Ten days in Melbourne: Summer of pickleball

We left Brisbane on January 22nd on a sleepy 6am flight. Packing for a 10+ day tournament trip is an art form I haven’t quite mastered yet, but I’ve learned that for any trip to Melbourne… plan for all weather and every season possible. And unfortunately I’m already not a light packer, so I had a suitcase the size of me filled with everything from shorts and dresses to sweaters and coats. Surprisingly, I did wear most of it 🙂 

I don’t think either of us got anywhere near enough sleep the night before (may or may not have left packing to the last minute, oops) but luckily the airport experience was cruisey and the Virgin bag dropoff line didn’t take 40 minutes for once (begging Bris Virgin terminal to pls discover self bag drop).

We had an easy 2-hour flight into Melbourne and landed to meet a good bunch of the crew who were waiting at baggage claim (some having just arrived from a week in China). Joey’s last tournament of 2024 was at PPA Melbourne in November, so it was fun spotting so many faces I hadn’t seen since then! It officially felt like we were here for pickle 🙂 

We split into ubers and headed straight for the mecca of Melbourne pickleball… The Jar. It’s fun having a ‘home away from home’ and we appreciate the NPL boys always welcoming us to their venue with open arms. A stack of suitcases quickly piled up against the back wall as players tried to get time on court for their first touches in Melbourne. Meanwhile I was happy hanging out at a table, busy polishing up the last of the AO slam preview article 🙂 (brownie points if you read it)

Despite the fact that I try to be as organised and on top of things as possible… the reality with us is there’s typically something going awry. I’m usually not laughing in the moment, but writing about it after the fact helps give me a reality check (and a reminder to stop worrying so much).

• Long story short, there was a bit of miscommunication between when the airbnb key was available for pickup vs when the actual apartment was ready for check-in. Picture us lugging 60kg of stuff from The Jar into an uber, heading to Southbank, unloading at the building only to be told the apartment (and, thus, the key) was not yet available and likely wouldn’t be until 3pm (it was about 12.30 at this stage) but they would ‘see what they could do’ to have it ready sooner. 
• Turns out we booked the most high security building ever with like 3 scanned checkpoints required to get to the apartment. Our phones are dying, the hunger is stirring, we get kicked out of waiting in the building as it’s ‘for residents only’ so Joey is sitting outside on a bench on the windiest day ever while I walk in the wrong direction 5x in search of a noodle place which turned out to be just across the street… go Tati. Eventually we carted all our stuff back onto an uber and back to The Jar because Joey had to be there at 2pm anyway 🤦🏻‍♀️ such is life. The special fried rice slapped though.

Anyway, a small blip to get the travel started but we were determined to turn this ship around!!

We had a pretty packed schedule lined up for the first 5 days in Melbourne. Honestly still can’t believe we’re a month into 2025 with everything suddenly just in full swing. There’s a lot on the bingo card for this year and it all kicked off with a bang over these last two weeks.

There’s a unique rhythm to tournament life that’s hard to prepare for until you’re living it. It’s this delicate dance between long and intense competition days and recovery time, between being “on” and finding moments to decompress. With two tournaments back-to-back, finding this balance became even more crucial.

And to be honest, it’s a balance we haven’t really found yet. Because we’re still in that ‘no kids, no pets’ stage of life, it’s easy to lose track of time with unstructured hours just flying by. We really need to develop a better pattern, so that’s a big goal of ours over the coming weeks. For Joey as a full-time engineer/full-time pickle pro, and for myself as I develop this blog and find my place in this community while also giving him all the support he needs to perform at his best.

The first five days were honestly a blur… from media days and training at The Jar to preparing for and competing/sidelining at the first ever pickleball appearance in a Grand Slam! While our entire trip circled around the AO Pickleball Slam (AOPS) and the PPA Proton Australia Pickleball Open, we still had to find time for everything that goes down beyond the court… balancing full-time work, grocery shopping, cooking, spending time with friends, sight-seeing and… resting. That’s probably the trickiest bit of all.

