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Agassi added that he did not see him joining the growing ranks of pro pickleball players after the tournament, which takes place in Naples, Florida.
Tennis legend Andre Agassi (X)
Former tennis world number one Andre Agassi will make his professional debut in the fast-growing sport of pickleball next week when he teams up with top-ranked Anna Leigh Waters for the mixed doubles at the U.S. Open Pickleball Championships.
Invented in 1965 by a group of American friends, pickleball is a fast-paced paddle sport similar to tennis and badminton played on smaller courts using a perforated plastic ball, and interest has skyrocketed in recent years.
Waters, 18, is the Professional Pickleball Association’s top-ranked player in the world for singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.
Waters was on track to earn more than $3 million last year as a professional pickleball player, but did not have a mixed doubles partner for this year’s U.S. Open, which begins on Saturday in Naples, Florida.
That is where Agassi came into the picture,
“Andre’s goals are to grow the sport of pickleball, and that’s a huge goal of mine,” Waters said.
“I thought if we partnered together, this would be a really awesome way to grow the sport.”
The tennis great, though, jokingly stated that she would likely weigh her down.
“She’s probably sick of winning so much, and that’s why she called me and asked me to play,” Agassi, who won eight tennis Grand Slams among his 60 ATP Tour-level titles, told CNBC on Tuesday.
The 54-year-old added that he did not see him joining the growing ranks of pro pickleball players after the tournament, which takes place in Naples, Florida.
“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. I’m in a different season now,” he said.
