The St. Louis Shock Stay Undefeated in the Last Two Events - Win MLP St. Petersburg

Week five of the 2026 Major League Pickleball Season is in the books. It feels like the season is flying by, as now we are officially past the half way mark of regular season events and matches.

This was a unique event in a couple of different ways - this was the first time this facility (St. Pete Athletic) hosted an MLP event. The venue was co-founded by Graham D’Amico (an owner of the Florida Smash) and Reuben Pressman. 

The other reason this event was unique was because this was the first event in Major League Pickleball in the last 2.5 years that only had a Championship Court, with no Grandstand Court. Since there was only one court, play had to begin Wednesday to get all 29 matches in throughout the event.

Author’s Note: I actually loved only having one match playing at a time with one Championship Court - every match felt a little elevated because of this.

Let’s get into the play during the week and who ended up winning the event.

The St. Louis Shock Claim Back to Back Championships

On Sunday, May 31, at Pickle and Chill, in Columbus, Ohio, the St. Louis Shock lost the championship match of MLP Columbus to the New Jersey Fives, 3-0. Since then, they have played two events, MLP St. Louis and MLP St. Petersburg. Apparently the Shock like playing in places that start with Saint.

Since that loss to the Fives, the Shock have earned the  #1 seed into both Championship Sundays in the events they played. Both Championships looked very similar - they beat the LA Mad Drops 3-0, in convincing fashion both times. On Sunday, the Shock beat the Mad Drops by a combined score of 33-15 and two weeks ago in St. Louis they won 3-0 with an overall scoreline of 33-9.

In fact, since the loss to the Fives in late May, the Shock are a perfect 11-0 in matches, and the games scoreline is 38-4 in their 42 total games. On top of all of this, the four starters for the Shock are in the top 6 overall ranking for MLP players this season. 

The storyline for the Shock is not how they do in the regular season - it is very likely they end up with a top two seed. Their problem has been the playoffs and the added pressure that comes with. Will they be able to take that next step in 2026?

Other Winners of MLP St. Petersburg

Palm Beach Royals

The Royals were able to take away 12 standings points from the weekend. At first glance you might ask yourself - how is that a positive? Well, Dekel Bar was out after the first day with an injury, Tyson McGuffin had a gruesome looking ankle roll, and Grayson Goldin was... "ill".

The Royals benefited greatly from Casey Diamond signing with the UPA on June 17th, and becoming a second on-site alternate, in addition to Stefan Auvergne. By the way, in the previous four events in the 2026 season, only one player of each gender was considered an on-site alternate - this was the first time there were two.

On Saturday, with the second seed in the pool already locked up, the Royals sat all three of their starting men and had Diamond and Auvergne play. However, McGuffin was back in the lineup for Sunday, where the Royals lost to Brooklyn 3-1, to finish in fourth place in the event.

In his three matches played, Diamond played seven games, going 2-5. His two wins were with his longtime APP Tour partner, Sofia Sewing, and they came at crucial moments in the weekend to help propel Palm Beach to that 2v2 Super Sunday showdown.

Diamond also happened to land not once, but TWICE on the SportsCenter Top 10 plays this weekend:

The interesting thing about Palm Beach will be Diamond. Do they drop Goldin or Bar to pick him up? The third waiver period is this week, with waiver bids due by noon today, and picks commencing at noon tomorrow.

The Florida Smash (and the St. Pete Athletic leadership team)

Look, the Smash didn't win a match all weekend at their home event. Who cares?

If you watch this team play, you have to be entertained. There were so many good storylines:

First and foremost, Travis Rettenmaier broke down with emotion after the St. Pete crowd kept cheering on the Florida Smash during an interview. The moment was pure magic and you could really see how much the moment meant to Travis.

Out of women's doubles pairings that have at least eight games together, where do you think the pairing of Zoey Weil and Martina Frantova land, in terms of winning percentage? If you guessed seventh best women's doubles pairing, at 7-7, you'd be correct. Pretty good for allegedly being the worst women's doubles team in MLP, if you ask me.

Chris Crouch and Cason Campbell are improving nearly every day and are alsosuper fun to watch. Sure, Florida is not going to win a championship or even make the playoffs this year. But they have started to build a foundation of younger players who are exciting to watch and have the potential for a ton of growth in the future.

Pool Play Recap

Pool A Notes:

Brooklyn Pickleball Team - Brooklyn had a very good event, finishing third overall and wrangling up 15 standings points. This was a bit of a home court advantage for Rachel Rohrabacher, who lives less than 20 minutes from the venue and trains nearby all the time. She had a heavily wrapped/taped leg throughout the weekend, but Brooklyn’s captain persevered through. Riley Newman was injured in the previous event, but showed no signs of injury, playing well with Christian Alshon and Jackie Kawamoto. The Brooklyn team looks like it is a top six contender, but still missing a piece, if they want to contend for the championship.

Chicago Slice - Kind of a ho-hum performance in St. Pete, going 2-2 in pool play and then losing 3-0 to the Columbus Sliders in the 3v3 matchup of Super Sunday. It was interesting they dropped Tom Protzek in the most recent waiver period for AJ Koller, who didn’t see any playing time in St. Pete. The Slice are currently sitting in ninth place in terms of points per event, which will make them a playoff team. However, I don’t think they will really compete with the top teams without some sort of roster changes.

Utah Black Diamonds - Went 1-3 in St. Pete with their only win being over the Florida Smash. Etta and Allyce are now 6-9 on the season, and Tama and Connor are 7-8. The Black Diamonds will likely be right at the playoff cut off line, somewhere around 11-14. If they do make the playoffs, no top team is too worried about them.

Pool B Notes:

Columbus Sliders - The Sliders went 3-2 and then won the 3v3 Super Sunday matchup over the Chicago Slice. Newly acquired Tyra Black and recently ill Parris Todd made miraculous recoveries less three days after the previous MLP Austin event they could both could not play in. The new Sliders duo went 4-2 in their six total matches. Andrei and CJ only went 3-3, but are 14-8 on the season. It looks like Columbus will be a contender to make the NYC Semifinals in August.

Texas Ranchers - The Ranchers ended up looking like a team that got hit by the injury bug by the end of the event. Layne Sleeth was seen wearing a sling on her right shoulder. Nico Acevedo didn’t play mixed doubles because of an apparent injury, and the Ranchers only took home four standings points after losing to Utah in the 7th place match on Super Sunday. The Ranchers are going to have to turn it around in a QUICK way if they want to be contenders this year, as they are playing in MLP NYC in three days.

Orlando Squeeze - The Squeeze have gotten incredibly unlucky with their pools and strength of schedule thus far in the year. However, the fact remains they are in 11th place in terms of points per event, barely making the playoffs. Jack Sock and Federico Staksrud are 9-6 overall this year, while Milly Rane and Lacy Schneemann are 6-9. Their combined mixed results are 14-15. With only one point from St. Pete, it begs the question - does Orlando give up on the 2026 year and trade Fed for a boatload of cash so they have bigger coffers headed into the 2027 draft?

Miami Pickleball Club - Went 0-5 in a really tough pool, only winning three games out of 20. Miami is very much on the outside looking in to the playoffs, dropping four spots from 12th to 16th this weekend. They acquired Dylan Frazier and cash for Nico Acevedo - do they try to turn around and trade Dylan for more cash before the trade deadline in a week?

The next MLP event starts Thursday, in MLP NYC at SPORTIME Randall’s Island. I will have a full event preview available on Wednesday.