Tennis legend Andre Agassi is set to make his professional pickleball debut at the U.S. Open Pickleball Championships, partnering with rising star Anna Leigh Waters. The tournament starts this Saturday, February 25th, in Naples, Florida. Since it started in 2016, it has rocketed in popularity and now draws crowds as large as 50,000 enthusiastic fans annually.
Most recently, Agassi has done a world tour to promote pickleball. Through his partnership with Joola, one of the top manufacturers of pickleball equipment, he hopes to make an impact on the developing sport. Pickleball shot to fame at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, growing into the fastest-growing sport in America. According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, the growth has been nothing short of miraculous. Over the last three years, it has gone up by 311%!
It was the 18-year-old athlete who first conceived of bringing Agassi and Waters together. For one of the biggest tournaments of the year, she wanted to have a mixed partner. Waters has quickly emerged as one of pickleball’s most marketable stars and earned over $3 million playing the sport in 2024, according to Forbes.
Agassi expressed enthusiasm for his new venture into pickleball, stating, “If I had the luxury of bandwidth to focus all my energy on just playing and body recovery and all that stuff, that would be a joy. But I don’t.” Though he’s managing a full plate of his own, he is looking forward to sharing the court with Waters.
Agassi’s transformational move from tennis will take front stage at the U.S. Open Pickleball Championships. It will further show his dedication to bringing pickleball to the masses. He serves as the inaugural chair of Life Time’s pickleball and tennis board and has embraced the sport’s inclusive and social nature after years of competing at a high level on the tennis circuit.
Waters commented on their compatibility as partners, saying, “We both tend to err on the aggressive side, and I think that works.” Agassi’s wisdom mixes incredibly well with Waters’ fresh zeal. Collectively, they might feed off this synergy to prosper in their brave new adventure.
You can watch Agassi’s first match on April 30th at noon ET live on CBS Sports Network. As juicy as that metaphor might sound, it’s nowhere near the primary significance of this story — or the most exciting thing about it. He wants to inspire them to hop into the growing pickleball bandwagon.