Marblehead pickleball players medal at U.S. Open in Naples

Marblehead sent six players into one of amateur pickleball’s deepest fields in Naples, and the town came away with real hardware. Jahna Gregory earned bronze in women’s singles, Paul Pruett captured silver in men’s singles, and Gilly Sudyam also drew recognition for a Marblehead contingent that showed it could compete well beyond the local league.

The results landed on a major stage. The 2026 U.S. Open Pickleball Championships ran April 11-18 in Naples, Florida, and organizers marked it as the event’s 10th anniversary. The tournament drew more than 3,450 athletes from 40 countries and about 55,000 spectators, a scale that makes medals there a meaningful benchmark for any amateur program.

For Marblehead, the performance was more than a one-off trip. The town’s players competed across a range of age groups and skill levels, a sign that the local pool is broad enough to produce bracket winners, not just weekend rec players. Gregory’s bronze and Pruett’s silver put Marblehead on the results sheet in two of the sport’s most visible amateur divisions, while Sudyam’s recognition added to the sense that the town showed up with depth, not just a lone standout.

That depth traces back to the town’s growing pickleball footprint. Marblehead Pickleball says its mission is to promote the development and growth of the sport in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and it lists 10 dedicated pickleball courts plus two multi-use courts with portable nets at Seaside Park and Marblehead Veterans Middle School. The league began in June 2024, and Lisa Spinale previously described it as the first official town pickleball league in Massachusetts. In a short span, that kind of structure has turned into a pathway that can send players to a national amateur showcase and have them come home with medals.

The broader sport has only made that path more relevant. USA Pickleball said participation in the United States climbed to more than 24.3 million players in 2026, while its 2024 growth report counted 15,910 court locations in the Pickleheads database and 68,458 known courts nationwide. Marblehead’s results fit that larger picture: a small town building enough local momentum to produce players who can hold their own on one of pickleball’s biggest stages.