Andre Agassi Loves Pickleball and Is Betting Asia Will Too
The tennis legend has become something of a global ambassador for pickleball, which is starting to take off in India and China.
Illustration: Maggie Cowles for Bloomberg
Despite chronic back pain and a noticeable limp, tennis legend Andre Agassi belied any signs of discomfort when he stepped onto a pickleball court in Sydney earlier this month. The 54-year-old showed off his famous backhand amid wolf whistles and wall-to-wall applause, hitting almost every ball that reached him and engaging in flamboyant trash talk with his opponents. Later, he posed for selfies with fans.
The exhibition doubles match was part of the UBS Australasia conference and I — an amateur pickleball player attending the forum in my capacity as a reporter — was Agassi’s unlikely partner. “You got this” he told me before the first serve, offering a fist bump as we prepared to play against another team in front of a crowd of 300 people.