Anna Leigh Waters pulled out of singles at the 2026 Hanoi Cup after eight tournaments in three months. Why it signals a wider schedule problem.
The short answer: Anna Leigh Waters withdrew from women’s singles at the 2026 PPA Tour Asia Hanoi Cup, saying she was exhausted after eight tournaments in three months and a long trip from the United States. She stayed in women’s doubles and mixed doubles. The decision came during a 670-day unbeaten singles run and highlighted the strain of pickleball’s expanding calendar.
Anna Leigh Waters has withdrawn from singles at the Hanoi Cup after eight tournaments in three months, a rare concession that exposes the pressure building beneath pickleball’s rapid expansion.
- Waters has pulled out of singles in Hanoi after a heavy early-season run
- The world No.1 has played eight tournaments in three months across continents
- She remains in doubles and mixed, but the decision signals a limit has been reached
Anna Leigh Waters has spent the past two years making singles look inevitable.
In Hanoi, she made a different decision. She stepped away.
The world No.1 has withdrawn from the singles draw at the Hanoi Cup, stepping back after a schedule that has quietly become one of the most demanding in professional pickleball. Eight tournaments in three months. Multiple draws each week. A transcontinental shift from the United States to Asia with barely time to reset.
This was not a routine withdrawal
“I have played a lot of consecutive tournaments and only had one week to rest,” Waters said. “By March, this was already my eighth tournament of the year. I feel genuinely exhausted.”
That is not the language of a player casually managing her week. It is the language of accumulation. Of a load that has tipped from demanding to draining.
Dominance can hide fatigue. It cannot remove it.
Players withdraw all the time. That is not the story here.
The story is that Waters has reached this point while still winning. Her unbeaten singles run stands at 670 days. Her Triple Crown tally continues to rise. On court, there has been no obvious sign of decline, no visible crack in performance.
Which makes this moment more revealing, not less.
Singles is where the strain shows first
Waters remains in doubles and mixed in Hanoi. That matters. This is not a full retreat from the event. It is a narrowing of her workload and a clear acknowledgement that something has to give.
Singles is the most physically punishing discipline. It asks the most of movement, recovery, and concentration. If one part of a three-draw week was going to be sacrificed, it was always likely to be that one.
That choice tells us plenty about where the strain is sitting in the modern game.
Pickleball’s growth is creating new pressure
The sport’s expansion into new markets is one of its biggest strengths, and coverage across the global game has become central to understanding where professional pickleball is heading. But expansion also increases the burden on the players carrying the sport from stop to stop.
More events, more territories, and more expectation for elite names to appear in every draw has created a calendar that rewards constant presence. Hanoi is an important stop, and Waters has still shown up. But she has not done everything.
For a player who has built her dominance on doing exactly that, it is a meaningful shift.
What this means for Hanoi and beyond
In the short term, the women’s singles draw loses its biggest name. In the longer term, the withdrawal lands as a warning. If even Waters cannot sustain the full load indefinitely, the question is no longer whether the calendar is demanding. It is whether the sport is asking too much of the very players it relies upon most.
This is why tournament coverage and results need to be read in context, not just as isolated brackets and headlines. The story is not only who wins. It is what the schedule is starting to demand in return.
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She is still the best player in the world.
Hanoi is the first time she has had to act like it comes at a cost.
Frequently asked questions
She said she was exhausted after a run of consecutive tournaments with only one week of rest, with Hanoi her eighth event of 2026 by March.
Yes. She withdrew only from women’s singles and continued in women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
It shows that even the dominant world No.1 has limits, as multi-draw weeks and transcontinental travel add up on an expanding professional calendar.
Further reading
- Latest pickleball news from around the world
- Tournament coverage and results
- Rankings and player profiles
- Regional pickleball coverage
Chris Beaumont
Founder and Editor-in-ChiefChris Beaumont is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of World Pickleball Magazine, published by World Pickleball Media Ltd. He follows the global game closely, reporting on news, developments, stories and tournaments from all five continents. He also hosts the World Pickleball…
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