MLP Finals Weekend Preview

The first round of the Major League Pickleball (MLP) playoffs saw the top eight seeds advance to the quarterfinals in Newport Beach, California. Two weekends ago, four teams left Newport Beach victorious: The #1 New Jersey Fives, the #2 St. Louis Shock, the #5 Brooklyn Pickleball Team, and the #6 Dallas Flash.

Here are the matchups for the semifinals, being held at City Pickle at Wollman Rink, inside Central Park.

• #1 New Jersey Fives v #5 Brooklyn Pickleball Team
• #2 St. Louis Shock v #6 Dallas Flash

Playoff Format

Looking at the above matchups, you may wonder why New Jersey isn't playing the lowest seed, the #6 Dallas Flash. MLP has a very unique format for the playoffs - The best seed (New Jersey) got to choose it's opponent from the bottom two seeds, and chose to play Brooklyn. From there, St. Louis had to play Dallas.

Unlike the regular season, if a match is won 3-0, a fourth game will not be played.

Each playoff matchup is best two out of three matches. So if a team wins their first two matches, they move on to the Finals. If it goes to a third match, the winner moves on and the loser goes home. In each matchup throughout the playoffs, the better seed is considered the home team in the first two matches. If a third match happens, there is a coin toss to determine the home team.

Home court matters because as the home team, you get to react to the other team's lineups, including their Dreambreaker lineup.

What's on the line

The teams that win the semifinal matchup will play for a chance to be crowned the 2026 Major League Pickleball Champions on Sunday, August 30th.

Broadcast Schedule of the MLP Finals

*All times listed are in local Eastern Daylight Time

Ticket sessions are listed in the below broadcast schedule to help fans know which session they can attend, depending on the tickets they purchased.

All matches are available on Pickleballtv and the Pickleballtv App, in addition to:

Friday, August 14

• MSG | Noon-6pm ET (LIVE)

Saturday, August 15

• MSG | 10am-4pm ET (LIVE)

Sunday, August 16

• CBS (Exclusive) | Noon-1pm ET (LIVE)
• Tennis Channel | 2pm-4pm ET (LIVE)

Weather Outlook

Friday looks like it could cause some problems with precipitation, but Saturday and Sunday look to be amazing weather for pickleball. With humidity levels possibly in the 80s, it is going to be a little hot and humid for the finals. This means the Life Time LT Pro 48 will be playing a bit slower than normal.

Preview of each matchup

Note: Partner records listed are during the entire 2026 season, including the Mid-Season Tournament and the playoffs.

#1 New Jersey Fives v #5 Brooklyn Pickleball Team

Schedule:

• Match #1 - Friday, Aug 28 ~1:30pm EDT
• Match #2 - Saturday, Aug 29 - 10am EDT
• Match #3 (If necessary) - Saturday, Aug 29 ~1pm EDT

Rosters:

• New Jersey: Anna Leigh Waters, Federico Staksrud, Jorja Johnson, Will Howells, Noe Khlif, and Milan Ran
• Brooklyn: Christian Alshon, Rachel Rohrabacher, Jackie Kawamoto, Riley Newman, Chris Haworth, and Hannah Blatt

Matchup History:

The only that matchup between these two teams occurred on June 28, in the MLP New York Super Sunday Final. The Fives took the victory, 3-0. Brooklyn played Hannah Blatt and Jackie in women's and Rachel played mixed with Christian, but it just wasn't enough.

MATCHDAY App

Injury Concerns: Riley Newman is moving as close to 100% as possible after a knee bone bruise he sustained earlier in the season. No one benefitted more from the weekend in between the quarters and the semis than Rachel Rohrabacher, who is still dealing with nagging injuries from the videoboard incident in MLP New York earlier this year. Rachel is close enough to 100% where I believe she will play all doubles games for Brooklyn, but Hannah Blatt will still take the top woman spot in a Dreambreaker, should it get there.

Game By Game Preview:

Women's Doubles

• Anticipated lineups - Jorja/Anna Leigh (33-1) v Rachel/Jackie (12-5)
• What to watch - Jorja and Anna Leigh were almost invincible the entire regular season. The only loss they sustained was against the Shock while the Shock implemented an ISO of Jorja, meaning Anna Leigh didn't see a ball in the Mid-Season Tournament. Will we see Jackie and Rachel implement a similar strategy?

Men's Doubles

• Anticipated lineups - Federico/Will (4-3) v Riley/Christian (22-4)
• What to watch - Fed and Will are underdogs against Riley and Christian. I think the lineup will be Will on the left with Fed on the right against Christian on the left with Riley on the right. One of the two things I am watching for is Will against Christian in a cross court dink battle. The other matchup I am looking at is Riley's hands versus Will's hands across from each other. Fed is by far the most consistent of the four players, so I don't think he is as much of an X factor. Will Howells is the X factor for me in this one.

Mixed Doubles #1

• Anticipated lineups - Anna Leigh/Noe Khlif (29-5) v Christian/Rachel (20-5)
• What to watch - The BIGGEST storyline of the weekend is who plays with Anna Leigh in mixed doubles. The end. Noe and Anna Leigh have the best mixed doubles record in the league. However, it really looked like Anna Leigh lost trust in Noe in Newport Beach against the Palm Beach Royals. Two of their five losses were against Dekel and Tina, 4-11, 9-11. In fact, the 9-11 game was close mostly because they switched Anna Leigh to the left. I would not be surprised if this ends up being Will Howells with Anna Leigh.

