As pickleball continues to hold the mantle of America’s fastest-growing sport, Anna Leigh Waters is quickly emerging as one of the nation’s fastest-rising superstar athletes. If you’re not familiar with Waters yet, chances are you will be soon. At just 18 years of age, she’s already a 6-year veteran of the sport having made her professional debut at age 12. She’s currently ranked number in the world for doubles, mixed doubles and singles and, having won 148 PPA Gold Medals, is already considered by many to be pickleball’s greatest female player of all time.
“I kind of like to say I’ve kind of grown with the sport,” said Waters during a guest appearance on the most recent episode of Throwbacks with Matt Leinart and Jerry Ferrara. Even at such a young age, Waters already has a unique perspective on how far the sport has advanced saying “It’s kind of been a crazy ride because when I started playing pickleball, like, a pro tournament was taped courts, temp net, streamed live on Facebook. If you were lucky, you won, like, a thousand bucks. If you won the whole tournament, then you had to split that with your partner.”
A large element of Waters’ introduction to the game came from the fact that her mother, Leigh Waters, was a legendary player in her own right. “My first ever pro tournament I played with my mom,” Anna Leigh recalled. “I wasn’t supposed to play pro and her partner, like, pulled out on her in the last minute and she’s like, ‘come on, play with me.’ And we ended up getting silver in the tournament. She was like, ‘all right, I think you’re ready to play pro.’
While the sport’s popularity has taken off domestically, Waters still sees room for growth on a global scale. “I definitely think growing [pickleball] worldwide is still something that needs to happen,” said Waters after being asked where she’d like to see the sport in the next 5 years. “In Asia it’s starting to explode. Australia, it’s pretty big. But there’s still a lot of countries that it’s, you know, there’s like one pickleball court, you know? There still needs to be growth there.”
Ultimately, Waters’ ambitions are to help drive the sport to a place where she can become not just an American champion but an Olympic one as well. “That’s kind of a personal goal because I’d love to play in the Olympics. But that’s not five years, that’s a little further I think in my opinion.”
Even if it takes 20 years instead of 5, Waters will still be on the south side of 40. For a player of such youth and immense talent, the sky is certainly the limit.
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