Pickleball mixed doubles pairing strike gold instantly at Skechers English Open

By Matt Wright

The Peterborough pairing of Mercedes Baxter Chinery and Seth Briggs-Williams struck pickleball gold at the Skechers English Open in what was their first tournament teaming up.

Baxter Chinery, 27, and Briggs-Williams, 19, took the 4.5 18+ mixed doubles title at the Telford International Centre after defeating Lucy Elliott and Matt Leeke 11-7 11-6 in the final to cap off a busy weekend for both.

That was relatively straightforward compared to their semi-final earlier in the day when they had to hold their nerve in coming back from 11-2 down to win 15-13 against Molly Odonoghue and Tim Conner.

It also gave Briggs-Williams success in different kind of racket sport as his primary game is tennis, with the Wisbech Tennis Club product regularly competing in – and winning – tournaments.

Briggs-Williams said: “We were trying to have fun, basically. We said this was going to be a fun day and we just got ourselves over the line because in our semi-final we were down and out and I was just trying to remember why we were playing.

“I couldn’t believe how many people were here.

“I play in tennis tournaments all the time and there’s like a maximum of 60 people and then you get 2,000 people in an arena like this, there was an unbelievable atmosphere.”

Unlike her doubles partner, Baxter Chinery solely plays pickleball, one of the fastest growing sports in the world, while working as a nuclear decommissioning consultant.

She added: “It was all about having fun, playing one point at a time and just relaxing.

“I’ve really enjoyed the event, I had great fun in both days I played as it’s a great event to come to, with lots of people and it has a great community feel to it.”

Baxter Chinery also competed in the women’s 4.5 18+ women’s doubles, while Briggs-Williams participated in all three of the tournaments he qualified for, which included reaching the last 32 of the men’s Open singles where he was defeated by British professional Louis Laville.

The 2024 English Open was the largest pickleball event to take place outside of North America, with a record number of almost 2,000 players from 42 countries participating.

Over 30,000 people around the United Kingdom now play the sport and there are over 700 places in which to play, with pickleball displaying an exponential growth in recent years.

When asked how he took on a second sport, Briggs-Williams said: “I first started playing in January when I was on a break, a transition, from tennis.

“I found it so easy to play and had fun playing with friends like Mercedes.

“It’s a lot more relaxed – unless you get to a final, or something – but it’s a great atmosphere all around.”

Baxter Chinery said: “My mum got into pickleball slightly after Covid and she was saying ‘you’ve got to try this, it’s so much fun.’

“So, I came down and I don’t play tennis now, I just play pickleball.”

Pickleball England has announced a record number of players competing at this year’s English OPEN from the 8th-14th August at the Telford International Centre in the largest pickleball event taking place outside of the USA EVER – visit pickleballengland.org