NML’s Inaugural Season-Long Fantasy Pickleball

When we started the blog in 2021, the content we were doing was all fresh and new because literally no one else was talking about pro pickleball in a more formalized written setting. While content is going to be predictable to a certain extent, we have been feeling stale with the same type of content week after week with so many different tournaments (previews, takeaways blah blah blah). 

In an effort to bring something new to the table for 2026, we are unveiling a revamped fantasy pickleball format that our readers can follow along with. For the OG NML followers, those original fantasy draft previews that we used to do was something we developed before starting the blog as a way to make tournaments more interesting to watch. We didn’t bring back the old fantasy previews last year and we have both missed watching tournaments without having something more on the line than the pure joy of watching the same players compete tournament after tournament. 

As a result, we created the exclusive to NML inaugural season long fantasy pickleball league! Our rosters are in the featured photo above with the rules outlined in more detail below (you can view this Google Doc for our full internal rules).

The the basic idea is that we have drafted players specific to doubles and singles who can accumulate points. Each PPA tournament will be considered a matchup and the person with the most points based on our scoring system will be the winner of the matchup for that tournament. The person with the best head-to-head record at the end of the year wins! There will also be waiver periods each month and the ability for the two of us to trade players with one another.

We’ll see how the rules shake out as we have created this totally from scratch and we may tweak things as we go along because if MLP can do it during the season, so can we! Ultimately, this will serve as something to hopefully keep us more interested in watching the travelling circus of tournaments and it will also undoubtedly provide fascinating blog content for the yearning public. If anyone wants to suggest a way to better show our roster for each tournament, we are all ears. 

Here are the basic rules: 

• Rosters
  • 10 men and 10 women were drafted who can accumulate points in gender and mixed doubles. 3 of each gender must be outside the top 25 in both doubles category according to the PPA website.  
  • 4 men and 4 women that can accumulate points in singles. 1 of each gender must be outside the top 15. 
• Scoring
  • Players will earn 1 point for quarterfinal appearance; 2 points for a semi-final; 3 points for bronze; 4 points for silver; and 5 points for a gold medal.
  • Players rostered as outside the top 25 players will earn 1 point for a round of 16 appearance in doubles and singles.
  • Bench spots: Prior to each tournament, each person will designate 2 of each doubles gender from their main roster, 1 of each gender in the outside top 25 doubles category and 1 of each gender in singles to their bench prior to the start of the tournament. Those players will not be eligible to accumulate points for that tournament. 
• Waivers
  • At the end of each month, there will be a waiver add/drop cycle. To promote player movement and strategy, each person must drop a minimum of: (i) 2 players from each gender on their main doubles roster; (ii) 1 player from each gender on their outside top 25 doubles list; and (iii) 1 player from each gender of their main singles roster. 
  • A player from the outside top 25 doubles roster may be transferred to the main part of the roster during a waiver period and, if that is done, it will meet the requirement for the minimum drop requirement for that gender. 
  • If a player enters the top 25 of doubles or top 15 of singles while on a roster, they must either be transferred to the main roster or dropped during the next waiver period. 

We have provided a link to a Google Doc with the full rules breakdown for anyone weird enough to want to understand what we have agreed on and see the full rosters easily.

This will be the longest post for our fantasy stuff as we wanted to give an old school detailing of our draft picks. Below is the order of our draft picks and some of the reasoning behind the picks from each of us. 

(1) Anna Leigh Waters (Slim) 

(2) Ben Johns (Gritty)

(3) Anna Bright (Gritty)

(4) JW Johnson (Slim)

(5) Jorja Johnson (Slim)

Slim – ALW in doubles was an auto lock with the first pick, and I actually wonder if not taking her in singles with the fourth or fifth pick was a massive mistake. If she plays a full slate of singles, it almost certainly will be. I took the Johnson’s fourth and fifth as I think they will still be the second best mixed team and should both picking up podiums in gender doubles.

Gritty – Ben is not quite the lock that ALW is in both doubles disciplines, but he was close in the 2^nd half of 2025. We were doing a lot of guess work with these selections and I decided that AB’s floor with being a gold medal favorite in women’s at every tournament was too much to pass on. 

(6) Gabe Tardio (Gritty) 

(7) Anna Leigh Waters (singles) (Gritty) 

(8) Catherine Parenteau (Slim) 

(9) Hayden Patriquin (Slim) 

(10) Tyra Black (Gritty)

(11) Andrei Daescu (Gritty) 

Slim – Catherine having the two seed in women’s doubles locked up with Rachel Rohrabacher along with the upside of her Gabe Tardio mixed partnership made me take her here. Hayden playing with AB in mixed makes them a podium threat every tournament and he and Christian Alshon are the upside men’s doubles team.

