The short answer: the first MLP Nations Cup starts at Brookhaven Country Club in Farmers Branch, outside Dallas, at 15:00 London time on Friday 30 October, and the final is at 20:00 on Sunday 1 November. Eight regional teams, 48 listed players, two pools of four, top two through to semi-finals. The United States are favourites, and say so on paper. The more interesting number is twelve: the roster places given to Asia, the same as given to Europe, and double what the host nation gets.
The scene on Friday is set before a ball is struck. At 10:00 local time on Championship Court, Australia play Asia International. The schedule MLP published on 29 September lists five more matches after it that day, all marked simply “Followed By”, which is the honest way of saying nobody knows when the last one finishes. Pickleball has spent years telling people it is global. This weekend it has to prove it in one building, one court at a time.
Let me begin with an argument that will make me unpopular in at least one time zone. The Nations Cup is not really a test of whether the United States are the best team in the world. Everybody already assumes they are, and the roster does little to argue. It is a test of whether the rest of the world can turn up in Texas as teams rather than as a list of names. That is a much more useful question, and Sunday will answer it.
What is the MLP Nations Cup?
It is Major League Pickleball’s new international team event and, in the league’s words, “the official kickoff to the 2026 Pickleball World Championships, setting the tone for a 10-day global celebration of the sport.” It runs from Friday 30 October to Sunday 1 November at Brookhaven Country Club, the same campus that hosts Worlds week straight afterwards. MLP’s announcement promises “national rivalries” and “a high-stakes, high-energy international showdown”. Press releases are rarely understated, but this one has a point. Club pickleball has done regional pride before. The professional game has not done it at this level.
The format is MLP’s coed team format. The World Championships page describes it plainly: “Teams meet in round-robin play across the opening days to set the field for the final day”, then “a single-elimination bracket decides it, and one team is crowned the first-ever MLP Nations Cup Champion.”
Two details matter more than they look. First, the official standings table tracks four columns: wins, losses, game difference (GD) and point difference (PD). In a pool of four, with three matches each, ties at two wins apiece are not a fringe case. They are what usually happens. A team that wins its matches comfortably will be in a much safer position than one that scrambles through, so the dead rubber on Saturday evening may not be dead at all. Second, every published match is on a single Championship Court. There is no hiding a bad session on an outside court.
Who is in each pool?
MLP’s schedule calls them Group A and Group B, and the Worlds site calls them Pool 1 and Pool 2. They are the same groups.
Group A: USA, Canada, Europe–West, Asia Domestic
- USA (captain Johnny Goldberg): Tyra Black, Anna Bright, Kate Fahey, Will Howells, Ben Johns, CJ Klinger.
- Canada (captain Steve Deakin): Victoria DiMuzio, Blaine Hovenier, Armaan Jiwa Mawji, Layne Sleeth, Ryan Torresin, Angie Walker.
- Europe–West (captain Chris Cantino): Judit Castillo (Spain), Helena Jansen (Spain), Will MacKinnon (Scotland), Theo Platel (France), Estee Widdershoven (Belgium), DJ Young (Spain).
- Asia Domestic (captains Geoffrey Nguyen and Jeff Tsao): Augie Ge (China), Milan Rane (India), Jonathan Truong (Vietnam), Zoey Wang (Chinese Taipei), Jamie Wei (Chinese Taipei), Len Yang (China).
Group B: Asia International, Australia, Europe–East, Latin America
- Asia International (captain Madeleine Lim): Rika Fujiwara (Japan), Lingwei Kong (China), Jimmy Liong (Malaysia), Tama Shimabukuro, Jack Wong (Hong Kong, China), Macy Ybañez (Philippines). Shimabukuro has replaced Hien Truong of Vietnam, who was in MLP’s original announcement.
- Australia (captain Sange Carter): Sarah Burr, Chris Crouch, Sahra Dennehy, Mitch Hargreaves, Danni-Elle Townsend, George Wall.
- Europe–East (captain Caleb Garrard): Andrei Daescu (Romania), Arwid Dahlin (Sweden), Ivan Jakovljevic (Croatia), Lina Padegimaite (Lithuania), Tina Pisnik (Slovenia), Daria Walczak (Poland). MLP confirmed that Jakovljevic replaces Mikołaj Biedermann.
- Latin America (captain Juan Manuel Benitez): Nico Acevedo (Chile), Mari Humberg (Brazil), Rafa Lenhard (Brazil), Eric Oncins (Brazil), Alexa Schull (Puerto Rico), Charlie Trevino (Mexico).
A quick word on the method. These rosters come from MLP’s announcement of 24 September and its later roster updates. The World Championships event page still shows some older names: Biedermann for Europe–East, and shorter Canada and Australia lists. Where the two disagree, I have used MLP’s own announcement, because MLP runs the event. Expect late changes. Rosters in team pickleball are a weather forecast, not a contract.
Where is the global angle?
Count the passports and the story writes itself. On MLP’s published rosters, the eight teams draw on more than 20 nations and territories. Asia alone is split into two teams, Domestic and International, which gives the continent twelve of the 48 places. Europe is split too, West and East, also for twelve places. North America outside Mexico gets two teams, and the host nation gets six places, one in eight.
The conventional view says this is an American sport that tolerates foreigners. On this evidence, the league organising the most American product in the game has built its flagship international event to look like the World Cup draw rather than a US Open entry list. That is a choice, and it is the right one.
