3 Big Questions About the PPA Tour Sacramento (Vintage) Open

The PPA Sacramento Open, featuring the return of wooden paddles to pickleball, is one of the more interesting wrinkles we’ve seen in any sport. Pro pickleball is still small enough that chances can be taken to create an event like this that counts for real standings points. Imagine if either the ATP or WTA hosted an event where all their players had to use wooden rackets?

Will this actually be good TV, including for the pickleball hardos? We’re very intrigued to see what the play on the court looks like and will absolutely be tuning in. At the same time, we’re also curious whether the wooden paddle intrigue will last for the entire tournament or start to feel gimmicky at a certain point. Hopefully, it’s the former rather than the latter, as it’s always a plus for the sport whenever those in charge find a way to do something different and unique.

1. How different is the play going to look on the court?

The fun part of this event is that we really have no idea what the play will look like. We have original paddles paired with 2025 skill. As tempting as it is to believe we’re going to see a vastly different game, our lean, without having seen or spoken to players, is that the game won’t look as different as the initial instinct might suggest.

Paddle technology and the game of pickleball itself have undergone a massive transformation over the past five years. Having first picked up a paddle in the summer of 2017, we tend to view the pickleball world as a pre-COVID and post-COVID one.

Although things have changed drastically, we think the perception of what the game used to look like can sometimes be overstated. Sure, in 2018 and 2019 there weren’t many players with a one-handed backhand roll/flick or all that many two-handed backhands.That doesn’t mean they didn’t exist or that people couldn’t hit them.

Even with smooth-faced, honeycomb paddles, it wasn’t impossible to generate spin or create pace. Wooden paddles and 2018/2019 technology are different things, but this wooden paddle event should help us understand how much of the game’s evolution can be attributed to paddle technology versus player improvement.

Both are undoubtedly significant, but we lean toward player improvement being the bigger factor of the two.

2. Will the wooden paddles favor certain players?

The consensus seems to be that wooden paddles will favor more conventional players, and we have trouble disagreeing with that sentiment. That line of thinking is also how we currently feel about 2025 pickleball in general.

The players who are winning, especially in men’s doubles, are able to grind and work points. Modern pickleball without fundamental, traditional pickleball does not lead to wins at the highest level.

While the more traditional players should have an advantage, we don’t expect a wooden paddle, even playing field to suddenly elevate a player like Collin Johns back into the conversation as an elite right-side player (although playing with Andrei Daescu might do that on its own).

It just doesn’t seem like the pendulum should swing so far with wooden paddles that players who haven’t been winning for some time are suddenly going to start winning with the new/old equipment.

One underrated factor could be how much time individual players put into adjusting to the paddles. Outside of Collin Johns, the difference between winning or losing could be the blood, sweat and tears that have gone into preparing for a one time gimmicky wooden paddle event.

3. Who is going to win then?

It’s not the strongest field in Sacramento, as some of the PPA’s best are in Malaysia playing an event there, and others are simply sitting this one out. That makes this field difficult to sort out, even under normal paddle circumstances.

Men’s Doubles

Federico Staksrud is paired with a true OG in Matt Wright. Andrei Daescu is with the aforementioned Collin Johns. Noe Khlif is with Gabe Tardio. Jay Devilliers and Riley Newman have played together recently and form an OG-ish men’s doubles team.

The team to beat, though, has to be JW Johnson and Dylan Frazier. These two would probably be slight favorites in a normal tournament, but give two grindy guys wooden paddles and you have to think they’re built for this event.

There are some other interesting teams, but Federico/Matt and Gabe/Noe stand out for having left-side grindy players getting a favorable bump with wooden paddles. Riley Newman and Jay Devilliers will be a real test of whether wooden paddles favor more seasoned and experienced, if somewhat past their prime, players.

If Collin Johns can win with Andrei Daescu here, there may be no more words left to say about Andrei.

Women’s Doubles

It’s a pretty soft women’s draw, which makes it tough to pick against Jorja/Tyra, who are clearly the best team in the field on paper.

Mixed Doubles

The top three seeds in mixed appear well-suited for this event: Jorja/JW, Tina Pisnik/Andrei, Jessie Irvine/Gabe

Men’s and Women’s Singles

This could be the most intriguing singles event in quite some time. We’ll really get to see what impact modern paddle technology has had on a singles game that has evolved into a no-cat-and-mouse, groundstroke-heavy battle.

Singles is always a bit of a crapshoot, especially in the men’s game, so the intrigue for us is less about who wins and more about the style of play we’ll see. Hunter Johnson, Jack Sock, and Connor Garnett are three names to watch, though Federico Staksrud comes in as the clear favorite.

On the women’s side, Brooke Buckner is possibly the hardest groundstroke hitter on tour, and Kate Fahey has been playing really well. They have to be the favorites to win as the #2 and #1 seeds, respectively, but it remains to be seen how well their styles will translate with wooden paddles.

Overall, it should be a really fun event, at least at the beginning, as we see how players adjust and adapt to the different style of play. Maybe they’ll do it again next year.

Agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments or email us at nmlpickleball@gmail.com! You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @nmlpickleball