Andre Agassi will make his professional pickleball debut with the 18-year-old World No. 1 player, Anna Leigh Waters.
Thanks to Andre Agassi and Anna Leigh Waters.
Tennis legend Andre Agassi participates in the Pro Pickleball -Rangen.
The former number 1 ranked tennis player told CNBC that he will play his first professional tournament on the US Open Pickleball Championships with the top player in the world, Anna Leigh Waters.
The tournament starts on Saturday in Naples, Florida and will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network. Agassi and Waters play their debut match on April 30 at noon et.
The idea of playing together came from the 18-year-old Waters, who was looking for a mixed partner for the largest pickleball tournament of the year. The US Open PickleBall Championships were founded in 2016 and attracted every year as large as 50,000 fans.
Waters, who, according to Forbes, earned more than $ 3 million with Pickleball in 2024, emerged as one of the largest and most tradable stars of sport.
“She is probably tired of winning so much, and that's why she called me and asked me to play,” Agassi joked.
Waters said she explored Agassi in advance and watched videos from him who played pickleball on YouTube.
“We both tend to make the aggressive side mistaken, and I think that works,” she said. “The goals of Andre are to grow sports sport, and that is a huge purpose of mine. I thought if we work together, this would be a really great way to grow the sport.”
Pickleball has started since the COVID-19 Pandemie and today is the fastest growing sport in the US, which has grown 311% in the last three years, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. Pickleball players now earn more money than Ladies National Basketball Association and National Women's Soccer League players, because the sport has attracted great sponsors, media deals and advertisements.
After many years on the tennis court, Agassi said he caught the pickleball bug and fell in love with the social, inclusive character of the sport.
He traveled around the world to promote the sport through his collaboration with Joola, a maker of Pickleball equipment. Agassi also acts as the inaugural chairman of Life Time's Pickleball and Tennis Board.
With regard to his long-term pickleball plans, Agassi said he would not expect that he will soon join Major League Pickleball or the PPA tour.
“If I had the luxury of the bandwidth to concentrate all my energy on playing alone and body recovery and all those things, that would be a pleasure. But not me,” he said. “I'm in a different season now.”
