PPA Tour Indoor National Championships – 5 Takeaways – “Medical” Timeout Chicanery
(1) “Medical” Timeout Chicanery – The biggest story in Minnesota this past weekend was the temperature, but the second biggest one might have been Andrei Daescu and Gabe Tardio’s use of medical timeouts in their semifinal against CJ Klinger and Federico Staksrud.
Ignoring the very scientific opinions of a couple of people suggesting that the illnesses of pro players in Minnesota was caused by going from a warm to a very cold climate, the fact was that a lot of players were sick this past week, including Gabe Tardio. It led to a medical timeout at a key moment after an approximately 45 minute game 1 that was extended by Andrei Daescu saying his knee needed attention.
The extra 5 minutes allowed Tardio to regroup and avoid throwing up on the court, and they went on to win the match. Federico Staksrud was not happy about this and took to X to post his displeasure with the chicanery, which appears to have since been deleted along with the post from Pickleball.com highlighting the post and Tardio’s further comments (side note: the amount of times Pickleball.com posts something controversial and proceeds to delete it is truly comical). An obvious sour grapes situation from Staksrud who, in a vacuum, probably has a legitimate reason to gripe that the purpose of a medical timeout is not to give your teammate extra time to regroup.
The problem is that the medical timeout is not uncommonly used as a tool beyond legitimate medical issues. For whatever reason, we have specific memories back in October 2024 (Vegas) with Christian Alshon using one in mixed seemingly for a breather at the direction of then coach, Leigh Waters, and in November 2024 (Milwaukee) Rachel Rohrabacher looked to use one as an extended timeout when she and Anna Bright were on the ropes in the finals.
This kind of stuff happens with medical timeouts. While it doesn’t make it right necessarily, we almost have to live with this if the concept of the medical timeout remains an option for players. We see it with the challenge timeouts that players heavily exploit and, given that it is near impossible to determine if someone has a real medical issue that needs attention, you either have to get rid of them or accept that they will be exploited on occasion. Given how we see extended medial timeout used in tennis, which has often been frustrating from a viewer standpoint over the years, it is somewhat surprising players don’t take more advantage of the medical timeout in pickleball.
It is also surprising to see a pro player get so upset at an opponent’s use of a medical that they posted about it on social media. It is a little different because Daescu used an additional medical for himself when it was not needed, but at least there was a legitimate purpose for the medical beyond the need for an extended timeout because things were not going well on the court (at least, that seems to be the case).
We’d be happy if medical timeouts were gone altogether. They are ripe for exploitation and all they do is extend wait times for fans when a player is either going to play hurt or they are not, for the most part. And you don’t deserve a a medical for cramping issues, if that’s what you’re dealing with. Just get the roof closed, like Jannik Sinner.
An understandably frustrating sequence of events for Staksrud but less understandable was the reaction to the circumstance post-match given what we know about medical timeouts and how they are used.
(2) The Juniors Are Arriving! — We knew it was coming. Everyone has been seeing it. It’s just that we probably didn’t think the junior movement would be happening so soon.
Kiora Kunimoto and Cam Chaffin both had outstanding events in Minnesota on the singles side. The 17-year-old Kunimoto made it to the semi-finals after a convincing 1 and 1 win over Chao Yi Wang and then besting Brooke Buckner in 3 games.
Chaffin started off the round of 64 with a win over Donald Young. The 14-year-old proceeded to take down Federico Staksrud and push a potentially sick Chris Haworth to the brink in an 11-9 in the third quarterfinal loss.
These were not fluke singles results for the PPA junior alum players. They are bonafide results.
Kunimoto has big-time power and her very loopy strokes are not a problem for her in singles. We’ll be curious how the doubles game develops as her raw, natural power should carry her to a certain level but we expect she’ll have to make some adjustments to her large swing path, if she wants to be a top player. But hey, you can’t teach power and hands.
Chaffin is the leader of a contingent of junior players from Kansas City’s Elite Pickleball Academy. Chaffin does not have physical tools that knock your socks off and it appears he has a ways to go in terms of his physical development, which makes his singles results all that more impressive. Chaffin’s soft hands may actually be his best quality.
Neither Kunimoto nor Chaffin look like they have conventional fundamentals, but what we know as proper fundamentals may fundamentally change over the next 5 to 10 years. This is the case for a lot of the up and coming juniors on the tour.
What is most surprising about how quickly this is happening for juniors like Chaffin is that pickleball is a physical game and we can’t say we expected the less developed juniors to be able to compete with the fully grown men this early. However, it is clear that shot making can get you a long way in today’s game and, while the comparisons to mini tennis ring truer each week, the court coverage requirements are far different. You don’t have teenage boys who can compete with the best players in the world in tennis simply because of the physical advantages for serving and court coverage that grown men have there.
Nico the Lefty put out what feels like exactly the right sentiment when it comes to MLP team building in 2026 for certain franchises. Although 2025 brought pretty much nothing in the way of breakout talent, there are a plethora of names that teams can and should take a shot on. Tana Shimabukuro, Will MacKinnon, Braden Jacobson, Elsie Hendershot, Ella Yeh, just to name a few others.
The youth upside is a real thing but it somehow looks to be even more of a real thing than we anticipated going into the year. The other factor that the juniors have on their side is a level of naivety and blissful ignorance. There is little to no fear when they are on the court against top players. Maybe it is expectations or lack of realistic expectations, but it is refreshing regardless of the reason(s).
Of course, high end singles results are very different from high end doubles results, but the fact we are seeing it this quickly from the kids growing up as pickleball players is a storyline that everyone took notice of this weekend. It was simply impossible to ignore.
