Overall Event and Match Observations

The play on the court turned out to be far more high level than many may have anticipated. A $1M prize, the presence of the hyper-competitive Waters on the court, and the surprisingly solid play from James Blake in particular immediately turned this into a serious and highly competitive match. The crowd (and TV audience) was treated to great play and more than a few stellar rallies worthy of ESPN’s upcoming highlights shows.

The crowd was very “Pro-Pickleball,” with the ladies getting far larger crowd reactions from the onsite entertainers. This may have been a surprise to many, given that Andre Agassi is (by far) the most famous “name” involved. It was clear to me that huge swaths of the audience were pickleball fans and were openly rooting for the “pickleball players” to win.

Waters was dominant, as expected. What many may not know is that she is also actively playing a tournament this week (the US Open), which is being held on the other side of the state, 2 hours away. Waters had a brutal couple of days, playing multiple morning pro matches in Naples, then driving all the way across Florida on I-75 to do two evenings of obligations in Fort Lauderdale, only to then drive back to Naples to play her matches the following morning.

The rally scoring format is necessary for TV viewing of course, but is a change for the pros who are not accustomed to this method of playing. The major change it requires in strategy is simple; a rally scoring game can very quickly get out of control with just a slight lead, so the players had to take care to stop streaks quickly.

Match 1: Anna Leigh Waters versus James Blake

It took Anna Leigh Waters about five points into her singles match with Blake to realize he was no pushover, and that she would need to use her “regular” drive serves instead of looping in a cut-slice serve more appropriate for exhibitions or Pro-Ams. As I wrote in my preview earlier this week, Blake was the real unknown in this match, and despite Matt Manasse telling me openly that Blake was going to be a force in this match, I still did not believe it until I saw it.

The pair traded rallies early, with Blake hitting penetrating drive serves deep that Waters could not attack easily. Waters fell down early in game one but got pumped up with a nice sequence attacking the net and setting up an open court volley winner, which gets the first of many crowd-energizing motions from Waters. The pair traded baseline drives for most of the first game, with very few opportunities for conventional dinks or drops, essentially playing into Blake’s strength. Waters clawed her way back into game one, finally tying the game at 13-13 when they played perhaps their first actual “pickleball point” of the match, featuring drops, a cross-net dink rally, and a solid finish from Waters to get a huge roar and a game point which she quickly converted to take the first game 15-13.

Game two was another story. After taking Blake on a tour of the court to open the game, she starts attacking Blake’s backhand with deep, penetrating drives. A couple of winners and errors later and suddenly its 6-1 for ALW. Waters, when she gets on a roll, plays fast, almost impatient pickleball, standing poised to serve while she awaits the score to be called, and it can be hard to stop the inevitable. James saves some dignity with a couple of really nice backhand passing shots down 3-9, but Waters is just too strong. After a netted service return and an excellent backhand cross-court winner, Waters has match point a 14-5. Blake flies the service return long for the match. Final score 13,5.

Match 2: Genie Bouchard versus Andre Agassi

The onsite emcee Bret Haber introduced Agassi as “The second best tennis player in his household,” a line used many times before but still eliciting a chuckle. He looks fit and fast, a lot more dangerous than the last time we saw him in top-level action (at the 2025 US Open, where he played Mixed Pro Doubles with Anna Leigh). On paper, this should be a blowout: Bouchard is a top-10 ranked PPA singles player with a 5.8 DUPR, while Andre’s singles DUPR is just 5.084 (albeit with an almost-zero reliability score).

As I learned from interviewing Bouchard for the preview, her strategy was to out-energy Agassi, crash the net, and be aggressive. She sticks to this plan early in game one, but Andre’s backhand is crisp and he hits a number of winners. A netted error puts Genie down 3-7 early for a quick timeout. Andre maintained a 3-4 point lead through most of the game despite Bouchard’s best efforts. Bouchard is a little too error prone, combining well-crafted points with simple errors to keep giving Andree points. She runs out of time to catch back up in game one, losing 15-11.

Coach Anna Leigh on the bench instills a new strategy for game two, and Bouchard comes out firing. She focuses on deep, penetrating ground strokes to Agassi’s forehand in game 2, with quick results. He struggles to keep the ball on the court and Genie runs out to a fast 5-0 lead. They switch sides at 8-1 to Bouchard. Agassi has brief spurts of competence, but it is one way traffic for Bouchard in game two. By the game’s end, Agassi has abandoned coming to the net, struggled to make consistent shots, and looked gassed. Bouchard wins game two 15-4, which is close to a pickle in conventional scoring.

One would have expected more of the same from Bouchard to start Game 3, but the break seems to have re-energized Agassi. Bouchard misses a sitter on a dead dink from Agassi, which seems to rattle her confidence early. Agassi runs off several well-crafted points for the early lead and he seems to have recovered completely from the fatigue he exhibited at the end of game two. Bouchard cannot get the ball to Andre’s forehand consistently enough, and Andre has stopped missing. He gets up big, 8-2 and then 11-3, and Genie is serving for her life. She puts together a couple of solid points to close the gap to 5-11, but Andre makes a great penetrating drive to Genie’s backhand that she cannot handle that seems to be a dagger. One final netted service return finishes it for Bouchard, and Andre wins 11,(4),5.

