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Writer's picturePacific Pickleball

DUPR and Open Play


Pacific Pickleball has a variety of DUPR sessions for improving or attaining your DUPR rating. DUPR stands for Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating. The rating system ranges from 2.0 to 8.0, with unrated matches starting at a score of 3.5. From the DUPR website, here is how your rating is evaluated:

  1. Points. Was this a tight match or a blowout? DUPR now evaluates the closeness of the match, so a score of 11-0 will have a bigger impact on your rating than a close match of 11-9 against that same opponent

  2. Recency. A match you played today will impact your rating more than a match you played six months ago.

  3. Total Match Count. If you've played in a lot of matches, your rating will fluctuate less compared to a player with a lower match count.

  4. Every Match Matters (even against unrated players). Every match counts towards your rating, even if you are playing against someone who is unrated or new to DUPR.


These matches are Competitive in nature. This is not Open Play, which is for casual play. We understand many players are seeking competitive games and DUPR is one way to exert your competitive energy.

Currently, we offer a doubles randomized round robin session, where players take turns playing with different players.  This makes it possible to blame a bad match on a partner. Bad matches will happen occasionally, this should be expected. However, everyone takes turns playing with and against any given partner. A player losing more or all matches in a session likely is in a session that is above their perceived level. As all players hate to admit, you yourself sometimes are the bad partner when paired with a better player (but nobody in an inferior position ever complains about winning). Rest assured though, your score is determined over many matches, so any anomalies become a smaller factor in your score with more matches played.


Pacific Pickleball is actively monitoring sessions to try to make sure all players who enter a session are not too far out of the session skill level range. Despite our best efforts, sometimes we may miss a player or two, and some players may have bad days. Rest assured, players who are apparent to our event organizers to be out of their skill range will be asked to join a different session.


The DUPR rating system is widely accepted and recognized by the PPA, UPA, MLP, major clubs across North America. Players in a self-assessed system often have a difficult time adjusting to their DUPR rating, as it is very often lower than what their self assessed rating is or was. Your DUPR rating is a relative test of you against your peers. Pacific Pickleball will use these scores in the future to improve match making in leagues, tournaments, and even future DUPR sessions, which ultimately will bring more tightly competitive matches with players of similar skill level.


We aim for realistic expectations in DUPR sessions, emphasizing that DUPR is not casual play.


Regarding Open Play, Pacific Pickleball will not use DUPR scores to determine eligibility into Open Play sessions below the 4.0 level. Open Play sessions below 4.0 are intended to be casual play, and eligibility will remain based on your self-assessed skill levels. We are exploring implementing DUPR rating restrictions for Open Play sessions offered above the 4.0 level in the future.



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