It’s all super exciting though, and while we’re getting less sleep and down time than we’d love, it still feels pretty surreal to have some of these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. One of Joey’s off-court highlights was getting to be part of the Cotton On x National Pickleball League activation featuring Aussie tennis legend Thanasi Kokkinakis in the heart of Melbourne just before the AOPS.

Hundreds of people gathered around the Melbourne Central Clock Tower to participate, most of whom had never played pickle before. 

Joey and Zach basically lead a huge beginner pickleball clinic for the first hour before the celebs showed up to hit and engage with the fans. The celebs being Elliot Loney (comedian and friend of the Kokk), shortly followed by Thanasi Kokkinakis himself!

This is my first time ever being at an ‘influencer vibes’ event which was pretty cool to see in action. The Cotton On x NPL branding was on point, marketing was done so beautifully and it was such an incredible opportunity to get a ton of new eyes on the sport! The location couldn’t have been better, literally right under the clock tower.

This meant people were lined up all around the little makeshift court as well as leaning over the railings from the floors above to look down at it all! Joey and Zach had little over ear microphones giving mega Britney circa 2000s ‘oops I did it again’ vibes. So cute.

Joey also had a few fans from the activation find him on socials asking about how/where to play pickle, and two of them even came along to the AO slam the next day to watch— talk about instant ROI for NPL bringing in new pickle fans. That’s what it’s all about!

Just before the big AOPS kickoff, Joey and I were lucky enough to be invited to our first tennis match ever, which just so happened to be the quarter finals between Jannik Sinner and Alex De Minaur. Pinching ourselves at how incredible of an experience that was – massive thank you to Joey’s agent, Sam Flaxman at Top Notch Management and Grand Slam Tennis Tours for the insane seats. Even more special to share it with two of the best people, Mitch and Betti. (ps, if you ever need courtside snack recommendations, Betti’s your girl).

In between AOPS and the PPA Australia Open, there was lots to catch up on from work to food to sleep. We lucked into sharing a stunning little 59th floor airbnb with Selina and Darbar for our entire time in Melbs, and it was such an underrated favorite part of the trip.

Creating a home away from home is so important during extensive travel periods and they’re just the best people and perfect roommates. We shared some gorgeous sunset views, used the heck out of the kitchen, went for grocery runs, did at least 500 trips up and down the elevator, snuck in a movie night (turns out Selina hates Harry Potter), and celebrated Joey’s first victory royale after 7 years off Fortnite (don’t get used to it).

One of my favorite things about being part of tournament life is the people that make this sport what it is. That was my biggest inspiration for starting this blog and seeing so many familiar faces plus making new connections over the last two weeks really filled my cup.

Danni’s unmatched ability to fill any room she’s in (and my camera roll for that matter), Katy always bringing big energy (and the best fashion/nails in the game), Roos squeezing into the back row of a 7-seater in a full car because she’s just the sweetest human ever, Zane and Jenny stirring up memories of our home in Austin, TX that I’ve missed for a while, riding the highs and lows of cheering on the teams with Nicola and Ollie’s parents, bonding with Betti, Jaci, Julie and Ellie over supporting our partners from the sidelines, watching Ron, Dyl, David and Ebon show up big for the NPL crew… and so many more beautiful humans that have become a massive part of our life over the past year.

Around Joey’s PPA tournament matches, I was lucky enough to find time with a few special people that I’ve wanted to feature on the blog. I had over 3 hours of “interviews” aka casual sit-down chats with some incredible folks doing incredible things for pickleball. While I still don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to this blog, I just know these are the stories yearning to be told and I feel so privileged to get to be one of the first to tell them.

I can’t wait to share them with you!!

Final thoughts

The unplanned moments often become the best memories, and I feel so grateful to be at this stage of our life.

These ten days have been intense, exhausting, and absolutely wonderful. As we pack our bags (somehow with even more stuff than we came with), I’m reminded of how pickleball has given us so much more than just a sport— it’s given us adventures, friendships, and the memories I know we’ll look back on forever. These really are the best days of our life.

Next stop: back to home life in Brisbane… at least for 2 weeks until Sydney straight into Japan, hehe.

xo,

Tati