The Warping Point Phoenix made its professional tournament debut at the 2025 PPA Veolia Lakeland Open, where Tina Pisnik put the new paddle to the test under real competitive pressure — and earned a bronze-medal finish.
Developed in collaboration with Tina, Phoenix was built for the demands of the modern game: aggressive attacks, fast exchanges, controlled resets, and the ability to generate power without giving up touch.
Lakeland offered the perfect proving ground.
Phoenix for the Modern Game: Control That Attacks
Modern pickleball demands more than one-dimensional power.
Players need touch in the kitchen, stability through transition, quick acceleration during hand battles, and enough confidence to attack when an opening appears.
That balance shaped the development of the Warping Point Phoenix.
Working with Tina throughout the development process, our goal was to create a paddle capable of delivering aggressive performance while maintaining the control and predictability required at the professional level.
At the PPA Lakeland Open, Phoenix moved from product development into real tournament competition.
Engineered for the Demands of Modern Pickleball
Phoenix was developed around the changing demands of competitive play, where players constantly move between soft touch and aggressive acceleration.
Key elements of the original Phoenix construction include:
- PowerDrive System™ Core: Designed to maximize energy transfer and generate ball speed with less swing effort.
- Carbon Fiber + PTFE Composite Face: Combines the stability of carbon fiber with a softer impact response designed to support resets, dinks, and controlled shot shaping.
- Optimized Sweet Spot: A wider, more forgiving hitting area designed to provide greater consistency during fast exchanges and off-center contact.
Together, these elements were designed to give players the ability to transition more naturally between control and attack.
Stay aggressive — without losing soft hands.
That idea became one of the central principles behind Phoenix.
Tested Under Tournament Pressure
Product development does not stop when a paddle leaves the lab.
Before reaching competition, every Phoenix paddle completed a durability evaluation involving 5,000 consecutive strikes at 80 km/h, designed to simulate extended competitive use and evaluate consistency over repeated impacts.
But controlled testing tells only part of the story.
Professional tournament play introduces variables that are difficult to reproduce in a test environment: fast hands, defensive resets, changing pace, pressure situations, and repeated high-intensity exchanges.
That is why Tina’s tournament use of Phoenix at PPA Lakeland mattered.
It gave the paddle an opportunity to perform where the demands were real and the margin for error was small.
Her bronze-medal finish provided an early competitive milestone for both Tina and Phoenix.
Inspired by Resilience: Tina Pisnik’s “Still I Rise”
The Phoenix story was also shaped by the athlete behind it.
Before entering professional pickleball, Tina Pisnik competed at the highest levels of professional tennis. A former WTA Top-30 player and two-time Olympian, her tennis career changed dramatically after a serious car accident.
Rather than stepping away from competition entirely, Tina eventually found a new competitive chapter in pickleball.
That journey of resilience became closely connected with the Phoenix story.
“Still I Rise.”
The phrase reflects the idea of continuing forward through setbacks, adapting to new challenges, and returning stronger — qualities that shaped both Tina’s athletic journey and the identity behind Phoenix.
For Warping Point, that made Phoenix more than a new paddle launch. It represented the intersection of athlete experience, product development, and a shared belief in continuing to push forward.
From Development to the Professional Stage
The PPA Lakeland Open marked an important moment in the Phoenix story.
A paddle developed through testing and athlete feedback had reached the professional stage — and earned a bronze-medal result in its tournament debut with Tina.
For Warping Point, that is how product development should work.
Ideas begin with a performance need. Engineering turns those ideas into equipment. Testing helps refine the details. And ultimately, the court determines whether the product can perform when it matters.
Phoenix was built for players who want to attack with confidence while maintaining the control needed for the modern game.
From the development process to its first professional tournament appearance, that philosophy has remained the same.
Explore the Warping Point Phoenix pickleball paddle series and find the version that fits your game.