It never rains in southern Florida. Oh wait, that’s California because it did rain the first part of the week in Naples where the Minto US Pickleball Open was held. There were a lot of rain delays and disappointment because some people didn’t get to play.
If you don’t know, players signed up last year to play in April 2020, however that was cancelled due to COVID. April 2021, the show did go on and you wouldn’t have known that COVID existed. I didn’t see many masks. Possibly people are feeling safe because they had the vaccine . Not sure but I wasn’t worried and enjoyed participating in an event where I didn’t have to think about COVID. Ah, the joy! (Just to be clear, there was sanitizer all around and COVID warning signs—KEEP YOUR DISTANCE.)
My partner, Rich, arrived at the US Open on Saturday, I drove down on Sunday to check things out and stayed with friends in Fort Myers. On Monday, I moved to a motel in Naples because my match started on Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. and I had to be there at 7:00 a.m. Rain was predicted. By 7:00 there was already a line of cars to get in. Parking was $5.00 per day or $30.00 for a week’s pass.
I met up with Rich and his gang; great crew from The Villages. They all cheered us on when we played. We managed to squeeze a match in, 2 games (we lost) before the rain started. Then I explored the area. There are suppose to be 59 courts, and I saw a sign that Collier County was going to add more under cover. Wow!
People set up canopies everywhere, and some have names imprinted on them like “The Pickleball Ladies.” You can fit roughly about 8 chairs and coolers under each one. I understand they leave everything there overnight and no one touches them.
Tents were set up over the bleachers so you have shade when watching the matches. In fact, there are tents everywhere providing shade. One of my concerns was that it was going to be too hot to play. I have heard stories of players overheating. This wasn’t the case. Of course with the overcast days and rain, the temperature was in the 70s. But the last day I played, Saturday, was blue sky and windy; the temperature was 89 and humid, and I felt fine playing. On Saturday, Rich and I won 1 and lost 2. We were done. Out of the action.
I did some more scouting and made a couple of videos. I found out where the pros were playing and watched them for awhile. I saw Sarah Ansboury, Lucy Kitcher, Zane Navratil, Corrine Carr, Ben and Collins Johns, Tyson McGruffin, Christine McGraff, the Waters and others.
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The Zing Zang center court with the blue roof is only for spectators that have paid a hefty price. Boxes are a couple of grand, and week passes are $600.00. Day passes at $25.00 were on the lottery system and went quickly last year. They were called the “cheap seats” on the bleachers.
The other main tents had registration, food, t-shirts and paddles for sale. A few booths outside the tents offered freebies like hand sanitizers, tiny flashlights, etc. Nothing too exciting.
And there was a few booths selling pickle-tasting alcohol along with mixers. I tried a shot of whiskey laced with pickle taste, and ummm, nope. No, thank you.
On the other side of the event were 3 food trucks, One looked like a barbecue truck, another offering ice cream treats, and the 3rd had bagels and subs. I did not sample any of those and instead I had lunch inside one of the tents; grilled chicken sandwich. Pretty good!
The event was incredibly organized. Before the event started, I was sent an email with a video on what to do when I arrived. Very helpful. Also, emails were constantly sent out giving updates about rain delays and when it play would begin again. Every day that you played, you had to go to registration to let them know you arrived. You could also do this by going to one of the QR readers.
Once there, players could warm up on the courts before 8:00 a.m. hence why everyone wanted to get there early. When the competition started, it was impossible to find a court to warm up on. My partner and I waited anxiously for a text to come in telling which court to report to. I think you had 10 minutes to get to your court. Once on the court, we were greeted by a “starter.” A starter is a volunteer that explains the rules, and gives you the clipboard with the your names and your opponents names on it. On the back is written a number 1 o 2. The starter asks one of the players if they think it is a 1 or 2. If that person guesses the correct number their team gets to choose what side they want to play on, or if they want to start first. In one of our games, we had a referee which was really nice. The ref called a kitchen fault on our opponent that we would never have seen.
The format was 2 out of 3 games to 11, win by two. Then if you lose, you play fellow losers in a game to 15. If you win, you go on. If you lose, you’re out.
Competition was great. I think people were playing much better than we all were 4 years ago. And nice! People were all there having a great time and nobody was in a bad mood. Smiles and “hellos” everywhere.
I did hear that one man was escorted off the property for using foul language. Keep it clean, people.
So all in all, yes, I will do it again. I’m not going to miss all that fun. I love meeting people and networking. I am also happy with the way I played. I was not nervous and focused on my game, and I played my best. Good time, played my best, smiled all day long… what’s not to love.
Thanks for reading!
Pickleball Terry