Christian Alshon was a top-ranked junior tennis player. OK, that’s not necessarily uncommon in the world of professional pickleball. The PPA Tour landscape is teaming with ex-tennis players.
But the PPA isn’t full of players who won an NCAA title and then quit the sport immediately.
Before diving into professional pickleball full-time, Alshon had just finished an undefeated season at the University of Chicago. An 18-0 year. A champion after an unlikely journey that started at the University of Virginia where he admits to getting kicked off the team, then to Chicago where he also admits to getting benched for missing a team meeting before his first match with his new team.
Spring forward a bit. Back home in Boca Raton, Fla., the summer after lifting the trophy for University of Chicago, Alshon met Leigh Waters, PPA pro and mother of No. 1 women’s player, Anna Leigh Waters. Team Waters intro’d Alshon to the sport they have dominated in over the last year or two, and as you might guess, that was the end of his pro tennis aspirations.
It was the beginning of professional pickleball. And Thursday at the Austin Onix Showdown, Alshon reached the medal stand for the first time, earning himself a bronze in singles.
He beat Collin Shick, the darling of last week’s PPA Tour…