(3) Challenger Feels – As much as the Masters felt like a real pickleball major, the Minnesota event had a corresponding let down that was reflected in the frigid temperatures all week.
The PPA going to a full progressive draw for each tournament may be the best thing for consistency and for the players being able to manage multiple events at each tournament. However, the back-to-back schedule with a progressive draw literally leaves no turnaround time for fans tuning in. The Masters ended Sunday and the (relatively shallow) Minnesota pro qualifiers began on Monday.
The earlier rounds are nearly as intriguing at these smaller tournaments and it was felt by the PPA choosing not to broadcast anything until the round of 16, except on its PPA Streamed Courts YouTube page. This isn’t meant to be a call for the PPA to use resources to broadcast round of 64 and round of 32 matchups. Rather, it’s an acknowledgment that the effect of this was that it made it tough to get into this tournament.
There’s a different kind of fun to the smaller tournaments where we get some mixing and matching with partnerships and seeds as all the best players don’t show up to the smaller opens. It led to some great men’s doubles semifinals and Sunday matches. Ultimately, it’s probably a good thing that the majors feel more like majors and the minor ones feel more minor, but it also makes it easier to check out of the minor one when it is scheduled immediately following a major and there isn’t a formal broadcast until later in the week.
In our opinion, the men’s final was a prime example of why having best of 5 Championship Sunday’s are unnecessary at smaller events. We’re on a back-end of consecutive tournaments and we have a barn burner win for Daescu/Tardio that gets lost in the abyss of an open level PPA event.
(4) Singles Experimentation – In a surprising development last week, the PPA announced that they would institute a narrower singles court for their upcoming Houston Challenger event and they would be experimenting with it for 4 events to start. It was not an announcement that was generally well received by fan, at least on social media. We can’t find who made the comment but one former player joked about it giving them PTSD from their tennis days, with the court looking very similar to the doubles alley in tennis.
We tend to think it is an interesting idea and one more than worth exploring in a lower stakes environment. What’s the harm in giving it a try and seeing what it looks like? Other pro leagues have used their minor league(s) to experiment with potential rule changes, such as baseball’s eventual shift to a pitch clock.
We don’t care too much to speculate on how it will play out in a tournament setting, but we’re curious to monitor what it looks like. Pickleball singles has become more of a tennis game where points are still finished at the net so why not try to see whether a narrower court can accomplish bringing back more pickleball rather than baseline shot making being the predominant required skill.
The one thing that would seem to be a long-term deterrent to make any fundamental change to the game is how much the infrastructure of the game is already embedded across the world. You would have to paint lines on all the courts across the world, which is not as difficult as extending the nets for ATPs but would still be a massive undertaking, unless the UPA decided to not care about that aspect of things.
That’s a bridge to be crossed at a later date. For now, let’s give it a chance and see how it goes.
(5) Minnesota Results – We should probably talk about some Minnesota results, which come with a grain of salt because of the illnesses involved with top players like Hayden and Gabe. Lots of players were sick, but the results confirm that the Ben/Gabe pairing is undoubtedly a cut above the rest in men’s, as if that needed confirmation.
Andrei/Gabe barely got by CJ/Fed, and then they go out and win 12-10 in the 5th against Christian/Hayden. We also have to keep an eye on the ever improving Eric Oncins and Dylan Frazier, who had a strong semi’s straight games loss and took the bronze medal from CJ/Fed
In women’s, we are officially on notice for trouble in that Rohrabacher/Parenteau pairing. Rohrabacher was sick but they lost in the quarters at the Masters and miss the finals here in Minnesota. They won’t have that #2 seed forever without better results.
Christian Alshon had some cringey interviews following some mixed wins, but he and Tyra get a surprising gold, maybe buoyed by some illnesses. Alshon always has the upside in mixed. It was supposed to be their last event partnering together so we’ll see what they decide to do after a gold medal.
Parris is retiring-ish from singles after taking gold over Lea Jansen. It makes sense as she continues to rise in doubles and has solidified herself as a top 10 player. She doesn’t need singles to stay relevant and it is fair that she wants to keep the wear and tear off her body. Kiora Kunimoto may have been the bigger story of the tournament.
Hunter Johnson wins over Haworth who struggled more this week due to illness. Hunter finally wins as a #1 seed and Roscoe Bellamy finds another good result with a bronze medal.
Fantasy Recap: It was a beatdown this week with Chris winning 67-46. The big differentiator was the men’s roster and the fact that Jer was missing the Johnson’s and 5 points from ALW in mixed. Will Howells getting hurt didn’t help in a smaller field either. It’s clear we need to do a better job with our outside top 15 singles players as Kiora Kunimoto was a force in Minnesota and it appears she may continue that way as the year goes along.
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Was there any indication of the immigration/ICE issues going on at the same time as the tournament? For example, did any fans display signs? Any player comments?
Regarding medical timeouts, is there a time limit? If so, what limit? It sounds like Gabe was actually sick. Are you certain Andrei did not have a knee issue? (If Gabe already called a medical TO, it doesn’t seem like Andrei would have to separately call one at the same time.) Were Andrei and Gabe out of regular TOs? Is a medical TO separate from a regular TO — i.e., no limits on use?
What did Gabe (and pb.com) post that they later deleted?
We’re not aware of any ICE stuff
The medical timeouts are now only 5 minutes instead of 15. We are quite certain Andrei’s knee was totally fine. Gabe said something to the effect of do you want me to throw up on the court?