Gritty – Gabe was sneaky value at this #6 spot because he is a gold medal favorite and has a little bit of upside in mixed with the CP partnership. Anna Leigh Waters is close to 600 days in singles without losing so I should be getting 5 guaranteed points every tournament she plays. Tyra will play with Jorja this year and should have a lot of deep women’s runs. Andrei Daescu brings the compete level every tournament, even if there is concern about his upside in men’s and whether he will have the partners to compete in mixed. 

(12) Kate Fahey (singles) (Slim) 

(13) Federico Staksrud (singles) (Slim) 

(14) Christian Alshon (Gritty) 

(15) Rachel Rohrabacher (Gritty)  

(16) Parris Todd (Slim) 

(17) Federico Staksrud (Slim)

Slim – As the second best female singles player right now, I really like Fahey here. Fed’s consistency led me to take him in both men’s singles and doubles, but I do wonder if the 13th pick was a reach for him in singles with all the competition out there.

Gritty – I like Christian Alshon’s upside in doubles. The one thing that I wish I figured out earlier in this draft is to stack my guys like you do with a QB and WR in fantasy football. Christian Alshon will negate the Hayden Patriquin points that go the other way to Jer and he has upside in mixed. Rachel Rohrabacher will be in a good spot with her seeding in women’s doubles and there’s some interesting upside with Will Howells in mixed. 

(18) Chris Haworth (singles) (Gritty) 

(19) Eric Oncins (Gritty) 

(20) Will Howells (outside top 25) (Slim) 

(21) Tina Pisnik (Slim) 

(22) Jade Kawamoto (Gritty) 

(23) Jackie Kawamoto (Gritty) 

Slim – I had to grab Will Howells here, him being the only in my mind clear top 25 doubles player ranked outside the top 25 provided great value. It will be interesting to see how he does on the tour this year. Tina Pisnik, is very consistent and I was trying to lock in as many women’s players as I could, as I don’t think the depth is there in the women’s game.

Gritty – I definitely missed that Will Howells was an edge as an outside the top 25 guy. But alas, I went with Haworth in singles and Oncins in doubles. Haworth is who I think will be the best in singles this year. Oncins is the most likely to break into the top 8 of the men and has upside in mixed so I reluctantly take him over our guy CJ Klinger. The Kawamoto’s fall so far in our draft because they don’t play full-time and they don’t usually go that far in mixed. Nevertheless, they are a top 3 women’s team going into the season and to get that value so late is something I couldn’t pass up. 

(24) CJ Klinger (Slim) 

(25) Etta Tuionetoa (Slim) 

(26) Kate Fahey (Gritty) 

(27) Brooke Buckner (singles) (Gritty) 

(28) Hunter Johnson (singles) (Slim) 

(29) Dekel Bar (Slim)

Slim – CJ’s lack of mixed results prevented him from being higher but he and JW will be a podium threat as they showed last year every tournament, and if we can see an uptick in his mixed results, he’s a steal. Hunter Johnson is probably who I should have taken earlier in singles, so I was lucky to get him here. Dekel is coming off an injury plagued year, but if he can get his health back, he’s a steal at 29. He has shown he can win.

Gritty – I wish I had gone with Hunter Johnson and waited for Brooke Buckner in singles. However, I like Brooke as a potential #2 singles player this year and women’s singles is so thin I wanted to get two of ALW, Fahey and Buckner. Kate Fahey in doubles is the one player that has a little more upside outside the top 9 women and she should be able to find some results with Tina Pisnik along the way as two very consistent players.

(30) Dylan Frazier (Gritty)

(31) Christian Alshon (singles) (Gritty) 

(32) Kaitlyn Christian (singles) (Slim) 

(33) Noe Khlif (Slim)

(34) Parris Todd (singles) (Gritty) 

(35) Lacy Schneemann (Gritty) 

Slim – Kaitlyn Christian is a pretty consistent women’s singles player at this time, and should consistently put points on the board for me. I like Noe and his partnerships this year, so I was happy to grab him here.

Gritty – I started stacking players with the Kawamoto pick and I do that again here with Dylan Frazier. I like the Oncins upside so I double down with Frazier l. The men’s singles stuff is a crapshoot but I like that Alshon is getting better and he’s an athletic specimen with his movement. Parris Todd is not full-time singles, but I want to keep shooting for upside as can be seen by the Lacy Schneemann pick to round out my women’s roster – Schneemann has the ability to make noise in smaller fields. 

