Pro pickleball continues to grow internationally.

Australian players Helena Spiridis and Tom Evans signed UPA contracts in early 2025 and quickly found new challenges when they began to regularly play against and alongside American pros. 

“Because not many people play in Australia, we do really well there,” shared Spiridis with a laugh. “Then we come over here to America and we kind of get our butts kicked.” 

Spiridis, however, is rising to the challenge by training alongside her New York Hustlers (MLP) teammates. 

“Everyone has been amazing in helping me build confidence with my shots and not being afraid to go big and miss,” she explained. “Training with American pros has been great because of the quality of the ball. We get to improve quickly because we see our strategies don’t work here. We can get away with a lot more in Australia, whereas here you can’t, so it makes you be a lot more disciplined and focused. What’s so cool about America is that everyone is so passionate about the sport. Australia has that too, but not to the extent of America.”

Spiridis is also in a long-term relationship with Evans, who has helped strengthen her game.

“His serves are deadly, and he has great athleticism. He’s inspiring to me because he’s always playing with full 100% energy. He throws his whole body into every point,” she said. “I also think mentally, he’s really tough. That’s an area of improvement for me, and he’s really encouraging with me.” 

Both Spiridis and Evans came from a junior tennis background.

And once they discovered pickleball, they quickly discovered their potential.

“We traveled a lot for his tennis career, but after he was mentally done with tennis, we tried a bunch of sports for fun like pickleball, paddle, and badminton,” recounted Spiridis. “We were playing in 2023 and some people saw us hitting a pickleball and they said, ‘Whoa! You guys are really good, you should come here with the best in Australia tomorrow.’ We played really well against them and Tom actually beat a couple of them.” 

The pair realized they could make a career out of it.

And best of all, they can do it together. 

“We’ve lived together since we were 17, so everything for us has been so combined. It’s like you’re essentially married. It’s so fun to do this together because you’ve got company everywhere. We’ve been together every single day since we’ve met. I think maybe we’ve had two days apart,” noted Spiridis. “Pickleball has been amazing because I haven’t played a sport in so many years and this has got me competitive again. And it’s even better that I get to play and have this life alongside my partner.”  

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