The Story (So Far) of a 14-year-old Pickleball Pro
Anna Leigh Waters, while partnering with her mother, Leigh, won the 2019 Pickleball Nationals in the women's professional division. While it may be unusual for a mother-daughter team to compete in any sport at the professional level, what makes this story even more intriguing is that Anna Leigh was only 12 years old when they won the gold medal at Nationals. Fast forward two years later and Anna Leigh was again on top of the medal stand in a professional event but this time in singles for the first time. She finished first at the Professional Pickleball Association's (PPA) Takeya Showcase in Newport Beach, California last weekend.
I had the chance to see Anna Leigh play at the PPA event in San Clemente, California a few weeks ago and you could see she was on the verge of taking the gold there. But, she lost to Lea Jansen in a tough five set match, 8-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-7, 11-8. Last weekend in Newport Beach, however, she was able to hold her own in the finals against Catherine Parenteau and win in five sets, 11-3, 8-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-2. This was after a very close semi final match where she played the number one seed, Irina Tereschenko, earning the victory 11-9, 12-10.
Anna Leigh also teamed up with her mother in doubles, finishing third after a tough loss to top ranked Simone Jardim and Lucy Kovalova in the semi finals. Anna Leigh and her mother are facing some tough draws in doubles as they only played a few tournaments in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic so they don't have the ranking points to get a better seed.
The success Anna Leigh is having in pickleball at 14-years-old is amazing and what is interesting is that she has another sports passion. In fact, she is also an elite soccer player and when I talked to her in January on the Pickleball Fire podcast, her plans were to pursue that sport too. She said sometimes she has to miss a couple of soccer games to play in a pickleball tournament but her plans are to pursue both sports as long as possible. It will be interesting to see which one she picks in the end but given her success in pickleball, we are hopeful for her eventual choice.
