Anna Leigh Waters is bringing pickleball’s own star power to the Pickleball Slam. The 19-year-old, who is generally accepted as the greatest player in the sport’s short history, will team with Eugenie Bouchard in the fourth edition of the event against James Blake and Andre Agassi.
Waters said in a phone interview Saturday that the move mattered because the event, which is broadcast live on and awards $1 million to the winning pair, has never before included a player who did not make their name as a tennis star. “I think it’s huge,” she said. “The Pickleball Slam is a big event. Pickle is in the name, so it’s kind of cool that we have finally, a legit, like, full-bred pickleball player.”
Her appearance gives the event a different shape. Previous editions leaned on tennis names including Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, John McEnroe, Maria Sharapova, Michael Chang and Andy Roddick. Waters, meanwhile, has built her own résumé fast: 181 gold medals, 39 triple crowns and the PPA Tour world No. 1 ranking in singles, doubles and mixed.
That rise has come as pickleball has pushed deeper into the sports mainstream. In January, Waters became the first pickleball athlete to sign with Nike, and an estimated 48.3 million adults played the sport between 2022 and 2023. Tennis has also been growing, with the USTA saying in February that participation in the United States rose by 1.6 million in 2025 to 27.3 million total players, up 54 percent from 2019.
Waters said she enjoyed watching ex-pro tennis players trade shots in the sport, but argued that a true pickleball specialist changes the feel of the match. “It was honestly really cool to watch some of the ex-pro tennis players play pickleball and battle against each other in a different sport that’s similar to tennis, but obviously not the same,” she said. “But I do think that adding a professional pickleball player into the mix hopefully makes it more entertaining, because you’ll see a little bit more nuance of the game than people who are really good at tennis playing pickleball.” Jon Venison called her involvement “a clear sign that the sport is now producing its own stars and continuing to evolve on its own terms.”