Alix Truong, the Dink Awards’ Women’s Breakout Player of the Year, said skill levels in pickleball vary significantly across regions in the United States, with some states producing far stronger competition than others.
Speaking on the Kitchen Pickleball Podcast, the four-time PPA Tour Asia winner said that player standards varied significantly across regions like Washington DC, Utah, and Florida.
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Truong, who rose rapidly through the ranks in 2025 and is currently among the top players on the PPA Tour, shared her first-hand experience of competing across different parts of the US. She said the variation in standards became clear when she began traveling for tournaments.
“A 5.0 in Washington DC was more like a 4.0 to 4.5 in Utah,” Truong said.
She recalled competing in a tournament in Brigham City, Utah, where she began to question how ratings were assigned. “That is when I realized DUPR rankings were kind of inflated in certain areas,” she said.
Despite signing up in the 5.0 category in Utah and winning, Truong admitted that the level of competition was significantly tougher than expected.
“We won, but it was a grind. The players there were so good and there was much more opportunity compared to DC,” she added.
Her experiences did not stop there. Truong noted that the level rose even further when she competed in Florida, one of the country’s major pickleball hubs. “Then I played the US Open and realized Florida is even better than Utah,” she said.
Her observations underline how certain regions in the United States have emerged as strongholds for pickleball, producing higher-quality players due to better infrastructure, more tournaments and deeper competition pools. The dominance of American players on the global stage, including names like Ben Johns, Anna Leigh Waters, Anna Bright and Hunter Johnson, further reflects this depth.
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Truong recently competed at the MB Hanoi Cup in Vietnam, where she partnered Liz Truluck in the women’s doubles category but exited in the round of 16 after a straight-games loss. As she continues to compete internationally, her insights into regional differences offer a broader understanding of how the sport is evolving across geographies, with certain US states setting the benchmark for competitive standards.
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(Written by Evince Das)
