Disclosure: Arena, the company that builds Soft Serve Society, also builds the booking app for 91pickleball, which hosted this event. Soft Serve Society was not paid to cover it.
A little after 6pm on Saturday 17 October, before Anna Leigh Waters hit a ball in Malaysia, a marching band in red guardsmen’s tunics drummed its way across a pickleball court in Damansara Perdana, and the crowd on the floor shuffled back to make room. Above them, people leant over the railings of a second-floor gallery, phones up. The word “Franklin” was projected in metre-high letters on the bare brick wall.
They had come to see her. The 19-year-old American is the world No. 1 in women’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles, and for most of the people in the room this was the first time they had seen her outside a phone screen. Franklin, the American ball and paddle brand she plays for, brought her to Malaysia as the second stop of a short Asian tour, between Manila and Hong Kong (SAYS).
The opening act: a drum band, before a ball was hit.
Inside 91 Pickleball’s Hextar World clubhouse
The venue was the newest of 91 Pickleball’s clubhouses, inside Hextar World, the reopened Empire City mall in Petaling Jaya. It is an old-fashioned room in a good way: exposed brick, steel trusses, a gallery running round three sides, and no seats to speak of. On Saturday that meant much of the crowd sat on the floor along the sidelines, a few steps from the players.
The production was closer to a concert than a sports day. The players walked out through smoke and coloured light, a dance troupe filled the gap between matches, and the scoreboard sat on a giant black screen at one end like a stage backdrop. Waters came out holding a paddle over her head, and most of the room filmed her on their phones.
Waters in front of the home crowd, under the 91 Pickleball mural.
Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying vs Anna Leigh Waters
The night’s host had a stake in the outcome. 91 is co-owned by Chan Peng Soon, who won Olympic silver in mixed doubles at Rio 2016 with Goh Liu Ying. Since retiring from badminton he has become one of the game’s main builders here: his first 91 venue, at Giant USJ in Subang Jaya, opened in December 2024 with 18 pickleball courts. “After retirement, I tried playing pickleball for fun but I got hooked on it,” he said at the opening (The Star).
On Saturday the old partnership was back together. Billed as the “Olympians”, Chan and Goh took on Waters and Datuk Mirnawan Nawawi, the former national hockey captain. For a few rallies the room watched two people who once played for an Olympic medal work out the angles on a court a third smaller.
Chan Peng Soon (front) and Waters in the “Olympians” match.
It is the clearest picture of where Malaysian pickleball’s talent is coming from. Goh reached the women’s doubles semi-finals at this year’s AmBank Malaysia Pickleball Championship, one of several former badminton, squash and hockey internationals in the draw (The Star).
Anna Leigh Waters’ six matches: the full line-ups
The evening was built for a crowd rather than a ranking. Six matches, each a single game to 7, 11 or 15 points, ran from 6.20pm to about 8.20pm, with crowd games in between and a half-time show in the middle.
| Match | Format | Anna Leigh Waters’ side | Opponents |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Women’s doubles, to 15 | Waters and Joanne | Lynn Lim and Leigh Waters |
| 2 | Olympians, to 11 | Waters and Datuk Mirnawan Nawawi | Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying |
| 3 | Singles, six-point swap, to 15 | Waters | Lynn Lim, then Jimmy Liong |
| 4 | KOL match, to 7 | Waters and Jenn Chia | Dahlia and Leigh Waters |
| 5 | Men’s match, to 15 | Waters and Jimmy Liong | Shi Sheng and Syabil |
| 6 | DreamBreaker, to 15 | Waters, Lynn Lim, Syabil, Felix and Jon | Leigh Waters, Joanne, Jimmy Liong, Shi Sheng and Linus |
Line-ups from the organisers’ match card, shared by The Pickle Base.
Waters played in all six, each time with a different partner or format. She opened in women’s doubles alongside Joanne, against Lynn Lim and her own mother, Leigh Waters, who is also her regular doubles partner on tour. After the Olympians came the most unusual match of the night: Waters alone at singles against two of Franklin’s Malaysian professionals, Lynn Lim and then Jimmy Liong, in a six-point swap.
Women’s doubles, the first match of the night.
The singles was close. At one point the board read “Franklin Malaysia Pros 6, Anna Leigh Waters 7”, which summed up the evening: the local professionals were there to give the world No. 1 a game and the crowd a show.
Jimmy Liong in the singles swap: Franklin Malaysia Pros 6, Anna Leigh Waters 7.
Anna Leigh Waters’ half-time rap
The moment many people will remember came at half-time, when Waters took the microphone and performed an impromptu rap. It was the best player in the world, a long way from home, being a 19-year-old in front of a room full of strangers who had come to see her.
Between matches, the floor belonged to the dancers.
The guests had their turn after the break. In the KOL match (KOL, or key opinion leader, is the industry’s word for a social-media personality), played to seven points, Waters partnered Jenn Chia, the Kuala Lumpur creator who plays in local tournaments, against Leigh Waters and the creator Dahlia. Waters and Jimmy Liong then took on Shi Sheng and Syabil in the men’s match.
Matt Kiatipis, the Canadian streetball player known as MK, also stepped on court for a guest match-up with Waters. His one-on-one basketball challenges have about eight million followers online, and a stop in Singapore the week before drew around 400 people to a neighbourhood court (Malay Mail).
The night ended with a 15-point DreamBreaker, a team format in which players rotate through singles points. Waters led Lynn Lim, Syabil, Felix and Jon against a side of Leigh Waters, Joanne, Jimmy Liong, Shi Sheng and Linus.
Was the showcase oversold?
The turnout outran the room. Some ticket holders queued for a long time to get in, some found no space to sit, and some missed the meet-and-greets they had paid for. Fans said so loudly on social media the next morning, and Franklin Malaysia apologised the same day, saying it took responsibility and would contact the people affected (NST).
Even the complaints carried a compliment. “People came and stayed probably just for Anna Leigh,” the actress Elfira Loy wrote. “Still, thank you for bringing her to Malaysia” (NST).
What her visit says about pickleball in Malaysia
The timing is interesting. The Malaysian Reserve reported in July that booking data from more than 700 Malaysian pickleball facilities shows use per venue falling, as new courts outpace new players (The Malaysian Reserve). In the same story, Franklin’s Jared Franklin called Malaysia and Vietnam “two hotbeds right now”.
A packed warehouse on a Saturday night doesn’t settle that argument. It does show that the people who already play want more than a court and a booking slot. They want somewhere to see the best players up close, sit with a few hundred others who care about the same thing, and leave with a story. Saturday gave them one.
Late in the evening, from the edge of the court.
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