Pickleball: Yates siblings share mixed doubles 19-plus gold

Winning at the U.S. Open Pickleball Championships is nothing new to 22-year-old Kyle Yates of Fort Myers, but this year, he made it a family affair.

In just their second tournament together, Kyle and sister Sarah Yates teamed up for the mixed doubles age groups 19-plus title on Tuesday at East Naples Community Park.

Kyle Yates, who won the 19-plus doubles championship last year, caught his 24-year-old sister after they secured match point for a 11-6,4-11,11-6 win over Christine McGrath and Rafael Siebenschein.

“I think I’m more surprised than anything,” Kyle Yates said. “She played the best I’ve ever seen, so I’m really proud of her.”

While the Yateses both learned about pickleball the same way – through their uncle – most athletes have their own, original stories of how they discovered the sport.

Naples’ Simone Jardim, 37, left a college tennis coaching career after being introduced to the sport by an acquaintance.

“Since then, I’ve been playing a lot and gave up my career, and now I’m here,” she said.

Jardim, who coached at Michigan State, earned a silver medal in the mixed double 25-plus tournament with partner Oliver Strecker of Frankfurt, Germany. Strecker picked up the sport while coaching tennis at Lipscomb University in Nashville. He often used the campus gymnasium for his own recreational activities, but the gym eventually became overrun by pickleball players.

“I always used to shoot basketball there and I couldn’t shoot basketball anymore, because they were playing pickleball,” he said. “So, I just tried it.”

U.S. Open helps Naples become 'Pickleball Capital of the World'

Strecker and Jardim fell to Lucy Kovalova and Matt Wright in their age group finals match.

Mona Burnett and Tyler Sheffield, gold medalists of the 60-plus age group, discovered pickleball in very different ways. And very different places. While Sheffield came across the sport on the internet while searching for games to play in his backyard, Burnett first played pickleball while teaching in Indonesia. She stopped playing the sport after moving back to Canada, but after retiring and moving to Arizona, she picked it back up.

“I thought it was pretty interesting how my initial experience was on the other side of the world and now it’s a game that I just absolutely love,” she said.

Other gold medal winners in Tuesday’s mixed doubles tournament included: Sarah Ansboury/Mills Miller (30-plus), Tonja Major/Morgan Evans (35-plus), Lucy Kitcher/Stephen Kennedy (40-plus), Jennifer Lucore/Dave Weinbach (45-plus), Alex Hamner/Scott Moore (50-plus), Yvonne Hackenberg/Jim Hackenberg (65-plus), Susan Mathews/David Warner (70-plus) and Gail Brown/Dick Johnson (75-plus).

IF YOU GO

What: Minto U.S. Open Pickleball Championship

When: Through Satruday

Where: East Naples Communitys Park, 3500 Thomasson Drive

Admission: Free

Parking: $5 donation to Kiwanis Club