Pickleball Slam 4 Preview — History Of The Event And Behind The Scenes Prep With The Players

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 the 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 first-time participant James Blake, and they’re facing off against two active Professional Pickleball Association pros in Anna Leigh Waters and Genie Bouchard.

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 Slam field is set Pickleball Slam The Pickleball Slam is a partnership between two entities; Horizon Sports & Entertainment and GSE Worldwide .

It is a great example of how two companies can come together and combine their expertise (HSE’s sports broadcasting and GSE’s athlete roster) 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.