The Report
Two paddle lists, one problem
Good morning, pickleballers.
JW and Jorja Johnson's new Paddletek Tempest Veyra is legal at this week's World Championships. It is also missing from USA Pickleball's Approved Paddle List, where an unlisted paddle spotted mid-match means a forfeit. Pickleball now runs two approval lists that do not match, and the buyer has to know which one their event uses.
Also today: Fabrizio Lavezzari's interview with Yuta Funemizu, the soft-tennis world champion who was told to change his game and didn't; what Heat Check made of the English Nationals; and Isaac Hunter on the eight PPA contracts at stake at the Challenger Showdown.
The Lead · Gear
Legal at Worlds. Not on USA Pickleball's list
The Tempest Veyra (Elongated for JW, Wide Body for Jorja) launched on 1 November at $179.99. It and its sister paddle, the Bantam Jolt, were added to the UPA-A Certified Paddles List on 9 October. We checked USA Pickleball's list line by line this morning: 5,392 entries, and a model search for “Veyra” returns no results.
At Worlds in Farmers Branch the pros must use the UPA-A list, and amateurs may use either. At a USA Pickleball-sanctioned event, Rule 18.A.2 says an unlisted paddle spotted during play means a match forfeit. Absence from a list does not mean a paddle would fail a test. It may simply not have been submitted yet.
Why it matters: the question for the buyer is no longer “is it approved?” but “approved by whom?” The sport should have one list.
Interview · Japan
The style they told him to abandon
Fabrizio Lavezzari talks to Yuta Funemizu, a soft-tennis world champion who spent about two months losing to recreational players in American parks when he took up pickleball. He was told his soft-tennis strokes would not work. He tried playing conventionally for two weeks, then went back to his own game: “I would disappear among all the other players.”
Now he has beaten Ben Johns and had six match points in a final in Arizona, and the pair will soon partner each other at Ariake in Japan. Federico Staksrud helped him early on, and he has won in Tachikawa with Tama Shimabukuro.
Why it matters: top professionals now ask him how he hits his volley.
Read Fabrizio Lavezzari's interview
Heat Check · English Nationals
Why the finalists climbed and the champions stood still
On WPM's Results Elo table the biggest climbers after Bolton were beaten finalists: Eleanor Tomkinson rose from 657th to 225th, Evie Kenna from 302nd to 165th and Louis Laville from 40th to 28th. James Ling won two Open titles and went from 200th to 202nd.
The model didn't ignore him. Ling's men's doubles Elo rose 75 and his mixed 77. But a player's headline figure is their best discipline, which for Ling is singles, and nobody played singles at Bolton.
Why it matters: read the method before you read the table. These are WPM model ratings, not official rankings.
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PPA Challenger Showdown · Texas
One tournament, eight contracts
Isaac Hunter previews the Challenger Showdown at Brookhaven Country Club, 5 to 7 November, alongside Worlds. Eight 2027 PPA Tour contracts are on offer: one each to the singles winners and both players in each winning doubles team. That is 64 places across five draws, and one contract for every eight.
William Hsieh, the Charlotte champion, and Jessica Ho, top of the women's singles rankings by two points from Masa Grgan, lead the way. Matt Burkhardt and Anne-Sophie Courteau each have three chances at a contract.
Why it matters: “A PPA contract would mean the world to me,” Hsieh said. A whole season comes down to five matches.
That's the Report
Worlds continues in Farmers Branch this week, and the Challenger Showdown starts on Thursday. If you are buying a paddle for Christmas, check the list before the label.