Alexander Crum pulls off three upsets in a row at the Veolia Atlanta Pickleball Championships earlier this week in Atlanta. Photo: PPA Tour
Alexander Crum just took the the PPA Tour at the Veolia Atlanta Pickleball Championships - a Slam event - by storm earlier this week. The relatively unknown player, seeded 65th, stunned No. 1 seed Federico Staksrud 11-9, 5-11, 11-6 in the Round of 64.
“I know this is probably a shocking result for most people watching, but for people who know my game and know what I’m capable of, I knew that if I returned well and I volleyed well, I would have a good shot,” Crum told Pickleball.com after the big win.
Crum built on his upset of Staksrud in men’s singles by pulling off two more wins - defeating No. 27 seed Mota Alhouni in three games on Wednesday morning to advance to the Round of 16. On Thursday, he registered another upset, beating 49th seed Zane Navratil 11-5, 4-11, 11-5 to reach the quarterfinals.
This result came on the heels of his three wins in the men’s singles pro qualifying round that propelled him into the main draw of the Atlanta Pickleball Championships.
His winning march finally came to an end in the quarterfinals, where he lost to Dylan Frazier 10-12, 11-3, 3-11.
But Crum’s performance is set to propel him into the top 50 of the PPA Tour rankings. And it turns out that his elevation in the rankings is going to be his biggest hurdle in his journey at the professional level - because top 50 status means he is no longer eligible to play in qualifiers of the Tour events.
Prior to the Atlanta Pickleball Championships, Crum was tied for 64th place on the PPA Tour with 400 points. The quarterfinal finish will now take his tally to 700. With these points, he will be ranked somewhere between 40–45, depending on the performances of other players at the tournament.
And in order to compete in the main draw of singles on the PPA Tour, Crum now has to sign a contract with the PPA. At the moment, he has no deal with the tour — blocking his progress to the Tour.
Crum is now facing a make-or-break situation. He either has to sign a PPA Tour deal on or before June 16 (possibly before the Orange City Cup) to make himself eligible for the PPA Tour.
If Crum truly wants to pursue pro pickleball, he really has three options: sign a PPA exclusive contract, play PPA Challenger Series events, or continue on the APP Tour or other professional circuits.
Who is Crum?
Crum, a native of Louisville, is a 33-year-old pickleball player. However, he is not a PPA Tour regular. He started playing pickleball only a couple of years ago and remains an amateur player, playing once a week.
A former tennis player, Crum was a four-star recruit in the class of 2010. He hovered around the 100th national ranking throughout his high school career, according to tennisrecruiting.net.
However, he is now fully dedicated to pickleball and has taken down top names like Pablo Tellez, John Lucian Goins, Marshall Brown, Grayson Goldin, Cason Campbell, Max Freeman, and Chris Haworth in the past year and a half.
The quarterfinal run on the PPA Tour remains his biggest feat at the professional level.
