2023 U.S. Open Pickleball Championship - Naples, Florida
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five years ago in 2018 we're sitting on
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the couch and played the pickleball five
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times
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as we look at each other and say we need
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to move because my friend just died of a
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heart attack and my other friend called
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me and said he had cancer so now I'm
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only 50 years old lot's going down I'm
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49. so I look at her with tears in my
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eyes I said anything God anything but
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we're not really God Believers but we
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just say it and that's fun the thought
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comes in my head sell everything you own
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move to Florida
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take pick up all the grease
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almost changed our life in the most
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meaningful way the most trajectory
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because we sold literally everything we
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own
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it stopped our life money made no sense
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there's no amount of money that will
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make you happy we said hey we're going
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to become athletes yes and because we
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went out and we couldn't breathe and
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when you're getting crushed by 70 75
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year olds so it makes you kind of look
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at yourself and go now what am I doing
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wrong here why and I want to be that
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sure the thing about pickleball is this
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it makes everybody useful again
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all people want is someone with skin
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even if you believe in higher power and
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you believe in God having just God
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sometimes isn't enough sometimes you
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need someone with skin someone to touch
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someone to talk to you someone to say
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hey how are you doing and who are you
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going to find go to your local
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pickleball court and I promise you where
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we practice every morning together and
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every age
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children again I'm not like 12 year olds
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um we're trying to play tennis during
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the pandemic and all of our tennis
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Sports were just closed and locked up so
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he just called me up he's like hey uh I
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got a few I got a six-pack and I got a
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big driveway I taped up this thing we're
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gonna play some pickleball and I've seen
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her play Pickleball before but I didn't
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really take it seriously I went over and
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we're just eating food playing in his
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driveway and uh that's kind of how I got
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started and then eventually like I drove
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around town saw some like dedicated
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courts on some serious players hopped in
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and never looked back
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uh I mean just since I found out about
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the US Open just I've been playing for
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like two years and you know everyone
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talks about it online it's probably I'd
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say it's probably the biggest amateur
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tournament you could go to uh unique to
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other tournaments is the score of my
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amateur event than a pro event
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um I mean like that's we've been there
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since Monday and we've pretty much only
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watched the amateurs play and you know
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we've been playing until we're kind of
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watching each other or guys what's going
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on
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hanging out with each other so it's
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Unique in the sense that like the PPA we
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had in February we were watching a lot
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of pros play
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um
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so much of the amateurs so
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it's a little more fun than most
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tournaments I would say Pro scene right
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now is kind of dull sometimes just
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because of like Ben John's Natalie you
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kind of just know that you pretty much
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know the result when it's gonna happen
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you know and I'm an amateur events it
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can be a little more Scrappy and kind of
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wild you know like maybe maybe a little
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less refined yeah I think the U.S Open
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pickwall Championship is really amazing
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because of how big the venue is I've
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never played anywhere with just my
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chords and coming from Oregon and get a
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bit of sunshine too right now you know
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what I like about the Minto US Open
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football championships this is my second
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time back it's a good party you play all
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day there's unique events for everybody
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you've got skill you've got age you've
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got skill age mixed age pros and it goes
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all week so a lot of people just come
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down for the whole week play a bunch
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drink a bunch have a good time that's
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why we come back first uh this is our
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first year sponsoring the tournament so
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far we're extremely pleased with the
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turnout with the engagement people are
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excited about the wines so this really
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originated as a brand that's really
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reminiscent of Americana so we were the
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first Bourbon Barrel aged wine in the
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category we actually created a category
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a lot of the Bourbon Barrel aged wines
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you'll see out there imitators of ours
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but we like to say that we're the
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original well the the wine customer and
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the pickleball enthusiasts are similar
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and so far people have been drinking
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before after and during play
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the Minto USA pickleball tournament is
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so special because to organize us get it
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right they understand about hospitality
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and the tournament is about welcoming
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people that means give them shade give
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them food give them drink and know how
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to run applicable tournament I am with
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kabulu pickleball I'm the
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co-founder of sky blue pickleball and I
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design pickleball fashion for the
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growing Noble pickleball community and
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I've been very lucky to be sponsored by
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Sky Blue well I think a woman feel more
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and empowered at our age of 50 before we
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had you know we who would that we would
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be playing pro at our at this age so
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being and playing pickleball it just is
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such a great opportunity it's such a it
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opened the door for our age group and
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we're out there we're working out we're
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we're Drilling and we know we can do it
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so that's the beauty about pickleball
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that it's anybody's game and especially
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being a woman it's like it's just a nice
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opportunity to be playing uh pickleball
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at a pro level sport is fabulous there's
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nothing better you look up at the sky
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you're outside that the breeze the air a
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rainbow came yesterday and that
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describes pickleball to me it's the US
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Open
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wow
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What happens when you bring 40,000 Pickleball players & spectators to a one-week event in beautiful Naples, Florida? 100% pure enthusiast energy that pumped through the veins of this week-long event like a heat-seeking missile - no understatement. There aren't words to express the authenticity of the energy that made East Naples Community Park feel like a rock concert at Soldier's Field. We did our best to offer-up a few key selects here - next year bring the whole family to experience it.
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