Anna Leigh Waters will try to add a Pickleball Slam title to her already impressive collection.

PPA

The fourth installment of the Pickleball Slam event is set for Wednesday, April 15th, 2026 at Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. This year’s event returns Andre Agassi for the fourth year in a row, putting his 3-0 record on the line alongside James Blake, and they’re facing off against two active Professional Pickleball Association pros in Anna Leigh Waters and Genie Bouchard.

This year’s title sponsor is Ares Management with supporting sponsors PB5star as the official sneaker, and Franklin as the official ball of the event (fitting since Franklin invested heavily in Anna Leigh Waters late last year).

This year’s event, for the first time, is featuring a “pickleball-only” star in Anna Leigh Waters and will feature a “Battle of the Sexes” where the men will face off against the women. The format of the competition will feature three rally scoring games as follows:

• Match 1: Singles: James Blake vs. Anna Leigh Waters
• Match 2: Singles: Andre Agassi vs. Genie Bouchard
• Match 3: Doubles: Agassi/Blake vs Waters/Bouchard

I caught up with the event’s founders, the participants, and their coach to talk about the event history and the strategies the players are using in order to take the $1M winner-take-all prize ahead of the event. Here’s a history of the event and a deep-dive into the strategies the players are implementing to take home the prize.

The Pickleball Slam is a partnership between two entities; Horizon Sports & Experiences (HS&E) and GSE Worldwide. It is a great example of how two companies can come together and combine their expertise (HS&E’s IP development, experiential, and media experience with GSE’s talent and live events work) to create a successful event.

The concept was inspired by the success of golf’s “The Match,” which debuted in 2018 and featured the two biggest names in golf (Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson) playing a winner-take-all, made-for-TV match. The first event’s broadcast partner was Turner Sports (part of the Turner Broadcasting network), led at the time by President David Levy. Levy is a legend in the industry, having recently been inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, and after a long career with Turner he co-founded HS&E (with co-CEO Chris Weil and Bill Koeningsberg) in mid-2022.

Soon after, he had an idea. As Jon Venison (President of GSE Productions) tells the story, "This event came about when David [Levy] called me five years ago to talk about how we could put something together that would be an iconic event in
what was the fastest growing sport in the USA: Pickleball. We thought we could put something together that was a real TV property and that could really help a sport in that nascent stage. In 2021, there was lots of grass roots development in the pickleball, but not a lot of national or international brand awareness."

Using Levy’s experience from The Match, the pair brought together a combination of a big prize purse, a great venue at Hard Rock Live, a big network broadcasting the event (ESPN), and a big-time sports production crew to create this event. Says Levy, “We wanted to emulate ‘The Match’ but in pickleball, adding big brand names, putting in a real competition. Plus, it had to be authentic; if it’s not real, then players aren’t going to take it seriously, and the fans, consumers, and viewers aren’t going to be engaged."

This is a salient point, one worth expanding on. Professional tennis is well known for its “Hit and Giggle” events, where pros play exhibition events at 30% speed for fun and laughs. We’ve seen videos go viral recently showing good friends Novak Djokovic & Aryna Sabalenka laughing as they play a mixed exhibition together before the 2024 Australian Open. These are certainly fun events and make for good TikTok shorts, but this is specifically not what the creators were aiming for.

The lure of the fun exhibition featuring pros going at 20% for laughs is what most pros, even in pickleball, are used to, but even the wealthiest Pickleball pros are still motivated by a big prize figure. Says Venison about these exhibitions in comparison to the Pickleball Slam events: "We think there’s short term success with these types of fun exhibitions, but not longer term. All our players are motivated, but if its just celebrity exhibition, we don’t have the same energy. We found that the flat fee deals were good for players, but less exciting for fans and brands. So we structured the prize money so it was real competition.”

The first Pickleball Slam in 2023 featured four tennis Hall of Famers, basically four of the most recognizable names in American tennis. Venison was in business with Jim Courier (at InsideOut) for decades prior to being acquired by GSE, and maintains relationships with a host of top tennis players at his agency. Says Levy, “Jon’s relationship to tennis was good synergy. Thus at the starting point in 2023, we went with tennis players, famous names at first. The tagline was, ‘the biggest names in racquet sports ... in the biggest growing racquet sport’ ... that was the vision.”

The success of the Slam was immediate: it sold out its first iteration, setting a then-record with more than 4,000 people watching (an in-person crowd record since eclipsed by the 2025 MB Vietnam cup’s 7,966 weekend crowd) and a long-standing broadcast viewership record on ESPN of 669,000 average viewers watching the sport (a record only recently broken by the 2026 Carvana PPA Masters Men’s doubles final on CBS, which averaged 791,000 viewers). Since the first event, the group has continued to build the brand, added new stars, and added new sponsors (including this year’s title sponsor Ares Management, PB5star as the official sneaker, and Franklin as the official ball of the event).

2026’s event pivots away from having only former tennis stars and includes, for the first time, a “pickleball-only” star in Anna Leigh Waters. Why pivot now? Says Venison, “It was time to really incorporate Pickleball stars into this event. Otherwise we risked it just becoming ‘tennis legends playing a new sport’ event. You constantly have to reinvent your brand, you have to continually improve. We’re starting to see improved ratings for pickleball pros and Anna Leigh is a brand unlike anyone else. And, by the way, Nike agrees with me [having signed her earlier this year]. When we announced her participation in Pickleball Slam mid-last year, there was no Nike deal, no Franklin deal. Now she’s going to get the biggest exposure."

I think Waters’ agent owes Venison & Levy a beer.

