"Maybe I Should Start A Career In Pickleball" - Daniil Medvedev Realizes The Truth That Pickleball Is Better During The Middle Of Tennis Match
I feel bad for Daniil Medvedev. The guy just happens to be insanely good at tennis. He was ranked world #1 at one point. He's won a US Open. He's played in an Australian Open final. He's a multiple semifinalist at Wimbledon. Maybe he's not in the GOAT conversation, but he is in the top 1% of the top 1% of tennis players ever. And because of that, he's pretty much been stuck playing tennis.
He's only 30-years-old. That's a prime age to start playing pickleball. The pipeline goes like this:
Step 1: Be a college athlete.
Step 2: Play a few years of men's league in whatever sport you played at school
Step 3: Finally realize you're too old to be running around like you're still in your early 20's, give pickleball a try.
Step 4: Develop an unhealthy obsession to pickleball.
So he's not wrong at all. While there are a ton of professional pickleball players who are younger, Daniil Medvedev is still in a spot where he can make the jump. He'll never be ranked the world number 1 pickleball player. We've already seen with Jack Sock that it's not like guys can make the jump from tennis to pickleball and dominate right away. Jack Sock's highest ranking in tennis was #8. He is currently the 26th ranked men's player in the World Pickleball Rankings. But Medvedev and Jack Sock would be a great partnership to at least make a few runs to the semifinals.
Oh and speaking of Major League Pickleball, the semifinals and Final are coming up this weekend at Central Park in NYC. The New Jersey 5's and the St. Louis Shock are the top 2 seeds left. MLP playoffs are about as ruthless as it gets because instead of standings determining the bracket, the top teams get to choose their opponent. So you get to choose which team you feel more confident in kicking the shit out of, but at the same time you immediately give the other team some bulletin board material for picking them in the first place. Talk about innovation that excites.