The National Pickleball League kicks off 2025 with the PWR Sydney Championships

We’re just a few hours away from kicking off NPL’s first tournament of 2025, let’s gooo! Here’s a quick overview of what the heck PWR/NPL are and what this partnership means, a preview of what to expect from the weekend, and a sneak peek into what else is happening in the pickle tournament world.

• What: PWR NPL Sydney Championship
• When: 21 February @6pm -> 23 February @4pm
• Where: Oxford Falls Grammar School (1078 Oxford Falls Rd, Oxford Falls NSW 2100)
• How (to watch): Come in person or click here to stream show court on Youtube, or follow along the draw here

Back in October, the National Pickleball League (NPL) made a huge announcement, claiming the title of exclusive Oceania tournament & league provider for the Pickleball World Rankings (PWR) in 2025. For those new to the scene, NPL is one of the two major leagues in Australia leading the charge in professionalising pickleball across the country (and the globe), creating opportunities for local talent to compete at the highest level while building an electric tournament atmosphere that’s uniquely Aussie.

The PWR partnership takes things to a whole new level. PWR (Pickleball World Rankings) launched in 2024 as pickleball’s first comprehensive global ranking system where players earn ranking points at tournaments worldwide by competing in PWR-sanctioned events worldwide. Tournaments are tiered from PWR100 to PWR2000 (the higher the number, the more points and prize money available). The available tiers are: PWR100, PWR200, PWR400, PWR700, PWR1000 and PWR2000.

These points contribute to players’ global rankings, which helps determine seedings at tournaments and qualification for the PWR World Series (PWR2000) events where massive prize pools will be on offer.

This weekend’s PWR400 event is particularly exciting as it gives local players the opportunity to earn ranking points right here at home. These points could be crucial for tournament seedings and qualifying for bigger events throughout the year.

After seeing some incredible performances from the Aussies at the recent PPA Australia Open event pinning them against the Americans, this weekend brings the spotlight back home. It’s a perfect chance to see local talent shine, including NPL’s newest signings who are ready to make their mark.

The action is happening at Oxford Falls Grammar School in northern Sydney with 6 covered outdoor courts, which means rain or shine, pickleball is guaranteed! The schedule looks like this:

• Pool play kicks off at 6pm
• Top teams progress to knockout rounds
• Finals under lights to close out day one

• Pool play from 8am
• Men’s and women’s doubles running simultaneously
• Afternoon knockout stages build to the finals

• Pool play from 8am
• The weekend crescendos (NPL style) with men’s and women’s singles
• Finals expected to wrap up around 4pm

Speaking of pool play – here’s how it works:

Players/teams are grouped into pools of 3-4, where they’ll face everyone in their pool in a game to 15 (win by 2). It’s a format that guarantees multiple matches for everyone and often produces some spicy upsets! The top two from each pool advance to the round of 16 knockout stages, where the intensity ramps up. Hitting the semis, the format will switch to best of three games to 11.

If you’ve had the pleasure of attending an NPL tournament, you’ll know the elite experience continues well beyond the court. Expect the usual NPL vibes with food trucks serving up delicious eats, tunes pumping between matches, plenty of HQP (high quality pickle), and an overall bangin’ time.

Spectator entry is completely free (zero dollars required) so come bring your crew and be part of what’s shaping up to be an epic weekend of pickle. With covered seating available and matches running all day, you can drop in anytime to catch the action!

If you can’t make it to Oxford Falls, be sure to catch all the show court action on YouTube with the legendary Dylan Kimlin (@dylan_kimlin_commentary) and resident funny guy Ash Williams (@ashwilliams1) bringing you the play-by-play. Matches will also be broadcast and streamed to the TimesNow Youtube channel (one of the largest media groups in India) which will bring great international exposure.

Also be sure to follow @nplpickleball on Instagram for behind-the-scenes content and live updates throughout the weekend!

Before we break down each event, here’s what makes this tournament particularly interesting: we’ve got some fresh partnerships testing the waters, a few players coming in hot off international competition, and even a sneaky return from retirement. Plus, with PWR points on the line for the first time, expect everyone to bring their A-game.

This is shaping up to be a decently sized tournament, with 160 registered players this weekend including some of the top talent across Australia. Here’s a few of Joey’s thoughts on each of the events:

We’ve got exciting new partnerships on the cards for some Friday night lights mixed doubles action:

• A few standouts are Selina Turulja & George Wall, Somer Dalla-Bona & Adam Daggmarr, and Bee Massih & Ryan Henry (in his sole event). The talent is high for each of these players individually, so it will be interesting to see who combines for the best team, both skill- and chemistry-wise.
• In somewhat of a pickle reunion… Mitch Hargreaves is partnered up with Mickie Haet — the first time in over a year for the Sydney duo. Keen to see how they go!
• Danni-Elle Townsend and I are hunting for the gold after a tough round of 16 American team encounter cut our PPA Australia Open event short. Hoping we can get back on a podium this weekend!

