Anna Leigh Waters powers pickleball’s rise as America’s fastest-growing sport

Anna Leigh Waters has become the clearest symbol of pickleball’s transformation from neighborhood pastime to commercial sport. At 19, the Boynton Beach, Florida, player is ranked No. 1 in women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles on the PPA Tour, and Nike made her its first pickleball signing in January 2026, a bet that the game now has enough reach to justify a global ambassador.

Waters’ dominance is built on a career that began early and accelerated fast. The PPA Tour says she turned pro in 2019 after discovering pickleball in 2017, when her family evacuated during Hurricane Irma and her grandfather introduced the game to her in Pennsylvania. By age 12, she had already become the youngest professional pickleball player and champion in history. She has since piled up 181 gold medals and 39 triple crowns, a level of résumé depth that helps explain why brands are now treating pickleball less like a fad and more like a market.

The broader business case is strengthening around her. USA Pickleball said its membership reached 104,828 in 2025, with 144 sanctioned tournaments across the country. The sport’s national championships drew competitors ranging from age 11 to 87, a spread that underscores pickleball’s unusual cross-generational appeal and gives sponsors a broader consumer story than many niche sports can offer. The Sports & Fitness Industry Association said 24.3 million Americans played pickleball in 2025, a figure that helps explain why the sport has become a national talking point rather than a regional curiosity.

Waters sits at the center of that growth because she is not just winning, she is concentrating attention. NBC News described her as the No. 1-ranked player in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, and the greatest female pickleball player ever. That kind of dominance matters in a sport still building its identity, because elite stars can shape youth participation, tournament credibility and media value at the same time. In Waters’ case, the pipeline is already visible: a player who started as a child is now the face of a professional circuit trying to turn rapid participation growth into lasting relevance.

Nike’s move signals the next phase. If the company is willing to make Waters its first pickleball ambassador, the sport has entered a more mature commercial era, one in which apparel, footwear and broadcast appeal all become part of the same growth story. Waters is still only 19, but her career already shows what pickleball needs to become a durable national sport: elite talent, a deep amateur base and enough brand money to sustain both.