PALM SPRINGS, CA - Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau are the women’s doubles champions at the first PPA event of 2024.

Perhaps more importantly, though, they are still undefeated as a partnership since deciding to play together full time in 2023.

With each win, the pressure on their performance continues to grow, and neither player is immune to its effects.

Just like taking down opponents on the pickleball court, dealing with that pressure is a two-woman effort because of their friendship.

“I think because we get along so well, we can share the burden of that pressure and not have it be on only one of us,” Waters shared.

Waters and Parenteau were in a familiar position competing together on Championship Sunday, but the pairing on the other side of the net was unfamiliar to them: Anna Bright and Rachel Rohrabacher.

Former Major League Pickleball teammates, Bright and Rohrabacher flew through the bracket to the final by overpowering their opponents with a hyperaggressive play style.

The challenge for Waters and Parenteau, an aggressive team in their own right, was countering that aggression in rallies and picking the right time to attack themselves.

And that’s exactly what they did.

“Both teams did a really good job of aggressive dinking, but I think Catherine and I were able to read them a little better and ended up putting away the ones that counted,” Waters recalled.

That allowed the No. 1 seeds to emerge from their first encounter with a highly dangerous new tandem with an 11-8 11-3, 11-9 victory to keep their undefeated record alive.