Match 3: Agassi/Blake vs Waters/Bouchard

With the two singles ties split, its “winner take all” for the doubles match.

The crowd has now seen an hour of groundstroke-heavy, “mini-tennis” pickleball with the two singles matches, and the first point of the doubles match reminds us of what Pickleball is “supposed to look like. We are also quickly reminded of the danger Waters poses on the court, as she nails a flying backhand volley through the men for a point and a statement.

The strategies for the two teams are laid bare quickly: the men are targeting third shot drives directly at Bouchard at the net on the right hand side, forcing her to react to their pace. Meanwhile, the women hit every return at Agassi, wanting to force him into third shots instead of Blake. Neither team deviates from this strategy for essentially the whole match. Bouchard’s blocking and defense are put to the test early and often, and she is struggling to keep the ball out of dangerous positions. The ladies are doing damage control throughout most of the first game, scrambling back, playing defense, and doing great resets, but the guys are getting too many overheads and put aways. The pressure from the men at Bouchard is relentless, and they go to the side-switch at 11-6 up.

After a timeout, ALW is ranging further into the mid-court looking to control the action. They close the gap a little bit to 14-9, but rally scoring makes it difficult to catch up. A quick shift in positioning causes confusion from the guys, as Waters slides over to the right on one point and grabs an easy winner to get the serve back at 11-19. It is do or die time for the women in game one, and they stepped up big time. Waters body-bagged Blake for 13-19, then drives a shot at Andre, gets a netted volley error and lets out a roar loud enough to be heard over the crowd. Blake misses an easy shot and Waters audibly is heard saying, “Uh-oh.” It is never a good thing to get Waters trash talking on the court.

The guys get the point back on a missed ALW poach but cannot convert their first game point. At this point, we get the best action of the night, as the ladies fought back to tie the game from 16-20 down. Waters bounced one volley off of Agassi’s chest for a point, they got a dink error for another point, then probably the best point of the evening at 19-20 where both sides scrambled with slams and resets, the ladies switched sides, then got a winner for the biggest cheer of the night. Suddenly it is 20-20 and the comeback is complete.

However, the ladies could get no closer to victory. Blake crushed an overhead for 21-20 and their second game point, only to be denied by Water’s own overhead winner. ALW netted an easy forehand to give another game point at 22-21, but Agassi misses a dink after a long net battle to tie it again. They went back and forth several more times before one last chaotic rally gave the men the first game on their 6th game point, 25-23. It was an amazing exhibit of pickleball, action packed, as good as the event organizers could ask for.

In game 2, no deviation in strategy from the Men, and Bouchard is starting to wear down. Her blocks more and more leave put-aways for the men, who take advantage easily for an early lead. Waters is in the body bag business, and nails both Blake and Agassi repeatedly with drives from the net to end rallies. The ladies stay in the game early, but Waters gets clearly frustrated with the isolation ploy of the men, audibly saying, “Hey why don’t you hit me some?” after one rally. The Men do not deviate strategy, and Waters tries to cover even more court. A nifty misdirected shot from Andre catches Waters cheating too far into the center for an easy passing shot, and the writing seems to be on the wall.

The guys take a 10-7 lead, forcing a timeout. Coming back after the break, Waters switches to the right side again, but the ladies are pressing. A 10-7 lead turns into 13-8 quickly. Blake tries an ATP and misses, then Waters does a nifty shake and bake to surprise Agassi to tighten the gap, but they cannot really get much closer. A series of back and forth rallies leaves the men edging closer to the title at 17-14. The guys are just too adept at putting away dead dinks and high balls, and have proven that they are capable of putting 3rd shot drives on target consistently.

At 19-15, Blake hits a nice off-speed shot that splits the defense for match point, then the match ends with a hands battle and a flared volley error from Bouchard for the game and match. Final score: 25-23, 21-15.

Agassi is now 4-for-4 winning this event, with a litany of different partners. In the post match interviews, Blake talked about Agassi’s preparation and their time practicing together ahead of the event. “Andre prepares for every one of these [Pickleball Slam events] like a professional. We got to practice together in San Diego, and that added to my confidence, to get some reps in. We had a pretty clear game plan of how we could feed off of each other. Any chance you can get to take over at the net and rip a forehand, do it.”

Agassi added, “The good thing about our games is that we’re both well defined in what we can do. I knew exactly what James was going to do, and so I knew exactly what I was going to have to do in return.”

Final thoughts from both, when told that the ladies were already demanding a rematch. “100% Lets do it! Let’s go right now!”

The Ares Pickleball Slam is created and produced by Horizon Sports & Experiences (HS&E) and GSE Worldwide, additional partners for this year’s event included Hard Rock, Franklin, TurboTax, PB5star, and Journavx.

Author’s note: this story has been slightly modified since its original publication to add the title sponsor to the event name and to clarify one detail about the event.