World No.1 pickleball star is 18 and still lives with her parents but earns 40x more than Caitlin Clark

Pickleball is riding a wave right now — and Anna Leigh Waters is at the crest.

The teenager has dominated the sport and recently broke new ground as Nike‘s first ever pickleball athlete.

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Waters is the world No. 1 in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles and landed the payday after her deal with Fila expired in 2025.

It was her most successful year to date, scooping 181 gold medals and 39 career triple crowns — claimed by winning a clean sweep of winning singles, doubles and mixed doubles at the same event.

She went pro aged 12 and realized a lifelong dream by joining Nike.

“Growing up, I watched my idols wear the Swoosh in their biggest moments, so joining the Nike family is a dream realized,” Waters said in a statement, via CNBC.

In 2024, the 18-year-old’s agent told Forbes that her client will earn a staggering sum.

“She will earn more than $3 million this year,” confirmed Kelly Wolf. “She has become the face of pickleball and both the PPA Tour [Professional Pickleball Association] and MLP [Major League Pickleball] know that.”

She reportedly topped that figure again in 2025.

To put it into perspective, that is more than 40 times what Caitlin Clark has earned in her seasons in the WNBA with a $76,535 annual salary.

That figure is one of the main reasons WNBA stars have threatened strike action over the new collective bargaining agreement.

Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg scored a four-year, $62.7 million contract after going first overall in the NBA Draft.

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Clark earns far more in endorsements than she does her work on the court, with $12 million in endorsements making her 11th in the list of best-paid female athletes in 2025, per Forbes.

Waters went pro at 12 years of age to become her sport’s youngest-ever star.

“I’m young, I’m still living with my parents, but I make over seven figures a year,” Waters said.

“When I first started playing pickleball, you would go to a local tournament and play on these taped courts that were on tennis courts, or maybe even indoor on a basketball court and it was just kind of this fun thing that people would do.

“And then when COVID happened, that’s when I noticed that pickleball really grew and it was because a lot of families were going out to parks or even building courts in their driveways and it was something they could do together and have fun.

“And then after COVID hit, the tournaments got way bigger. We were playing at bigger facilities, more national and worldwide sponsors were getting into the sport.”

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The sport’s top-ranked man, Ben Johns, told CNBC that his combined earnings from salary and endorsements wouldn’t top $2.5 million in 2024.

“There’s nobody else out there that has all these deals that she has right now,” Wolf added. “Anna Leigh is her own little cottage industry, to be quite honest.”

Leigh Waters — Anna Leigh’s mother and former doubles partner — played Division I tennis at the University of South Carolina.

Her daughter stepped in when Leigh’s doubles partner dropped out of a tournament in Dallas six years ago – the rest is history.

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“So my mom asked me to fill in and we played and got silver in the pro tournament, and my mom was like, “Ok, I guess you’re ready to play pro with me,’” Anna Leigh said. “So that’s kind of how my pro journey started.

“I was home-schooled since third grade so I’ve kind of been used to the sports and school type of thing.

“But I also enjoy doing things outside of pickleball, like I love to cook, bake, hang out with my friends.

“But I think because I’ve been used to it, it’s just kind of a normal thing for me and anything else would be different.”

She has since played exhibition style games with many pro athletes including swimmer Michael Phelps, actor Jamie Foxx, boxer Sugar Ray Leonard, and golfers Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth.