Owensboro’s own professional pickleball player Altaf Merchant capped off an impressive 59-0 season with a gold medal performance at the USA National Championships in Texas on November 12. Merchant’s record in the Men’s Senior Pro Doubles was 59-0, and his record at tournaments was 16-0.
Throughout his historic season, Merchant won gold in four major tournaments in Men’s Senior Pro Doubles. Merchant won the Hyundai Masters tournament, the U.S. Open, the Tournament of Champions, and he added the Nationals in Texas to his record this past weekend. Merchant won all of the tournaments with the same doubles partner Dayne Gingrich, who hails from Santa Barabara, California.
After being one of the top ranked professional players last year, Merchant felt very nervous coming into this year. It wasn’t until he won the U.S. Open that the nerves began to lift and he enjoyed himself, he said. He then set a new challenge for himself to finish the remainder of the season undefeated.
“Since I ranked high in 2022, people were telling me ‘you’re going to dominate next year’, so I started this year nervous because I was playing pickleball but I was in a different pond,” he said. “After I won the U.S. Open, I started to enjoy the year. After I won the Tournament of Champions, I thought to myself that I only had four more tournaments and if I can win them without losing a match I might go undefeated. I then put additional pressure on myself the last two months so I could go undefeated.”
This challenge drove Merchant through the rest of his competitions, and he succeeded in going undefeated. Merchant said it felt amazing to complete the challenge he set for himself, but to have many of his fellow professional players recognize and congratulate him on his achievement was the best compliment he could get.
“It feels amazing, and I always tell people that you can win anything you want, but if your peers recognize it then it’s the best compliment,” he said. “In the last 48 hours both young and older pro players are calling me and congratulating me on the undefeated season. That’s special when your peers call and recognize you. To me that’s the most important part.”
Owensboro has been very important to Merchant during his career, and he said he always makes sure to hold the flag of Kentucky up when he is on the podium to show his love. Merchant now plans to return to Owensboro and take it easy while doing interviews and making guest appearances on podcasts in the next few months while spending time with his family.
