Too bad, Might try it

One of the big attractions of the years US Pickleball Open was Andre Agassi was playing. Andre was a very well known and successful tennis player for a long time from the mid 80s to the early 2000s. His long mullet hair, headbands and style made him look more like a rock singer than a tennis player. Fast forward 20 years later and Andre now has a shaved head and is 55 years old. He also now is an avid pickleball player.

He was paired up with Ana Leigh Waters who is 18 years old and the best female player in the world and has been for a few years. The idea was this was a great way to bring more visibility to pickleball, having a great tennis player brought into the pickleball spotlight. I think it is.

They had their first two matches yesterday. They won the first match but it was not easy. They were eliminated in the round of 16, losing 2 games to 1. It was obvious that the opposing teams were trying to target Andre. Despite his pro tennis player status, pickleball does have some significant differences. Andre being 55 doesn’t help either, by the end of the match he was soaked from head to toe and just looked tired. Another former tennis star Ivan Lendl is also playing in the tournament albeit not at the pro level.

It would have been great if Andre could have gone deeper in the Open but hopefully it accomplished the goal of growing a sport that already is accelerating at incredible speeds. There is talk of pickleball even showing up in the Olympics sooner rather than later, who could have imagined that?

Since I have not played pickleball all week I think I might try to play sand volleyball for the first time in at least 6 months tonight. Although my right side IT band related problems are not gone, they are definitely better. I am anticipating a rough go of it as my volleyball muscles, skills and reflexes probably all have a solid layer of rust on them. My main goal is to see how my body holds up, hopefully getting out of the two hour session without major impact.