Owensboro locals Altaf and Ashley Merchant brought home 2 gold medals and 3 silver medals from the Minto U.S. Open Pickleball Championships in Naples, Florida. The husband-and-wife duo each won a gold medal with their respective doubles partners in the Senior Pro division and the Mixed Age 35-39 division.
Altaf Merchant is now a back-to-back champion after having won 2 gold medals last year. He and his partner David Weinbach won the gold medal in Men’s Senior Pro Doubles, and Merchant won a silver medal with teammate Dylan Frazier in the Men’s Spilt Pro Age Event. Ashley Merchant won gold with her partner Michael Roenigk in the Mixed Doubles Age 35-39 division, and she won 2 silver medals in the Mixed Doubles 5.0 and in the Women’s Doubles 4.0+ division.
The U.S. Open is one of the biggest tournaments in professional pickleball that gathers the best players from not just the country, but around the world. The competition had players hailing from here in the states as well as international competitors from countries such as England and Brazil. With each passing year the sport of pickleball grows, and so does its U.S. Open. In Altaf Merchant’s very first U.S. Open, there were around 1,200 players competing, and this year they had as many as 4,800.
The Minto U.S. Open Pickleball Championships has competitions for both pro and amateur players, and Altaf and Ashley Merchant decided they wanted silverware from both divisions. Altaf is a longtime competitor in the pro divisions while Ashley was making waves in the amateur divisions. Ashley said that tournaments where all skill levels are welcome gives the special privilege of allowing an everyday player to watch their favorite pro before taking to the court themselves.
“Regular everyday players get to see the game at that pro level,” she said. “It’s one of those unique sports where they have facilities where there’s 20-30 courts. The U.S. Open had 60 courts, but we’re all there and we’re all competing. You can watch your favorite player, then get a text and go to the court to play yourself.”
Being able to win a gold medal at one of the biggest stages in pickleball is a monumental moment, but to be able to share that moment with your spouse who also won a gold medal is a unique opportunity. Having a sport that you share with your spouse and support one another in is great in Ashley Merchant’s eyes.
“It’s great when you can have a sport that both you and your spouse can enjoy,” she said. “Not everybody knows pickleball, so it’s great that both of you know pickleball and you can support each other and be all in. To be able to see each other up on the medal stand is fun. At the end we were able to take a medal picture together and combined we brought home 5 medals to Owensboro.”
This particular U.S. Open was special for Altaf Merchant because of a variety of factors. Not only did he successfully defend his championship with his wife at his side, but he did so with a partner that meant a lot to his pickleball career as a whole.
“It was amazing because of the guy I won with, Dave Weinbach,” he said. “The first time I ever watched pickleball in my life, it was him winning the U.S. Open. All of a sudden here I am playing with him as my partner, and the guy I’m playing against (Dayne Gingrich) was my partner last year in the U.S. Open finals. It was incredible. To me it was the icing on the cake to be able to play with the guy who my first pickleball memory is about. It was awesome.”
Merchant and Weinbach didn’t lose a single set on their way to the championship game. It was there that they made history as they lost a set and then came back to win 11-0, or pickle. This was the first time anyone has pickled in the championship of the U.S. Open. Altaf achieved this on a particular court that has always held meaning to him. The Zing Zang Court is always Altaf’s favorite place to play, and he has a ritual that helps him get in a tournament mindset.
“When I get there, the center court is my favorite court in all of pickleball,” he said. “The center court is called the Zing Zang Center Court and it’s my favorite place to play. Every time I get to the U.S. Open, I walk on and hang out at Center Court for five minutes before I do anything. If I get goosebumps and the chills, then I’m ready to play. As soon as I walked on, I could feel the fire and the electricity going through me and I thought, ‘this is going to be great.’ I played about 6 or 7 matches on Zing Zang and the finals were on Center Court, so it was absolutely great.”
After successfully defending his U.S. Open title, Altaf was flooded with congratulatory messages from friends and family alike. He was pleasantly surprised to see many of those messages were from people from Owensboro. This hit him with the realization of how fast the sport is growing both here in the U.S. and around the world. During his play in the U.S. Open, Merchant was contacted by a team from back in his home country of India. They wished to meet Merchant and watch one of his games up close in Florida. He gladly obliged and met the team during the tournament and provided them with tickets to his matches.
According to Merchant, the beauty and popularity of pickleball lies within its simplicity. The relatively low learning curve for pickleball has made it easy even for those who have never played before.
“It’s such an easy game to play,” he said. “I’ve always said that I could walk into the HealthPark and say, ‘Hey, let’s go outside and I’ll show you how to play pickleball,’ and everyone would be rallying and playing pickleball within 20 minutes. You couldn’t tell them, ‘Hey, let’s go play tennis,’ or, ‘I’ll teach you how to swim the butterfly.’ There’s just no way that’s going to happen. I think that’s where the popularity of the game lies because it’s so easy to learn, and it’s a very social and fun game.”
