{"id":3466,"date":"2026-04-16T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=3466"},"modified":"2026-04-15T15:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T06:14:18","slug":"us-open-pickleball-2026-naples-agassi-waters","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/news\/us-open-pickleball-2026-naples-agassi-waters\/","title":{"rendered":"[Breaking] US Open Pickleball 2026 underway in Naples | Agassi makes his pro debut, the Waters mother-daughter aim for a doubles repeat, one of the world's largest amateur-pro mixed tournaments with 4,000 participants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Franklin US Open Pickleball Championships 2026 is underway for eight days, Friday, April 11 to Friday, April 18, at East Naples Community Park in Naples, Florida. Nearly 4,000 players from amateur to pro are taking part, and as one of the world's largest pickleball events, it's showing \"record-breaking\" excitement.<\/p>\n<h2>Andre Agassi makes his pro debut: mixed doubles with Waters<\/h2>\n<p>Tennis legend Andre Agassi (55) competed in a pro pickleball event for the first time. His partner was world No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters. In the first round, they beat the young pairing of 13-year-old Stevie Petropoulos and 16-year-old Tristan Dusseau 11-8, 9-11, 11-7.<\/p>\n<p>In the second round they lost to the pairing of Tran Huynh-McClain and Len Yan 7-11, 11-4, 11-7, but after the match Agassi commented, \"I got to feel how fun this sport is.\" However, he showed a cautious stance on future participation, saying, \"I don't intend to become a full-time pro pickleball player. I'm in a different season of life now.\"<\/p>\n<p>Agassi is chair of Life Time's pickleball and tennis board and has also released his own JOOLA-made signature paddle.<a href=\"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/news\/pickleball-slam-4-agassi-blake-vs-waters-bouchard-2026\/\">At yesterday's Pickleball Slam 4<\/a>he had just faced off against Waters, and this time the picture of fighting as partners became a talking point.<\/p>\n<h2>The Waters mother-daughter pair aims for a doubles repeat<\/h2>\n<p>The pair of Anna Leigh Waters and her mother Leigh Waters are competing again this year as the defending champions in pro women's doubles. As the only mother-daughter pair in the pro pickleball world, attention is on whether Anna Leigh -- who holds world No. 1 across all three events, singles, doubles, and mixed doubles -- can achieve a \"complete sweep.\"<\/p>\n<h2>Indian players shine too: the US Open grows more international<\/h2>\n<p>At this year's US Open, participants from India also shone. In results that symbolize the globalization of pickleball, Dhiren Patel, who leads the IPA tour, won gold, and Naga Moksha took bronze.<a href=\"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/news\/india-open-ipa-pwr1000-2026\/\">IPA-sanctioned events in India<\/a>and their track record suggest they are helping raise Asian players' level.<\/p>\n<h2>Points of interest for Japanese readers<\/h2>\n<p>The US Open is the only large-scale event where \"amateurs and pros compete in the same event.\" Age-based categories are finely set, and anyone can enter by skill level from 3.0 to 5.0+. Traveling participants from Japan are also trending upward year by year, and<a href=\"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/news\/ppa-tour-asia-hanoi-cup-2026\/\">PPA Tour Asia Hanoi Cup<\/a>along with it, it's also positioned as an \"international-event debut\" when aiming for participation from within Asia.<\/p>\n<h2>Tournament overview<\/h2>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Item<\/th>\n<th>Details<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Tournament Name<\/td>\n<td>Franklin US Open Pickleball Championships 2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Schedule<\/td>\n<td>April 11-18, 2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Venues<\/td>\n<td>East Naples Community Park (Florida)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Number of participants<\/td>\n<td>About 4,000 people<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Broadcast<\/td>\n<td>ESPN \/ CBS Sports<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US Open Pickleball 2026 is under way in Naples, Florida. Tennis legend Agassi makes his pro debut, entering mixed doubles with Waters. A quick report from the world's largest amateur-pro tournament, with 4,000 participants.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ssp_meta_description":"","swell_btn_cv_data":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"region":[],"class_list":["post-3466","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","category-basic-knowledge"],"acf":{"summary":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/3466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3466"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=3466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}