For those who follow the pro pickleball game, Anna Leigh Waters (or “ALW” for those in the know) needs no introduction. She is head and shoulders the best female player in the game, currently sits ranked No. 1 in all three disciplines (Singles, Gender Doubles, and Mixed Doubles), and has (as of this writing) won an astounding 189 gold medals in her PPA career. She is a relentless competitor on the court and will come to this event with an intensity that the rest of the players can only hope to match. Oh, and she’s just 19 years of age.

She teams up with Genie Bouchard, who pivoted to Pickleball several years ago after a successful pro tennis career and who has made huge strides in the sport in the last year. Bouchard now sits inside the top 10 on tour in Singles, on the precipice of qualifying for the year-end Tour Finals. I caught up with Bouchard to discuss her preparation and strategy for this event.

Bouchard is set to face off against Agassi in singles, a legendary baseliner with pinpoint accuracy on the run from both the forehand and backhand sides. But, Bouchard’s singles acumen speaks for itself, as does her 5.844 DUPR rating. Her strategy against Andre? “In singles, you have to move more. I’m very athletic coming from tennis and he’s got a few years on me, so the goal is to make him move and for me to be more aggressive with my shots. Andre can rope his backhand down the line, so I’ll be attacking his forehand.”

She continues: “I feel I play my best when I’m overly aggressive, so I’m always attacking 2nd shot, getting to the net. I like hitting lines and cutting off angles.” These aggressive tactics will force the issue with Agassi, who will have to hit pin-point third shot drives in order to pass the rangy Bouchard, who is more than adept at getting to the net.

In doubles, Bouchard has never played with Anna Leigh, and headed to Florida a bit early to get some court time with Waters in her home near Boynton Beach. Bouchard acknowledges that she’s less confident in her doubles game since coming over from Tennis, but she has the luxury of playing alongside the best in the game for this event. "The plan is for me to play right side, since that’s where I started. It will end up being like a mixed match for me. I’ll be solid on the right and set her up for put-aways.”

Bouchard knows the guys will be gunning for her, and she’s ready. She left me with this line: “I’m excited for this. It’s on ESPN, it’s great for pickleball, and its a glamorous moment for the sport.”

James Blake is the dark-horse in this match. He has zero official tournament results, but gets a ton of reps alongside top players in his home town of San Diego and is no slouch on the court according to those who have seen him play. I caught up with Blake just as he was finishing his Tournament Director duties from the just-finished Miami Open to talk about his preparation for this event.

He has the inevitable task of facing off against Waters in Singles. Says Blake: “I do know this is no hit and giggle. Ryan Harwood [Waters’ Agent] told me; she’s gonna take this very seriously. Yes, its for TV, but I know she’s going to want to win and she’ll try to embarrass me. That’s ok; I love the competition and I love the challenge."

Blake’s singles strategy? To try to turn their singles match into a bruising baseline game. “If I’m playing cat and mouse with ALW I’ll be in trouble, so I’m going to try to use my tennis power and ground strokes to compete.”

He does have higher hopes for their doubles tie, thanks to Agassi’s intensity. “We’ve practiced together a couple times. The thing is about Andre is, once he gets into it, he gets really into it. He knows the game, but he’s also improved greatly since he started playing. At our age, its tough to improve.”

Blake will draw from some of his pro doubles experience, where he won a handful of pro titles in his career. Ironically, the last two pro doubles titles he won were in 2012 with Sam Querrey (who will be one of the broadcasters for this year’s event), and in 2013 with none other than Jack Sock (who’s like Bouchard is now ranked inside the top 10 in singles on the Pickleball pro tour).

Lastly, I caught up with Matt Manasse to get the inside scoop on both sides. Manasse has been working with Blake & Agassi as a team, and also put in some court time with Bouchard last week to help her prepare. The “coach to the stars” may get a lot of time with Hollywood executives, but he’s also the go-to coach for pros in Southern California and helped the men with their game plan.

The men plan on lining up with Blake on the left and Agassi on the right to start. Here’s Matt’s take: “The guys’ strategy in doubles is obvious: keep it away from Anna Leigh. Both the guys’ strengths are drive and crash, so Genie has to expect a ton of balls coming her way with pace. James has to be physical, be aggressive, and take over the middle. Andre has to be disciplined in his dinking, know when to slide off and when to attack."

He continues, “the guys are lot more confident than people are expecting, and I’m confident in them. I think singles will a battle in both matchups, and I think the doubles will be closer than many expect. If the guys can stay consistent, they can keep it close. Remember, they both had great ground stokes and great hands, and you're going to see that on the court.”

Manasse, who will be in the broadcast booth for the match, thinks the event is a pick’em. He leaves us with this: “Whether you’re a tennis fan or a pickleball fan, you’re going to have a great time and see all four players rise to the competitive spirit and put on a show.”

The Ares Pickleball Slam 4 airs live on ESPN on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, at 7 p.m. EST/4:30pm PST. I will be onsite and recapping the event the next day.

Event History (with links to my coverage where applicable).

• Pickleball Slam 1, 4/2/23, Hollywood, FL. Agassi/Roddick d McEnroe/Chang
• Pickleball Slam 2, 2/3/24, Hollywood, FL. Agassi/Graf d McEnroe/Sharapova (Blake and Sock also participated)
• Pickleball Slam 3, 2/16/25, Las Vegas, NV. Agassi/Graf d Roddick/Bouchard

Author’s note: this post has been updated since its original posting to clarify several details related to the founders’ corporate history, the official venue name, and to more clearly identify the sponsors of the event.