London Smash Seize First Place at the Wendy's Pickle Open — and This Weekend, the Metropolitan Split Could Flip the Entire Playoff Race
The back half of CNPL Season 4 is officially here — and it arrived with fireworks. The Wendy's Pickle Open, C4's Midseason Event, brought all eight teams to the University of Guelph on June 27–28 for the biggest weekend of the regular season: 24 matches, two courts running simultaneously, and a standings shakeup that left the league with a brand-new #1 seed. London Smash went 5–1 to seize top spot, the Detroit-Windsor Drive went winless, the Northern Lights surged into playoff position — and Apollo's own Maria Klokotzky and Toronto United held firm at #3 heading into the stretch run. And there's no time to catch your breath: this Saturday and Sunday, July 18–19, four playoff-positioned teams collide at the Metropolitan Split at Grandview Pickleball Club in Newmarket.
The Wendy's Pickle Open: Guelph delivered the season's biggest weekend
For the Midseason Event, the CNPL returned to the University of Guelph — the league's second visit to the Royal City — running the event inside the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre as part of the GOOD Games, Canada's largest multi-sport festival. It also marked a league milestone off the court: Wendy's joined as an official CNPL sponsor, putting a national brand name on a CNPL major for the first time. Pro pickleball in this country keeps levelling up.
The format matched the moment. Unlike a standard four-team split, the Midseason brought the entire C4 field together in a round-robin gauntlet — six matches per team across two days, two courts running at once. For the local crowd, it was personal: the Grand River Rapids were playing on home turf, and Guelph fans showed up loud for a team that arrived ranked #1 in the league. Every match streamed live on Game+.
How every team fared in Guelph
Six matches each. Twenty-four total. Here's every team's Midseason record — and what it did to their season:
The 3 biggest storylines from Guelph
Fresh off adding Sophia Racine days before the event, London ripped off a league-best 5–1 weekend to pull even with Grand River at 13–4 — and take top spot on the Game Win Percentage tiebreaker, 69.9% to 68.5%. Under the CNPL's new playoff format, the top two seeds earn a bye straight to Championship Saturday. Right now, that's London and the Rapids watching everyone else fight for the right to face them.
Left for dead at 3–8 after the Eastern Split, the Lights went 4–2 in Guelph to climb to 7–10 and grab the sixth and final playoff spot. The mid-June addition of Jacob Bolkowy is looking like a genuinely shrewd move. If the season ended today, their reward would be a first-round date with Toronto United — a team that already beat them 3–1 this season.
The defending champs started 6–0. Since then: a 2–3 Eastern Split, a 2–4 Midseason, and a fall from #1 to #4. Meanwhile the Drive went 0–6 in Guelph — days after trading Brad Chapman to York — and now ride a 10-match losing streak at 2–15. Chapman's new team? The Yeti grabbed two wins to snap their own infamous L10, handing the league's longest skid to Detroit-Windsor in the same weekend.
Maria Klokotzky at the Midseason
Coming off her breakout 7–2 weekend in PEI, Canada's #1 ranked female pro shouldered the heaviest workload of her CNPL season in Guelph: 12 games in two days, more than any previous event, against the deepest field C4 has to offer. The results were a grind — Maria went 5–7 at the Midseason, with every team in the league game-planning for the biggest name on the court. Her overall C4 record now sits at 18–15 (54.5%) across 33 games.
🇨🇦 The bigger picture: Toronto United still banked a 4–2 weekend with Maria absorbing that volume, and the #3 seed never wobbled. Every long season has a grind event — the great ones use it as a reset. Maria has already shown what her bounce-back looks like (50% at the Opener → 77.8% in PEI), and this weekend in Newmarket she gets a four-team field, a lighter match load, and the teams directly above and below United in the standings. That's about as clean a stage for a statement weekend as the schedule offers.
Updated CNPL C4 Standings — Through the Midseason
Every team has now played 17 matches across five events. The top 6 qualify for playoffs, and the top 2 earn a bye to Championship Saturday. Here's the full picture heading into Newmarket:
| # | Team | P | W | L | MW% | GW% | Streak | Last 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | London Smash London, ON · New #1 Seed on GW% Tiebreak | 17 | 13 | 4 | 76.5% | 69.9% | W3 | W W W L W |
| 2 | Grand River Rapids Grand River, ON · Tied on Record, Trails on Tiebreak | 17 | 13 | 4 | 76.5% | 68.5% | W1 | W L W W L |
| 3 | Toronto United Pickleball Club Toronto, ON · Maria Klokotzky's Team · 4 Wins in Last 5 | 17 | 12 | 5 | 70.6% | 63.0% | W1 | W L W W W |
| 4 | Montreal Lions Montreal, QC · Defending Champs in a Slide | 17 | 10 | 7 | 58.8% | 53.3% | W1 | W L W L L |
| 5 | Vancouver Owls Vancouver, BC · The West's Best Hope | 17 | 8 | 9 | 47.1% | 48.6% | L1 | L W W W L |
| 6 | Northern Lights Newmarket, ON · Surging at the Right Time | 17 | 7 | 10 | 41.2% | 43.1% | W1 | W L L W W |
| 7 | York Yeti York Region, ON · Big Streak Snapped, New Skid Started | 17 | 3 | 14 | 17.6% | 23.6% | L4 | L L L L W |
| 8 | Detroit-Windsor Drive Windsor, ON / Detroit, MI · Now on a 10-Match Slide | 17 | 2 | 15 | 11.8% | 29.2% | L10 | L L L L L |
P = Played · W = Wins · L = Losses · MW% = Match Win % · GW% = Game Win % · Last 5 shown most recent first · Green highlight = playoff position · Red highlight = Maria's team
The #1 seed battle is now the tightest race in the league: London and Grand River are dead even at 13–4, separated only by Game Win Percentage — 69.9% to 68.5%. A single lopsided match either way in the final three events flips the top seed. And quietly, Toronto United have won 4 of their last 5, the hottest recent form of any team behind London.
