The former Chilean tennis prospect had a successful career, a reliable income and a child on the way. On the World Pickleball Podcast, he explains why he left that security for the PPA Tour.
Bruno Faletto’s decision would be easier to understand if his old life had been failing.
It was not.
The former Chilean tennis prospect had built a successful sales career in New York. He had clients, promotions, quarterly targets he was meeting and a reliable income. He was married, with his first child on the way.
Then, in February 2026, he walked away from it to become a full-time professional pickleball player.
On the latest edition of the World Pickleball Podcast, Faletto joins Chris Beaumont to explain why the security of Manhattan could no longer quieten the question following him around the professional circuit.
How good could he become if pickleball stopped fitting around his job?
Listen to Bruno Faletto on the World Pickleball Podcast
Play the complete episode through the embedded player below, or follow the World Pickleball Podcast through Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Key takeaways
- Faletto explains how a serious back injury changed the direction of his junior tennis career.
- He discusses leaving a successful corporate sales position to pursue professional pickleball full-time.
- A coaching business gave him a financial foundation before he resigned from his job.
- More time on court changed the way Faletto approaches pressure late in close matches.
- His next challenge is moving from Challenger success into deeper PPA Tour fields.
- Faletto also discusses the CNPL, representing Chile and preparing for fatherhood.
A second chance at professional sport
Faletto had confronted the question of becoming a professional athlete once before.
He began playing tennis as a child in Chile and developed into one of his country’s leading juniors. Faletto says he reached No. 8 in South America in his age group before a stress fracture in his back removed him from competition for approximately 10 months.
He recovered, earned an ATP ranking and moved to the United States, where he played NCAA Division II tennis at Saint Leo University. Faletto says he earned four All-American honours during a college career that restored him to some of his best tennis.
Professional tennis, however, did not become the life he had imagined.
By the time Faletto discovered pickleball in New York in 2022, serious competition appeared to belong to his past. He initially wanted a game capable of filling the space tennis had left behind.
It did considerably more than that.
When pickleball stopped fitting around work
Local moneyball victories became professional tournaments. Weekend appearances began colliding with Faletto’s job, while players he believed he could compete against improved after committing to pickleball full-time.
The frustration was no longer that he lacked the ability.
It was that he might never discover its limit.
Faletto did not simply resign and expect tournament prize money to support his family. He spent months building a pickleball coaching business around his full-time employment, delivering lessons before work and after office hours until the income provided a basic financial safety net.
That preparation sits at the centre of the conversation.
This is not a story about blindly following a dream. Faletto knew exactly what sporting uncertainty felt like because tennis had already taught him. He also understood the value of secure employment because he had built a career away from the court.
Pickleball eventually forced those experiences into conflict.
His story also illustrates the difficult economics beneath professional pickleball. Tournament ability does not automatically provide financial stability, particularly for players outside the sport’s leading names. WPM recently examined that problem with Peak Pickleball Agency founder Shane Dunn in How Do Professional Pickleball Players Make Money?
The moment Faletto’s mentality changed
Leaving his job altered more than Faletto’s schedule.
Coaching and training placed him on court for five or six hours a day. The additional repetitions strengthened the slower, more patient parts of his pickleball game that an aggressive tennis background had not automatically provided.
They also changed what happened inside his head when matches became tight.
“Now, when I’m playing a top team and it is 9-9 in the third, I believe I can win. Before, I was thinking, ‘I hope he misses.’”
That may be the most important distance Faletto has travelled.
The full-time commitment led to Challenger success and, in August, a PPA contract. The next stage will place him in deeper fields against players who already understand the speed and pressure of the highest level.
Faletto does not pretend to know exactly where those players will expose him.
He wants to stand across the net and find out.
Chile, CNPL and what comes next
The episode also looks beyond Faletto’s PPA opportunity.
He discusses representing the Grand River Rapids in the Canadian National Pickleball League and gives an immediate answer when asked what would make his 2026 season complete.
“Win CNPL.”
There is also the possibility of representing Chile in international pickleball, an opportunity Faletto thought had disappeared when his tennis career ended.
Those ambitions now sit alongside another imminent change. Faletto and his wife are preparing for their first child while he attempts to establish himself as a professional player.
The fuller story belongs in his voice.
Listen to Bruno Faletto’s complete interview through the player above, follow the World Pickleball Podcast on Spotify, or listen through Apple Podcasts.
A fuller Players’ Voice feature with Bruno Faletto appears in the September edition of WPM.
Further reading and listening
- How Do Professional Pickleball Players Make Money?
- Pickleball Has Millions of Players. It Is Still Trying to Build Stars.
- More episodes from the World Pickleball Podcast
Chris Beaumont
Founder and Editor-in-ChiefChris Beaumont is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of World Pickleball Magazine. Chris follows the global game closely, reporting on the latest news, developments, stories and tournaments from all five continents. He also hosts the World Pickleball Podcast, interviewing people at…
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