Mixed Doubles #2

• Anticipated lineups - Jorja/Fed (7-1) v Jackie/Riley (13-8)
• What to watch - These two "second teams" are ridiculously good (no surprise, as we are in the semis). I would argue the player with the lowest floor is Jorja Johnson. If she is on, she probably also has the highest ceiling of the group. Jackie is really going to need to be steady to withstand the offense Jorja and Fed bring.

Dreambreaker Lineups

• Anticipated lineups
  • Christian Alshon vs. Federico Staksrud
  • Chris Haworth vs. Will Howells
  • Hannah Blatt vs. Anna Leigh Waters
  • Jackie Kawamoto vs. Jorja Johnson
• What to watch - Chris Haworth probably needs to step up at the biggest stage of MLP if Brooklyn is going to win a Dreambreaker - he is the X Factor for Brooklyn.

Tice's Prediction

The Fives had the chance to play against the Flash and instead chose Brooklyn. Brooklyn has the potential be great in Dreambreakers and the Flash had all the momentum. I am saying New Jersey wins in three, with Brooklyn winning match #1 in a Dreambreaker.

#2 St. Louis Shock v #6 Dallas Flash

Schedule:

• Match #1 - Friday, Aug 28 - Noon EDT
• Match #2 - Friday, Aug 28 - ~3pm EDT
• Match #3 (If necessary) - Saturday, Aug 29 ~11:30am EDT

Rosters:

• St. Louis: Anna Bright, Hayden Patriquin, Kate Fahey, Gabe Tardio, Hunter Johnson, and Angie Walker
• Dallas: JW Johnson, Danni-Elle Townsend, Augie Ge, Alix Truong, Brooke Buckner, and Ivan Jakovljevic

Matchup History:

The Shock and the Flash have not played at all this year against each other.

Injury Concerns: None

Game By Game Preview:

Women's Doubles

• Anticipated lineups - Kate/Anna (30-4) v Alix/Danni (19-13)
• What to watch - Kate and Anna are the second best team in women's doubles. Danni and Alix are 3-2 in the playoffs. Kate and Alix are top 10 ball makers in my mind, so really it comes down to Danni vs. Anna - who can create more offense while also keeping unforced errors down? My bet is Anna Bright.

Men's Doubles

• Anticipated lineups - Gabe/Hayden (30-4) v Augie/JW (25-12)
• What to watch - JW vs. Gabe. Gabe and JW were partners in the past and JW has really helped Gabe quite a bit throughout his earlier career. If Gabe gets impatient and pulls speed ups too often, he might get the Shock men in trouble. Will he have enough patience to ensure the Shock win men's?

Mixed Doubles #1

• Anticipated lineups - Anna/Hayden (25-7) v Brooke/JW (22-12)
• What to watch - Brooke is going to need to find some offense behind Hayden, who plays the entire court at the top of the game. If Brooke just plays defense and neutralizing balls, I think Anna and Hayden bring too much offense. JW has been playing bigger in mixed and the Flash have seen the rewards of this.

Mixed Doubles #2

• Anticipated lineups - Kate/Gabe (21-4) v Augie/Danni (19-4)
• What to watch - These are easily the two best "second teams" in mixed doubles in MLP going up against each other. They have two extremely different styles. Danni likes to create offense and Augie's hands are great. Kate and Gabe are happy slowing the game down and working the point. Kate's defense on Danni's out of the air attacks is going to be the difference maker in this one.

Dreambreaker Lineups

• Anticipated lineups
  • JW Johnson vs. Hunter Johnson
  • Augie Ge vs. Hayden Patriquin
  • Brooke Buckner vs. Kate Fahey
  • Danni Townsend vs. Anna Bright
• What to watch - The Kate vs. Brooke matchup will be the X Factor in this one. Surprisingly, the two leading ladies do not have great Dreambreaker numbers this year:
  • Brooke - 41-53 - 43.62%
  • Kate - 10-14 - 41.67%

Tice's Prediction

The St. Louis Shock are the preemptive favorites headed into the weekend. Can they make the finals for the first time in the season-long format? The Shock have always shown the talent, but mentally they have to get over the hump to win the championship.

The Finals

Obviously, we don't know who the finalists are going to be before the semis are set. The first match of the finals is going to be around 2:30pm on Saturday.

Below are the chances I am giving each team to make the finals:

• Fives - 80%
• Shock - 90%
• Brooklyn - 20%
• Flash - 10%

Most Likely Finals

The Fives vs. Shock

• Series tied 2-2 (8-7 in games in favor of NJ)

The Fives vs. Flash

• NJ has won 3-0 (9-4 in games)

The Shock vs. Brooklyn

• St. Louis won the only matchup they played in a Dreambreaker

My prediction for overall winner

I am guessing the Shock sweep the Dallas Flash 2-0 and then beat the Fives in a three match battle, winning 3-1 in the third match.