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Anna Leigh Waters is one of pickleball’s earliest stars, forcing people to turn their heads with her staggering unbeaten run. Stylish, fast, elegant, and impeccable in defence, her game continues to bamboozle opponents. She has now been unbeaten for 730 days across 25 finals. The last time, she lost in women’s singles was in 2024.
Anna Leigh Waters is the World No. 1 women’s singles player and has been at the top since late 2022. Photo: Instagram/Anna Leigh Waters
730 days. 124 matches. 25 finals.
These are the remarkable numbers of days, matches, and finals that American pickleball star Anna Leigh Waters has gone unbeaten in the women’s singles category. The 19-year-old’s last defeat came at the 2024 Texas Open on the PPA Tour, when she went down to Salome Devidze 11-8, 5-11, 7-11 in the semifinals. It was a rare loss, her only defeat of the entire season.
Pickleball is not an easy sport. How it looks on a mobile screen – with its seemingly slow-paced action – is quite different from what unfolds live on court. There are very few players across all five categories who have managed to reign supreme and establish such overwhelming dominance like Anna Waters.
While playing well and regularly featuring in the last four of tournaments are regarded as parameters of consistency, staying unbeaten for over a hundred days is next to impossible, let alone doing it week after week. But Anna Waters has proven that it is not impossible to achieve.
Given the PPA Tour caravan traveling across the US every week, much like badminton’s BWF World Tour, with players often required to travel to faraway parts of Asia for the PPA Tour Asia, it is not easy to recover and consistently perform at one’s best. Being consistent is itself a challenge of disproportionate magnitude.
But Anna Waters, mentored by her mother, Leigh Waters, who doubles up as her guide, coach, and manager, has made winning a seamless habit.
While winning a single title at a tournament is regarded as a significant achievement, she has been operating at a completely different level, collecting titles in bulk – most recently clinching her 44th career triple crown at the Atlanta Pickleball Championships. She is now close to completing a double ton of titles – just six short of the feat – including 63 women’s singles, 65 women’s doubles and 66 mixed doubles titles.
While Anna Waters is stylish, fast and aggressive on the court, she is also one rare player who makes the fewest errors. Her defense is watertight. And her shot selection hardly reflects any indecision in her game. Her crosscourt forehand dink – arguably the most important shot in women’s singles pickleball – is by far the best in the business.
Why is Anna Leigh Waters so consistent?
Being fast doesn’t mean she rushes through rallies. She engages, extends rallies, and dinks relentlessly, making her opponents gasp for breath. For any player, it is nearly impossible to match her court craft. She serves hard and deep into the court, never sticking to one plan.
If Plan A does not work, she has Plans B, C and many more. Her touch volleys are among the best. She is versatile, equipping her game with topspin. She is deceptive, with her backhand passing shots disguised better than anyone else’s. She is equally adept at hitting both down-the-line and crosscourt drives.
In her last women’s singles final at the Atlanta Pickleball Championships on May 3, she beat Kate Fahey, who mounted a ferocious challenge in the opening game but squandered two game points before losing it 10-12. In the second game, it was one-way traffic, with Anna Waters building early pressure while Fahey’s counters lacked depth.
In the 124 matches that Anna Waters has played since her Texas Open semifinal defeat, her opponents have managed to take her to a third game only six times.
Her dominance means she has now spent 1,632 days at the top of the world rankings – since 2022.
In pickleball, no player has, till date, come close to the astonishing feats Anna Waters has achieved as a teenager.
Put into context, only a handful of professional sportspersons have occupied such hallowed space in their lifetime. In women’s tennis, the longest unbeaten streak belongs to Martina Navratilova, who won 74 matches in a row in 1984. In the men’s category, that honor belongs to Bjorn Borg, who won 49 consecutive matches between March and August 1978. In chess, Norwegian legend Magnus Carlsen stayed unbeaten for 125 matches in a row between 2018 and 2020.
Then there are Pakistani squash legend Jahangir Khan (555 matches) and Dutch wheelchair tennis superstar Esther Vergeer (470 matches).
Wins and losses are inevitable features of sports, and Anna Leigh Waters’ winning streak may one day come to an end – though perhaps not in the foreseeable future. She is only 19 and continues to improve, with many years of her career still ahead of her. While comparing her with any of these aforementioned athletes may not be wise, time will determine whether she ultimately belongs to this legion of legends. For her to belong to the galaxy of stars, pickleball, as a sport, has to keep its stupendous rise intact and evolve into a truly mass discipline.
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