If it hadn’t been for her grandfather, Anna Leigh Waters may have never tried pickleball.
Back in 2017, when Waters and her parents evacuated their Delray Beach, Fla., home because of Hurricane Irma, they headed north to stay with her grandparents in Pennsylvania.
“We actually learned how to play pickleball kind of by accident. I was 10 years old, and I thought you hit a pickle over a net,” Waters recalls with a laugh. “We were tennis players, so we didn’t want to play.”
Her grandfather, a pickleball player, finally convinced the family to give it a try — a decision they had no way of knowing would reshape Waters’ life.
Becoming A Prodigy
“We just absolutely fell in love with pickleball. We started playing two or three times a day,” she says. “When we came back to Florida, we found a local pickleball club, and the rest is history. We just were hooked from the second we started playing.”
Waters excelled at the game in no time, but she wasn’t thinking about it for her future. She also played tennis and soccer and expected to play in college or go pro with one of those sports.
When Waters turned 11, she played in her first professional pickleball tournament, and by age 12, she had played her first pro season. By then, she had left tennis behind and was splitting her time between soccer — her favorite sport — and pickleball.
Her mom, Leigh, was playing pro pickleball as well, but at a higher level than Waters. When her partner couldn’t make it to a pro tournament, Leigh asked her daughter if she wanted to join her, thinking it would be something fun they could do together.
“We actually got second place,” the younger Waters says. “We started playing together, and we beat the No. 1 team in the world, who hadn’t lost in a long time.”
With that, her pro career took off. Already having made history as the youngest pro pickleball player, she soon became the sport’s phenom.
Photo courtesy of PPA Tour
Rising To The Top
Photo courtesy of PPA Tour
As of press time, Waters, who will turn 19 on Jan. 26, has already racked up 165 gold medals and 37 triple crowns (victories in women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles) on the PPA Tour, pickleball’s main professional circuit.
While many people still think pickleball is mostly played by retirees, Waters is proving that is not the case. In 2025, she played in more than 30 professional tournaments.
“Pickleball might have the most rigorous schedule of any other sport. It’s year-round, like tennis,” she says.
Most tournaments run Monday through Sunday. Because she’s ranked first, Waters often receives a bye — meaning she skips the earliest rounds.
“People always ask me how many days a week I play,” Waters says. “I answer, ‘Well, which week are you talking about?’”
In addition to those demanding tournament weeks, Waters has to travel constantly. Her mother, who acts as her manager and coach, and her father, Stephen, go with her to competitions around the world.
“It’s a full-time job. I’m rarely home,” she says. “But that’s the great thing about having my family travel with me — I’ve always got people who love and support me.”
Photo courtesy of PPA Tour
Choosing Pickleball
As pickleball exploded in popularity after the pandemic, Waters made it her primary focus.
“It made sense to pick that sport [over soccer], and I’m very happy with my decision,” she says.
Waters has graduated high school and is choosing to delay starting college, but that hasn’t stopped colleges from trying to recruit her. Top Division I soccer programs have even asked her to quit playing pickleball to join their teams.
“College will always be there for me,” she says. “With pickleball, there’s a lot of opportunity for me now.”
Cashing In
For years, professional pickleball players earned guaranteed appearance fees rather than prize money based on performance. That model has shifted, and players are now paid according to how they finish — a change that greatly benefits Waters.
She has also secured major sponsorships like athletes in any other sport. Her partners include Delta, DoorDash, RXBAR®, Pilla, U by Kotex and Ulta Beauty.
Managing The Pressure
Even though she’s the best in pickleball, Waters admits that she gets nervous before a tournament.
“I feel like nerves are a form of excitement. The more nervous I am, the better I play,” she says. “I think every professional athlete gets nervous, and if they tell you they aren’t, they’re not telling you the truth.”
Although she warms up before a match, Waters doesn’t have formal practice sessions during a tournament, because she’s already playing throughout the day. Between events, she often works out at the gym. If she has a couple of weeks off, she eases into practice during the first week and ramps up during the second. It all depends on her schedule.
Waters says she can be hard on herself, especially during tournaments. But advice from her mother helps her reset.
“She says, ‘There’s more to life than pickleball, and there’s more to you than pickleball,’” Waters explains. “Remembering that has allowed me to enjoy the journey more. I feel like I have a little less pressure on the court when I think of that.”
Photo By Nathan Mays
Battling Legends
During 2025, Waters played in the U.S. Open Pickleball Championships alongside tennis great Andre Agassi in Naples, Fla., where Agassi made his professional pickleball debut at age 55.
“Andre is an amazing guy. He’s the same on-camera and off,” Waters says.
While they teamed up at that event, they’ll face each other in the Pickleball Slam 4 “Battle of the Sexes” event on April 15 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood. Also competing are stars Genie Bouchard and James Blake. The event will be broadcast on ESPN.
Life Beyond The Court
While pickleball dominates most of Waters’ life, she still carves out time for interests off the court.
“My biggest passion outside of pickleball is cooking and baking,” she says. “I grew up in the South, and my grandmother was a Southern cook. I was immersed in that from an early age.”
After long tournament days, she often unwinds by making a full dinner. “It relaxes me and makes me feel good. I absolutely love it,” she says.
Waters recently brought that love of cooking to her YouTube channel, with the series “In the Kitchen with Anna Leigh Waters,” which premiered in November.
“I’m inviting celebrities and friends to my kitchen to cook with me, and I’ll interview them as well,” Waters says. “I’ve filmed some episodes, and it’s really fun!”
‘In the Kitchen with Anna Leigh Waters,’ available on YouTube
Photo courtesy of 'In The Kitchen With Anna Leigh Waters'/YOUTUBE
Inspiring The Next Generation
When Waters began playing pickleball, she says she was the only young person playing professionally. Her presence is helping change that.
“In one of the recent pickleball tournaments, 300 juniors were playing,” she says. “It’s been cool to see it growing in other countries, but my main joy is seeing it grow with kids. I love that.”
When she eventually retires — which she hopes won’t be for a long time — Waters wants to play a larger role in getting kids into the sport.
For now, she’s expanding her reach globally. In 2026, she will compete in Asia, and she hopes to add more international stops to her schedule.
“I’m just trying to take it one day at a time. I’m happy I can continue to play [pickleball] as my job,” Waters says. “It’s like I was in the right place at the right time, with the right amount of talent, and it all worked out!”