"I often make decisions based on what I can do to minimize possible regret in the future, and that’s why I chose to play today."

Anna Bright is a fixture on PPA doubles podiums, but it's been about nine months since she brought her talents to the singles court.

That changed yesterday when she played women's singles at the Veolia PPA Bristol Open.

Coming in as the 40-seed, she faced some steep competition right out of the gate. Ultimately, AB posted some big wins before coming up just short of Saturday's semi-finals round.

• Round of 64 vs. (26) Martina Frantova – Win: 7-11, 11-1, 11-2
• Round of 32 vs. (4) Lea Jansen – Win: 7-11, 11-4, 11-9
• Round of 16 vs. (13) Jorja Johnson – Win: 11-5, 11-2
• Quarterfinals vs. (9) Judit Castillo – Loss: 4-11, 11-13

Not surprisingly, Anna got a lot of questions about why she chose to play.

In her email newsletter, she said it was all in an effort to be as sharp as possible heading into next weekend's Major League Pickleball playoffs in San Diego, CA.

"With how stacked the [MLP] playoffs are going to be, the probability of never playing a Dreambreaker has to be close to zero," Anna explained, adding that she "wanted to do everything I could to feel confident in them and to minimize my ability to hate myself if I had a bad one."

So, it was just as much about mental preparation as it was physical.

She went on:

I often make decisions based on what I can do to minimize possible regret in the future, and that’s why I chose to play today... If I played a poor Dreambreaker and didn’t get any singles reps to prepare myself I would have a lot of regret and shame. So I played!

Anna's on-court intensity has become the stuff of legend, even inspiring an eponymous pickleball anthem from fellow PPA pro Alex Crum, aka AC Baby:

Feature image via the PPA Tour.