the best tennis players of all time who now adores pickleball. We played 4/5 times while he was over for Wimbledon. We’d kept in touch and as he lives in Florida I had initially asked him if he wanted to play in the mixed split age event. He agreed to play with me but upon entering we realised that if you play one “Pro” event at US Open it means you cannot play any “Amateur” events. As Ivan was entered into an amateur men’s doubles event I totally understood when he said he wouldn’t be able to play the pro split age with me. I can’t think of any other sports where a player like me could have the potential opportunity to compete alongside a legend like Ivan Lendl – pickleball is truly unique in that way.
My singles event was short lived. I lost in the first round in a high quality, tight, 3 set match against a very accomplished player in Milan Rane. During the match I’d struggled mentally and definitely carried those struggles into my back draw singles match with Pei (we travelled across the world together only to play each other!). I went down to Pei and definitely held onto the doubts that had crept in that day for the mixed doubles day too. Mixed doubles day with James was probably one of my worst days on a pickleball court (sorry James). My play, although not great, was probably better than I was giving myself credit for. However, that day I had told myself I had no ability to do anything on court and that mindset was one that wasn’t going to get me very far – and it didn’t! We ended up going 1 and 2 and quickly finding the Margarita stand! A positive takeaway was that I learnt a lot about mindset that day and I know it will be a good learning for the long-term.
A special thank you to Jared Franklin and Aaron Stahl who looked after our group so well during the event. We were lucky enough to be able to watch the finals on Zing Zang court. Watching the highest calibre of pickleball up close and in person is a very different experience to watching it on Youtube and we were able to learn so much.