The C4 rookies rewriting the all-time CNPL leaderboard
Here's a stat that tells you how good this season's newcomers are: after just half a season, two C4 rookies now sit 1–2 on the CNPL's all-time career leaderboard. Grand River's Bruno Faletto (27–5, 84.4%) and London's Aibika Kalsarieva (27–6, 81.8%) are outpacing veterans with a hundred-plus career games — and Kalsarieva leads the entire league with 6 Player of the Match awards. Here's the all-time top 10, plus where Apollo's own Maria Klokotzky lands in her rookie CNPL campaign:
| # | Player | GP | GW | GL | Win % | +/- | POTM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bruno FalettoC4 RookieGrand River Rapids | 32 | 27 | 5 | 84.4% | +4.0 | 5 |
| 2 | Aibika KalsarievaC4 RookieLondon Smash | 33 | 27 | 6 | 81.8% | +4.7 | 6 |
| 3 | Ryan TorresinLondon Smash | 113 | 82 | 31 | 72.6% | +3.3 | 14 |
| 4 | Victoria DiMuzioSouthwestern Ontario Brewers | 50 | 35 | 15 | 70.0% | +1.4 | 9 |
| 5 | Xavier RichardLondon Smash | 18 | 12 | 6 | 66.7% | +2.7 | 4 |
| 6 | Caelan SampsonVancouver Owls | 26 | 17 | 9 | 65.4% | +0.3 | — |
| 7 | Ernesto FajardoMontreal Lions | 136 | 86 | 50 | 63.2% | +1.5 | 12 |
| 8 | Maximilian WildToronto United Pickleball Club | 76 | 48 | 28 | 63.2% | +1.5 | 7 |
| 9 | Marie-Christine SalvasGrand River Rapids | 73 | 46 | 27 | 63.0% | +1.2 | 4 |
| 10 | Louis-Charles AmyotMontreal Lions | 135 | 85 | 50 | 63.0% | +1.2 | 13 |
| ··· | |||||||
| 30 | Maria KlokotzkyApollo ProC4 RookieToronto United Pickleball Club | 33 | 18 | 15 | 54.5% | +0.1 | 1 |
GP = Career Games Played · GW/GL = Game Wins/Losses · +/- = Point Differential · POTM = Player of the Match awards · Includes all CNPL seasons
Toronto United's depth shows up here too: Max Wild sits 8th all-time, Jada Bui is 12th at 62.5%, and Maria has cracked the all-time top 30 in her very first half-season of CNPL play — with the entire second half of C4 still to come.
This weekend: the Metropolitan Split lands in Newmarket
Look at the four teams heading to Newmarket and you'll see why this might be the most consequential regular-season weekend of C4: Grand River Rapids (#2), Toronto United (#3), Montreal Lions (#4), and Northern Lights (#6). Four playoff-positioned teams, round-robin format, two days. It's essentially a playoff preview — with real seeding on the line.
What's on the line in Newmarket
United sit one game back of Grand River — and they get the Rapids head-to-head this weekend, with league-leading London Smash not even in the building. Win the weekend, beat the Rapids, and the bye conversation gets very real. This is the single biggest opportunity left on Toronto's schedule.
The Lions have lost 7 of their last 11 after a perfect start. Newmarket puts them on the court with the two teams directly above them and the surging Lights below. Another 2–4-calibre weekend and the defending champs could be fighting to hold a playoff spot instead of chasing a bye.
Newmarket is Lights country — and they arrive playing their best pickleball of the season. A strong home weekend against three teams above them wouldn't just secure the #6 seed; it could vault them past Vancouver, or even Montreal. Their probable playoff opponent? Toronto United, who they'll see this weekend. Consider it a scouting trip with points attached.
"Five events down, three to play. The Metropolitan Split is where the playoff bracket starts writing itself — and Canada's #1 ranked female pro is right in the middle of the bye race. If you're anywhere near York Region this weekend, be in that building."
— Apollo Pickleball, on the road to the C4 playoffs
What's next on the C4 calendar
After Newmarket, the sprint to the playoffs is on: the Central Split in London, August 8–9, then the Season Finale in Burnaby, BC on August 29–30 — the league's only West Coast stop — before Championship Weekend, September 25–27 crowns the C4 champion. The trade deadline lands August 11, so expect roster fireworks the week after the Metro Split.
All matches stream live on Game+, the CNPL's official broadcast partner. Follow the full season, schedule, and standings at cnpl.ca.
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