The Report
The paddle is changing. So are the rules.
Good morning, pickleballers.
A paddle can be legal when it leaves the factory and perform differently after weeks of use. That simple problem is forcing pickleball to rethink what certification actually means, with automated break-in, direct performance measurement and courtside testing beginning to follow equipment throughout its competitive life.
Meanwhile, Las Vegas has reached the point where this week’s upsets have consequences. Kiora Kunimoto and Cailyn Campbell meet knowing one will reach a first main-circuit US PPA final, while Anna Leigh Waters remains alive in both doubles draws as she chases career title No.200.
The paddle is no longer the same paddle.
Pickleball’s equipment problem is no longer simply whether a paddle passes certification when new. Repeated impacts can change how modern paddles perform, meaning regulators increasingly need to understand what happens after break-in and throughout the paddle’s competitive life.
UPA-A’s new Automated Break-In machine will become the official method for 2027 certifications, while performance testing is increasingly measuring what a paddle actually does rather than relying solely on physical characteristics intended to predict it. Power, spin and even surface roughness are becoming lifecycle questions.
The result is a fundamental change in the engineering challenge. Manufacturers no longer need merely to build a high-performance paddle that passes when new. They increasingly need one that can be broken in, mass-produced, used, retested and still remain legal.
Inside pickleball’s new testing eraOne of these teenagers is going to Championship Sunday.
Kiora Kunimoto, 16, removed No.1 seed Kate Fahey 11-8, 2-11, 11-5. Cailyn Campbell, 18, then dispatched No.4 seed Chao Yi Wang 11-6, 11-3. Now they meet with something neither has achieved before on the line: a place in a main-circuit US PPA final.
Elsewhere, men’s singles has begun returning towards familiar territory after John Lucian Goins ended Luc Pham’s breakthrough run 11-1, 11-0. Ben Johns, Federico Staksrud and Hunter Johnson also remain, while Christian Alshon and Andrei Daescu are one match from another men’s doubles final following their recent positional switch.
Then there is Waters. She entered Las Vegas on 198 career PPA Tour titles and needs to win both mixed and women’s doubles to reach 200. Both routes remain alive, leaving four matches between Waters and the milestone.
Read the Las Vegas semi-final previewThree numbers to keep in mind.
0.385 — UPA-A’s maximum Paddle Efficiency Factor for a new paddle before accelerated break-in testing.
16 & 18 — the ages of Kiora Kunimoto and Cailyn Campbell, with one guaranteed to reach a first main-circuit US PPA final today.
4 — remaining matches Anna Leigh Waters must win across mixed and women’s doubles if she is to leave Las Vegas with 200 career PPA Tour titles.
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