Steve Kennedy

A national champion who teaches where you play

In 2017, Steve Kennedy won the USA Pickleball Nationals Senior Pro Championship. He added titles at the 2018 Tournament of Champions and the Texas Open, and he has played and medaled on the senior pro tour ever since, most of it after turning 50.

He found the game the way a lot of people do. One evening at his son's soccer practice he heard a sound from the courts next door, the click of the ball. He wandered over, picked up a paddle, and never really put it down.

The instincts came from somewhere. Before pickleball, Steve played professional tennis on the ATP tour, reached the top 210 in the world, and qualified for the main draw of the 1987 US Open. He then spent 26 years teaching at Fort Lauderdale's Jimmy Evert Tennis Center, the same courts that produced Chris Evert. That is 40 years of teaching people how to hit a ball better, and it is why he can fix in one lesson what most players fight for a season.

He is a USPTA Elite Professional and has led more than 100 pickleball camps across Florida and the Caribbean.

These days you'll find him on court at Bamford Park in Davie, still training and playing alongside some of the best in the game.