This Mother-Daughter Duo is Dominating the Pickleball Scene

 

FLAMINGO MAGAZINE by ERIC BARTON

South Floridians Leigh and Anna Leigh Waters are changing the face of the game from a retiree favorite to the most competitive sport on the court. Oh, and they can't stop winning.

For Leigh Waters, that moment all parents fear, and also hope will one day come to pass, happened at a restaurant called Chicken N Pickle. 

It’s a place in Kansas that, as you might guess, serves fried chicken. It also has courts for pickleball, a sport that’s a mix between tennis and Ping-Pong. 

This was in 2019, and Leigh, now 43 years old, had been playing pickleball for two years at that point. She was immediately good at it—so good that she went pro. She even quit her job as an attorney at a big firm to spend more time playing pickleball.

Then, she had that match at Chicken N Pickle. It was mixed doubles—the bronze medal match—and across from her on the court was her daughter, her best friend, her mini-me: Anna Leigh. Her daughter was only 13 at the time, but she was also getting good. Very good.

At the time, this was perhaps the most important tournament in pro pickleball history with the biggest prize money yet. The mixed-doubles champs would split $10,000 at this tournament, the Franklin Pickleball Masters. Leigh Waters was, as she still is today, one of the top-ranked pickleball players in the world. And yet still, Anna Leigh won, which was the first time she’d beaten her mom. (Read More)