***MEDIA ALERT*** Mandalay Bay Set to Host Professional Pickleball Team Championships, Celebrity Tennis Pros, Historical Pro Pickleball Draft  

What:

The Professional Tour of Pickleball, the PPA Tour, will host the 2022 bubly Team Championships presented by MGM Rewards at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas from Friday to Sunday (Dec. 16-18). Top-ranked players across the country will compete in a series of doubles matches with a $175,000 payout on the line.

Tennis pros John Isner, Sam Querrey, Donald Young and Jack Sock will each play and captain one of the four pickleball teams competing. Saturday (Dec. 17) will feature a celebrity pickleball exhibition match between the four.

Major League Pickleball (MLP) has also chosen to host its professional pickleball draft from Mandalay Bay on Thursday, Dec. 15. During this separate and standalone event, celebrity team owners will draft and form teams comprised of the top ranked players. The 2022 Draft will highlight the unification between the PPA Tour and MLP since the two partnered in November.

When:

Dec. 15: MLP Professional Draft (6 p.m. – 7 p.m. PT)

• Televised on Tennis Channel

Dec 17: Celebrity Exhibition Match (After 5 p.m. PT)

• Televised on Tennis Channel

Dec. 16-18: PPA Tour bubly Team Championships (Doors open at 8:30 a.m.)

• All early rounds televised on Tennis Channel
• Semifinals and Championship Sunday televised on ABC at 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT

Where:

Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino’s Convention Center

3950 S Las Vegas Blvd.

Las Vegas, NV

Media Availability:

PPA Tour bubly Team Championships

League official and player interviews are available upon request; including with Isner, Querrey, Young, Sock, Ben Johns (Men’s No.1), Anna Leigh Waters (Women’s No.1), Jessie Irvine, Riley Newman, and more.

MLP Draft Interviews – Dec. 15 from 7 p.m. – 8 p.m.

PPA players and team owners will be available for interviews at afterparty.

Media RSVP Required; Contact Hannah Johns – h.johns@ppatour.com

Media Assets:

Digital Asset Folder

Tickets:

Spectators can buy tickets for the event at www.teampickleballevent.com. Tickets start at $27

Event Quick Hits:

• The event will be the first ever pickleball tournament held at Mandalay Bay and the first time any tournament has run a full tournament indoors on Pickleroll courts (temporary rollout courts).
• Tennis pros John Isner, Sam Querrey, Jack Sock and Donald Young, and pickleball pros Anna Leigh Waters, Ben Johns, Catherine Parenteau and Riley Newman, are a few of the big names scheduled to play in the event.
• Competition between four world-class teams will begin Friday, Dec. 16, feature a celebrity exhibition match on Saturday evening, and conclude with the airing of the semifinals and final during a two-hour block on Sunday, Dec. 18 on ABC at 10:00 a.m. PT.
• In addition to the pros, more than 1,000 amateur players are expected to take to the courts over the weekend, while pickleball festival activities will run concurrently during each day’s competition.
• The PPA, with support from MGM, will hold a charity event bringing pickleball to a local Vegas elementary school on Wednesday, Dec. 14. Selkirk, and Onix have donated 60 paddles, 100 balls, and 6 nets, the Las Vegas Pickleball Club will be painting permanent outdoor pickleball courts, and two top pros will teach the students how to play.