New Jersey Is For Winners: The New Jersey 5's Are The World Champions Of Professional Team Pickleball
The New Jersey 5's came into this weekend running the risk of becoming the Buffalo Bills of professional pickleball. They lost in the MLP Final in 2024. They lost in the MLP Final in 2025. For the 3rd straight year, they advanced to the championship. Could they possibly lose 3 years in a row?
For all you uncultured swine out there who don't know what the MLP is, then let's just go over some quick spark notes. It's professional pickleball in a team format. Each team has 2 men and 2 women (with a couple of alternates). Each match consists of 4 games. The 2 men play together in men's doubles, the 2 women play together in women's doubles, and then they play 2 games of mixed gender doubles. If the two teams split those 4 games 2-2, then the match is decided by a "Dreambreaker". More on that in a moment.
Match #1 of the Finals started off miserably for New Jersey. They went down 2-0 right away and it was starting to look like they were on their way to their 3rd straight runner up finish. The Buffalo Bills allegations were growing stronger and stronger. But they managed to win both games in mixed doubles, and sent match #1 to a Dreambreaker. It's one cumulative singles game where 4 players on each team rotate on and off the court in 4-point intervals.
The one thing the New Jersey 5's have that nobody else in MLP has is a little thing called Anna Leigh Waters. She's the most dominant pickleball player to ever live. She wins quite literally every tournament on the PPA Tour. It's been damn near 1000 days since anybody has been able to beat her in a singles match. She's won everything there is to win in pickleball besides an MLP Finals. So with the match on the line, here comes the GOAT to put the team on her back and hit a vintage ALW twoey for the walkoff winner.
So in match 1 we had New Jersey losing in women's doubles, men's doubles, and then winning both mixed gender doubles games before winning the dreambreaker.
24 hours clearly makes a world of difference in pickleball. We got a full blown Freaky Friday situation on our hands during match 2 today in Central Park.
The 5's came out ready to put their foot on St. Louis' throat right away by winning women's doubles.
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Federico Staksrud and Will Howells followed that up by taking out Hayden Patriquin and Gabe Tardio in men's doubles.
But it's like they always say--a 2-0 lead is the worst lead in team pickleball. Because just like yesterday, the team that got up 2-0 ended up blowing that lead after mixed doubles. And that all started today thanks to Hayden Patriquin. If there's anybody in pickleball who can put asses in seats like Anna Leigh Waters, it's. This kid was born for showtime. Obviously I'm a big pickleball guy, but I'll watch any and every sport. And it doesn't matter what sport we're talking about, they don't make too many rats like Hayden Patriquin. The kid simply does not shut up the entire time he's out on the court, and he has the game to back it up.
He's built for television. He's the heel that every pro sports team needs. He gets St. Louis on the board, and then the Shock ended up forcing a Dreambreaker by winning mixed doubles #2. But sometimes when he runs his mouth a little too much, it ends up turning a guy like Federico Staksrud into a terminator.
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And that was the difference maker in today's Dreambreaker. St Louis got themselves into a hole and could just never dig themselves out. They had to go up against the GOAT in Anna Leigh Waters. They had to go up against a sick bastard on a mission in Federico Staksrud. And then picking up Jorja Johnson in the draft this year paid off in the biggest way possible with her sealing the first ever title for New Jersey.
If I know the state of New Jersey like I think I do, that trophy is going to be filled with so many Jägerbombs tonight.
New Jersey has beaches, and now New Jersey has the pickleball champions of the world. It's pretty damn hard to find a state in America with a better resume than that right now.