Professional Pickleball National Champions Mother/Daughter Duo Are Back! Gold Medal, Podcast, Happy Birthday #AL

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 26: Leigh Waters curtsied to her daughter Anna Leigh on her 14th birthday

Professional Pickleball National Champions Mother/Daughter Duo Are Back! Gold Medal, Podcast, Happy Birthday #AL (Nat Headline)

PUNTA GORDA, FL (January 31, 2021) -- In 2020, after playing in a handful of exhibitions due to COVID-19, the 2019 Women’s Doubles Professional National Champions, Leigh Waters and her thirteen-year old daughter Anna Leigh played in The Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP) Tour first tournament of 2021 the AAP Punta Gorda Pickleball Open in Punta Gorda, FL.

The mother/daughter duo, known for their intense ”ripit” style of play, won a Gold Medal in the Pro Women’s Doubles bracket. (Watch 2 min Highlight Reel)

Decked out in matching custom outfits from their new sports clothing sponsor, Faye+Florie, #TeamWaters appeared to have just stepped out of the pages of a fashion magazine. 

The National Champs showed new aspects of their game which they developed during quarantine. "I am so glad we came back.  I have been missing it. The tournaments are so much different from practicing pickleball." explained Anna Leigh after winning the Gold Medal. 

"I never expected to be in the Gold Medal Match," states Leigh. "I had nothing to lose. So, I was going to go for it." 

This week TeamWaters will return to Punta Gorda for the $100,000 World Pickleball Championship. ProPickleball will livestream WPC matches on their Facebook page. NOTE: Due to COVID concerns, TeamWaters did not attend this event.

Photo: 2019 WPC Anna Leigh Waters with her grandfather Neil Eichelberger, who taught TeamWaters how to play pickleball during Hurricane Irma (Sept. 2017)

On January 26, Anna Leigh’s 14th birthday, the Pickleball Fire Podcast published a 30 minute interview with the Waters. Discussion topics included:

• How Hurricane Irma was a life changing event for the Waters

• The level at which Leigh and Anna Leigh started playing Pickleball tournaments

• Why the Waters game improved rapidly in 2018 and when Leigh realized 11-year-old Anna Leigh was ready to be her partner at the professional level

• Why the Waters did not play tournaments for most of 2020 and how they did in their first tournament in 2021

• Which part of the game Leigh and Anna Leigh worked on when they were training in 2020

• Whether Leigh or Anna Leigh’s game is now more aggressive

• Why the Waters were called tennis players on the Pickleball court when they first started playing

• How other sports have enhanced Anna Leigh’s Pickleball game

• Anna Leigh’s goals in sports and what she plans to achieve in the future

• How to make practice fun

• The music the Waters use for motivation during a tournament

• What they give up to play Pickleball

• Anna Leigh’s plans for her 14th birthday and how COVID-19 is impacting her party

In March (18-21), the mother/daughter duo will host The AAP Tour’s next tournament, The Delray Beach Open, in their hometown. 

Digital Press Kit (Interviews, Tournament Videos, Highlights, Photos, Schedules)

Lynn Cherry, Pickleball Fire Podcast: Actually, the media kit was really helpful. It really made it very fast to prep and the timestamps on the (interview) videos were great because I could get to exactly what I wanted to see or hear. I think that is really key!

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