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. 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 took over Horizon Sports & Entertainment (HSE) in mid-2022.

Soon after, he had an idea. As Jon Venison (President of GSE Productions) tells the story, "This event came about when Dave [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 “sexy venue" in the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, 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 InsightOut) 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).

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 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.

Genie Bouchard will be put to the test at Pickleball Slam 4.

Pickleball.com/PPA

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 event. 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 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 from 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. “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. Its on ESPN, it’s great for pickleball, and its a glamorous moment for the sport.”

James Blake from 20 years ago at Wimbledon, getting ready to swap the tennis racquet for a pickleball paddle. (Photo by Cynthia Lum/Getty Images)

Getty Images

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 San Diego home and is no slouch on the court. 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. Its for TV, rally scoring, 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 groundstrokes to compete.”

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

Agassi ripping a forehand at his debut pro event at last year's US Open. (Photo by Bruce Yeung/Getty Images)

Getty Images

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 men plan on lining up with Blake on the left and Agassi on the right to start. Here’s his 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
• Pickleball Slam 3, 2/16/25, Las Vegas, NV. Agassi/Graf d Roddick/Bouchard

This article was originally published on Forbes.com