When she returned to North Grounds that fall, she decided it was time to hone her skills. “I didn’t really have anything to do with my time, so I just started playing pickleball every day after work.” “They’d kick you out of the office - you weren’t allowed to work past that,” Singsank said with a laugh.

She was employed by the Hawaiian government, which closed down at 4:30 p.m. Singsank started playing more seriously in 2022, during the summer of her 1L year. It now has a lucrative professional league that attracts high-level tennis players who are aging out of that sport, Singsank said.Īlthough Singsank did not initially take to her parents’ pickleball habit, she started playing with them again in 2020 during the pandemic when she moved back into the family home in Maui, Hawaii, for lockdown.

By 2023, it was named the fastest-growing sport in America for the third year in a row by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. The sport has been included at organized senior games since 2001, but it was first introduced to a mass audience in 2008. The UVA Pickleball Club, pictured with fans, won $15,000, to be split between the club and the winning players.