The Asia split is the most interesting decision. The two rosters read differently. Asia Domestic draws two from China, two from Chinese Taipei, one each from India and Vietnam. Asia International is the more travelled side, with players who are familiar on the PPA Tour Asia swing, plus a teenager in Shimabukuro whom WPM readers will know from the Hong Kong Slam. If Asia Domestic win even one pool match against Europe–West or Canada, that will be the most significant result of the weekend outside the final. Nobody will put it on a poster.
Europe’s split has an odd geography. Arwid Dahlin of Sweden is in “East”, and Belgium’s Estee Widdershoven is in “West”. Scotland’s Will MacKinnon is the only player from the United Kingdom across all 48 places. For a British readership that is the number to remember. One. He will be playing alongside three Spaniards, a Frenchman and a Belgian. There is a column in that, and it is not this one.
Is the United States really the favourite?
Yes, and by a distance. Ben Johns and Anna Bright are the only reigning World Championships champions in the Nations Cup field, a point WPM made on Tuesday, and the USA can surround them with Kate Fahey, Tyra Black, CJ Klinger and Will Howells. In a format where a team needs men’s, women’s and mixed pairings to work, there is no obvious weak pairing to target.
Now the counter-argument, which I take seriously. Team events punish anything short of top form far more than draws do. The USA open on Friday against Canada, their closest neighbours and probably the strongest team in Group A after them, in the fourth match of the day. Then they play twice on Saturday, against Europe–West and Asia Domestic, with one match in between. A slow start against Canada and they are playing the second day for game difference. That is not a crisis. It is just the kind of afternoon that makes captains age.
My call: the USA top Group A. Canada take second, but only on game difference over Europe–West. That will be the closest pool decision of the weekend.
Who comes out of Group B?
This is the open pool and the better one to watch. Latin America have the deepest Brazilian core in the field, with Humberg, Lenhard and Oncins, plus Acevedo, Schull and Trevino. Australia open the whole event against Asia International, then play Europe–East in the fifth match of the day. That is two matches on day one, a hard start that could be an advantage if they win both.
Europe–East are built around Daescu and Pisnik, two of the best-known European names on the professional circuit. Asia International have the youngest star and probably the most chaos. My call: Latin America win the group, with Australia second on Friday’s momentum. If I am wrong, I expect it to be because Asia International beat Latin America in Saturday’s opening match. The schedule puts that match first, and early-session upsets are the ones nobody sees coming.
What is the schedule in London time?
Brookhaven is on US Central Time. Here is the useful detail: the US clocks go back at 02:00 on Sunday 1 November, a week after Britain’s. So the gap is five hours on Friday and Saturday and six on Sunday. Set an alarm by the wrong one and you will miss a semi-final.
Friday 30 October (Championship Court)
- 15:00: Australia v Asia International (Group B)
- Followed by: Europe–East v Latin America (B)
- Followed by: Europe–West v Asia Domestic (A)
- Followed by: Canada v USA (A)
- Followed by: Australia v Europe–East (B)
- Followed by: Asia Domestic v Canada (A)
Saturday 31 October (Championship Court)
- 15:00: Latin America v Asia International (B)
- Followed by: USA v Europe–West (A)
- Followed by: Asia International v Europe–East (B)
- Followed by: Latin America v Australia (B)
- Followed by: USA v Asia Domestic (A)
- Followed by: Europe–West v Canada (A)
PickleballTV’s published window for pool play is 10:00 to 19:00 Central on both days, which is 15:00 to midnight in London. The USA–Canada match is fourth on Friday, so it will probably fall in the London evening, but “Followed By” means it starts when the third match ends.
Sunday 1 November
- 16:00: Semi-final 1, Group A runner-up v Group B winner
- 17:30: Semi-final 2, Group A winner v Group B runner-up
- 20:00: Final
Every Championship Court match is on PickleballTV and the PickleballTV app. MLP says live scores and standings will be posted on majorleaguepickleball.co during the event.
What decides it?
Three things, in order of importance.
Game difference. With three pool matches each, the standings table will probably have at least one two-way tie at two wins. The team that has been winning games, not just matches, is the team that avoids the Group B winner in the semi-final. Watch the final match on Saturday, Europe–West v Canada, which on my numbers could decide second place in Group A on the GD column alone.
Back-to-backs. Australia and Canada both play twice on Friday. The USA and Latin America both play twice on Saturday. The single court spreads things out, but nobody in this event has a quiet weekend.
The cross-over. Group A runner-up meets Group B winner first, at 16:00 London. If my calls are right, that means Canada v Latin America, followed by USA v Australia. That is a final the Americans should reach. Whether they win it depends on whether Latin America arrive as six players or as one team.
The verdict
The USA should win the first MLP Nations Cup, and if they do it will tell us very little. The useful results are further down the table: how close Asia Domestic get to Europe–West, whether Asia International can rattle Latin America, and whether two composite European teams can play like teams at all. Worlds week starts the next day on the same grounds, so we will not have long to dwell on it.
Pickleball keeps saying it is a global game. On Sunday night, at 20:00 London time, we find out how global the final is. My guess is half.
Sources: MLP match schedule (29 September 2026); MLP rosters and captains announcement (24 September 2026); Pickleball World Championships Nations Cup page. Further reading: Bright and Johns are the only Worlds champions playing the Nations Cup.
