MINTO US OPEN PICKLEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
There’ s no party like a pickleball party— and the 2018 Minto US Open Pickleball Championships( powered by Margaritaville) co-founders Terri Graham and Chris Evon can throw a shindig like no other.
From April 21-29, the East Naples Community Park in Naples, Florida, became the nation’ s hotspot when more than 20,000 spectators arrived to watch 2,000 players, representing 47 states and 20 countries.
The recent boom of the sport has brought in worldclass talent from many backgrounds including: tennis, badminton, racquetball, table tennis and more. The topplayers unanimously agreed the 2018 Minto US Open showcased the best pickleball play ever assembled in one location. Every gold medal match for each age and / or skill event was routinely touted as“ the best ever.” The ages of the participants ranged in age from 10-91 years.
The nine-day event kicked off with“ Kid’ s Day” on Friday and Margaritaville’ s Party in the Park on Saturday. These days set the stage for the fun and exciting atmosphere that was to follow.
Sunday was the day designated for singles play. In the Men’ s Open Singles, Tyson McGuffin, coming off his USAPA National Singles title in November, triumphed over Kyle Yates to become the Open champion. Yates’ loss in the finals would be his only defeat as he would come back with a vengeance in the pro doubles events. In the women’ s singles, Simone Jardim continued her dominance on the ladies tour by taking down Lucy Kovalova in the finals. Newcomer Kaitlyn Christian
demonstrated she’ ll be a force to be reckoned with, as she earned the bronze medal.
The Senior Open Pro Singles events featured National Champion Scott Moore continuing his gold medal streak in his win over Brian Staub. Cammy MacGregor also remained ahead of the senior women’ s game by defeating Jennifer Dawson.
The next six days featured professional, skill-level and age-based doubles events that would culminate with the Pro Open Doubles and Mixed Doubles Championship finals being played on Saturday on the stadium court before a packed house of 1,300 spectators and broadcast by CBS Sports as part of a multi-year contract with the Minto US Open Pickleball Championships.
The Saturday evening Dick’ s Sporting Goods Championship Celebration kicked off with a“ flags from around the world” center-court parade. There were players representing 20 countries carrying their home flags.
Immediately following the electrifying parade on
Continued on next page >
The amount of people who flew in just to be a part of this party atmosphere was astounding.
MINTO US OPEN PICKLEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
( powered by Margaritaville)
MAY / JUNE 2018 | MAGAZINE 31