Gender Doubles

• In men’s doubles, Harrison Brown and Dan Fogl-Kulich will be out to do one better than their silver medal in last year’s NPL Sydney event. Both gents have spent a lot of time on court over the summer so look for them to be right up there. I think George and I will be pretty competitive too.
• What caught my eye in this event is that Mitch has managed to pull Matt Barton out of pickleball retirement. After smoking the field and taking singles gold at PPL Sydney 2023 (we’re talking pre-PPA days), we’ve not seen Barton take the court at any pro tournaments since. He’s only signed up for men’s doubles at this event, as a late replacement for the injured Zach Grabovic, but it’ll be fun to see where his level is and how they gel as a team. Bit of a shame we don’t get to see Mitch and Zach together. They would be one of the best teams in Aus on paper.
• In women’s doubles, expect to see a Somer/Mickie vs Danni/Selina women’s final unless we get an upset or two. Otherwise, keep a keen eye on how the rest of the draw plays out to get an idea of where the other women’s doubles talent sits relative to each other ahead of NPL Season 3 kicking off in a few weeks.

Singles

• As always, NPL boasts a deep men’s singles draw. This should lead to some serious HQP and a tough time for those trying to pick a winner. Kyle Stoker, the defending NPL champion, may go in as a slight favourite, but Mitch and Harry will both be dangerous competition. Again, the draw is so deep that really anyone who’s “on” could walk away as a champion. I wouldn’t bet against Mitch playing in his own backyard though.

• On the women’s side, I’ve got Somer in cracking form off of her PPA Australia silver medal run paying $1.10 for those who want to put the mortgage on her taking the crown. Selina and Mickie can beat anyone on their day though, and Danni has been putting serious work into her singles play, so keep your eyes on these ladies throughout Sunday. Watch out for Sahra Dennehy, captain of the NPL S3 Burras, who will hit the courts fresh off a training block in the US. Dark horse for sure. Bee Massih and Kat Valos are two other dangerous names to watch out for in the draw.

With stacked draws across all events, PWR points on the line, and the usual NPL tournament vibes, this weekend is going to be epic. Get yourself to Oxford Falls or tune in online — either way, don’t miss out on the action!

I had a quick look at some of the events on the Pickleball Tournaments site ->

Queensland Pickleball Tour (QPT) (Feb 21 – 23) taking place at the Pimpama Sports Hub is shaping up to be massive with over 520 registered players! For a bit of context, the Queensland Pickleball Tour is a series of 7 events played across some of Queensland’s best locations. It’s great to see such a huge amateur turnout, proving that players are itching to compete.

Next week is another big one for Australian pickleball:

PPA Brisbane Open (Feb 28 – March 2) At Focus Pickleball Redcliffe, the first PPA event of the year will be in full swing. While this non-MLP event won’t feature the international talent that will join us soon when MLPA kicks off, most of Australia’s top pros will be battling it out for 1000 PPA points. There are plenty of exciting new partnerships in the draw: Lucas Pascoe and Mitch Hargreaves, Vish Masand and George Wall, and the return of the Vine brothers Travis and Wes in men’s (spicy!), George and Andie Dikosavljevic, Nicola Schoeman and Mitch Hargreaves in mixed to name a few… however, numbers in the pro division are looking quite slim at the time of writing (only 6 registered for women’s singles, 10 for men’s singles, 8 teams in women’s doubles), hopefully there are more to come.

PWR Japan Masters 700 – Tsu, Japan (Feb 27 – March 2) Meanwhile, a strong Australian contingent is heading to Japan for another shot at earning juicy PWR points at the first PWR event held in Japan, in conjunction with Japan Pickleball Association (JPA). Some well-known US and Asian players are set to compete, with draws rounded out by a large contingent of Japanese players. Aussies heading over to take part in the action include Joey & Danni, Harrison Brown, Isabelle Papazyan, Adam Dagmarr, Josh Nipperess and Chris Turvey.

And following that, we’ll see the 2025 Radiance Wealth Victorian Open (March 6 – 9) held in Frankston, Vic with over 630 players signed up already!

The professional pickleball scene in Australia is evolving so fast. This weekend’s PWR Championship isn’t just another tournament — it’s a clear signal that Australian pickleball is becoming increasingly connected to the global professional circuit, especially coming off a hot event with the US pros just a few weeks ago. With more local talent emerging and international opportunities growing, 2025 is shaping up to be a landmark year for the sport down under.

Stay tuned for updates throughout the weekend via the Beyond the court instagram and Facebook!

p.s. my favorite ice cream flavor is pistachio, what’s yours?

xo,

Tati