The Next #1 Player in the World?

[Version previously reported on TheDinkPickleball.com]

Andrei Daescu was once considered the most underrated player in the world, but now he and Gabe Tardio are back-to-back gold medalists on the PPA tour!

Andrei’s results and professionalism have garnered respect from fellow pros and top referees in the sport. In our interview, he discussed many topics, from pro game strategies to how amateurs can improve. 

Drive for Show and Dink for Dough

The old golf maxim also applies to pickleball. The game is getting faster. So why is the player with so much success in this modern pickleball era imploring you to slow down?  

“The number one issue I see at the 4.0 level is poor footwork, leading to a poor soft game.  Most of them can drive the ball hard and have fast clubby hands, but if you drop to them or dink with them, they get uncomfortable and speed up on the wrong ball.”

Andrei says players get stuck at these levels because they are not working enough to improve their soft game and touch.  “Hitting the ball hard comes pretty easy for players; hitting it soft requires reps, strength, and flexibility.”

At 36 years old and seven years in the game, Andrei is a veteran player who spends much time maintaining his strength and flexibility. “Everyone has a bubble around them that they can comfortably hit from.  Improving strength, flexibility, and balance is the key to expanding [or maintaining] that bubble.”  How much one can get out of their legs is directly related to pop-ups and missed dinks.

Adjustments are Overrated

The former most underrated pickleball player thinks switching strategies mid-game or mid-match is overrated and overdone.  “It’s a game of momentum.  Just because a shot doesn’t work a few times doesn’t mean it’s the wrong play.”  

“Sometimes, your opponent has a good answer to your best stuff.  That said, a sound strategy should hold through a few bad runs.”  It’s not unlike a top shooter in basketball; just because a few shots fall short doesn’t mean they should stop shooting.

Andrei emphasizes the importance of timeouts to stop momentum rather than making adjustments. Players typically get two timeouts per game regardless of the tournament level. Use them wisely to keep the momentum from shifting to your opponent.   

Conversely, if you have the momentum and your opponent calls a timeout, do everything you can to keep that momentum!  Andrei often remains on the court during an opponent's timeout, hoping to hold onto that feeling of a good run!

Shot Vocabulary

Watching Andrei and Gabe Tardio win their gold medal match in Las Vegas, it was hard not to notice Andrei deviating from his standard cross-court slice dink.  Even Adam Stone commented on the shift during his color commentary for the broadcast.  When asked about this shift, Andrei described all the work he has been doing to develop a two-handed cross-court roll dink.

“Various tools allow you to maximize your effectiveness on a particular set of opponents.  In that match, Dekel Bar takes a lot of balls out of the air and can create a lot of offense from that spot.  So, instead of hitting a shot with underspin that tends to float a little longer in the air, I hit more dipping top spin dinks that are tougher for Dekel to volley.”

Andrei noted that for the prior match, when facing Connor Garnett, who has less reach and tends to create his offense off the bounce, Andrei would hit more slicing dinks that skid and bounce a little lower.  

Success on any project is about having the right tools for the job. Andrei enjoys the unique challenge of pickleball, a sport that has yet to be fully figured out. 

Be sure to look for Andrei and Gabe Tardio on the court as they take on their next challenge and build on their momentum on the PPA Tour.  Knowing Andrei, he will be on the court early, tapping that ball on his colorful Proton paddle, trying to hold on to that feeling of a good run. 

John is a PPR-certified instructor and a professional rec player known by his pickleball friends as “The Professor.”  He aims to help players navigate their pickleball addiction with weekly tips on everything from etiquette to technique to injury prevention. He can be reached at ThePickleProf.com.