In a groundbreaking moment for college pickleball, Ava Ignatowich & Mehvish Safdar were selected in the 2025 Major League Pickleball (MLP) free agency draft.
Their selections mark a pivotal milestone in legitimizing college pickleball as a direct pathway to the pros. Until now, most players drafted into MLP strictly played PPA and APP events. Now that the talent pool is much deeper, players are finding other ways to gain notoriety, and college pickleball is one of them.
Their selections could set a precedent for future drafts, encouraging more MLP teams to scout college talent and give rising players a clearer roadmap to the pros.
The MLP Free agency draft allowed teams to expand their roster from a pool of UPA signed players. For a full recap of the draft, click here
Meet the players
Mehvish Safdar
A former college tennis player at the University of Minnesota, Safdar represents Indiana University's pickleball team. She was taken with the 13th overall pick by the Utah Black Diamonds.
She is a very accomplished player on the college tour, taking home two individual national titles in singles & mixed at the 2024 DUPR Individual National Championships.
Her situation is the most unique as she started her competitive journey on the DUPR Collegiate Pickleball Tour and transitioned to playing PPA events. Many of the sport's young talents, like Gabe Tardio and Hayden Patriquin, have bypassed college pickleball and immediately gone pro. Safdar’s journey will hopefully entice up & coming players to compete for their college teams.
Safdar will likely compete with Genie Erokhina to be the second female in the Black Diamonds lineup alongside Alix Truong. She’s a left side player as well, so she’ll pair nicely in mixed doubles with lefty Tyler Loong.
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Ava Ignatowich
Ignatowich represents the University of Miami (UM) Pickleball team and was selected as the 50th overall pick by the Miami Pickleball Club.
Living in South Florida, this pick makes sense as she will be able to train with her teammates that live down there as well. She will be competing with another young pro, Mya Bui, to be the second female playing for Miami in Premier level next season.
Her situation is a little different from Safdar's. Ignatowich was signed by the PPA during the tour wars, but still continued to play tournaments for UM. Nevertheless, it is still significant for college pickleball, showing that players can still compete in pro and college events.
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What This Means for College Pickleball
Since the launch of the Collegiate Pickleball Tour, we know that the UPA is working hard on growing collegiate pickleball. Unlike most other sports, there is no college to pro pipeline (maybe there will be a college draft, one day). College sports have proven to be a major stepping stone to the pros in other sports, so this is a big moment for college pickleball.
The Safdar & Ignatowich selections will hopefully incentivize more young talent to compete in college pickleball, improving the competition. With more attention to the college scene, we could see a number of things result from this, including:
- Increased funding and support for college teams
- MLP teams scouting college events
- College as standard pathway to pro
To be transparent, Safdar could have probably been selected without any college tournament success. She was a very high level tennis player & has been competing at pro events. I think that collegiate pickleball is still a long way away from being recognized as elite competition. However, her involvement in it signals an important milestone for things to come.
If you're curious, our top read article in 2025 so far is about this high tech pickleball.
Jake Bower
Jake is studying journalism at the University of Florida. Pickleball junkie that enjoys coaching, watching & playing. Represents UF's competitive pickleball team at tournaments around the country.