(36) Riley Newman (Slim) 

(37) Meghan Dizon (Slim) 

(38) Jack Sock (singles) (Gritty) 

(39) Max Freeman (outside top 25) (Gritty) 

(40) Jack Sock (outside top 25) (Slim) 

(41) Cailyn Campbell (outside top 15 singles) (Slim) 

Slim – Riley and Meghan may not be the most exciting picks but they both have experience and at this point in the draft were better value than most options. Of men’s doubles players outside of the top 25, I really liked Will Howells, Jack Sock and Max Freeman, so I was very happy to get two of the three. Cailyn Campbell here in singles was a complete upside grab.

Gritty – Jack Sock is getting more consistent in singles and with the right draws should be able to make some finals and maybe finally win a gold medal. Max Freeman was the clear best player not in the top 25 for me after Will Howells as the partners he gets are higher level than his current ranking, particularly the McGuffin partnership.  

(42) Will MacKinnon (outside top 25) (Gritty) 

(43) Jay Devilliers (outside top 15 singles) (Gritty)

(44) Cailyn Campbell (outside top 25) (Slim)

(45) AJ Koller (outside top 25) (Slim) 

(45) Mary Brascia (outside top 25) (Gritty) 

(47) Mya Bui (outside top 25) (Gritty) 

Slim – I continue to look for upside taking Cailyn Campbell again in doubles, though then zag a bit taking AJ Koller. I just think on the right weekend Koller can still beat a lot of good players in doubles.

Gritty – Will MacKinnon is going to struggle to find mixed partnerships but he is the rare outside top 25 player getting a top 15 partnership with Riley Newman. I was between Jay and Tyson for this outside the top 15 singles spot. I chose Jay because he’s playing better and he never quits. Mary Brascia is the only Brascia sister outside the top 25 and I figured she and Maggie could find their way into some quarterfinals, or even a semi-final in a smaller field. Mya Bui has upside talent but the pick doesn’t excite me at all. 

(48) Elsie Henderson (outside top 25) (Slim)  

(49) Lauren Stratman (outside top 25) (Slim)

(50) Jay Devilliers (Gritty)

(51) Wyatt Stone (outside top 25) (Gritty) 

(52) John Lucian Goins (singles) (Slim)

(53) Tyson McGuffin (outside top 15 singles) (Slim) 

(54) Jamie Wei (outside top 25) (Gritty) 

(55) Salome Devidze (outside top 15 singles) (Gritty)

(56) Catherine Parenteau (Slim)

Slim – Elsie and Goins are again both upside picks whereas Tyson and Catherine are veteran players. Getting Catherine in singles with the last pick actually feels like a steal. I think Tyson may be able to fight his way to some results early in the season while he is still fresh.

Gritty – Jay Devilliers in doubles is a bet that a partnership with Dekel Bar carries some upside and negates potential Dekel upside for Jer. Jay has been playing well. I have been liking Wyatt Stone’s game recently and he is finally getting some better partners. Jamie Wei has some sneaky results, but she is a prime drop candidate in the first waiver period. The women’s depth is so much less than the men still. Salmone Devidze has upside in singles when she shows up. 

Notable Undrafted

Genie Bouchard and Lea Jansen (singles) – Genie has the highest ceiling and lowest floor. She somehow lost to Ava Ignatowich at the end of 2025 but has shown to be right there with the best. Lea Jansen is always in the mix but she seems to bring her worst pickleball when ALW is not in the field, which is unfortunate.

Roscoe Bellamy, Connor Garnett, Jaume Martinez Vich, and Ben Johns (singles) – Unfathomable last year to think Ben goes undrafted for singles and it is an afterthought now. Roscoe Bellamy has been playing good singles and may get picked up at some point this year by one of us. Garnett has fallen off and appears to have plateaued across the board. Jaume is dangerous but he has been having back issues so we both avoided him.

Jessie Irvine, Lea Jansen, Callie Smith and Mari Humberg (doubles) – Jessie Irvine going undrafted is a testament to her veteran lack of upside and loss of Tardio in mixed. Lea and Callie are solid, but unspectacular in doubles. Mari Humberg needs to show something before she gets on a roster.

Jaume Martinez Vich, Connor Garnett and Tyson McGuffin (doubles) – Jaume is the best of this undrafted bunch, but his uncertain health and partnerships keep him undrafted. Connor Garnett is on the downswing in our view as he upgrades his lefty partnership. Tyson should be able to get some men’s results, but where is the upside?