Who is Rachel Rohrabacher?

Rachel Rohrabacher is so new to the sport of pickleball that she only recently decided that she was all in.

“I just did what was best for myself at that moment in time,” Rohrabacher said. 

She just wanted to get better.

And by the looks of things, that’s exactly what happened. Rohrbacher and her teammates on the Orlando Squeeze won the MLP Atlanta tournament and Rohrabacher’s in September and her 10-2 record during the tournament tied with teammate Anna Bright for the best record among all females in the entire field.

That’s quite the journey for Rohrabacher, who at 26 years of age, didn’t even know if she was going to play professional pickleball initially. After all, she had a plethora of career options open to her since completing her undergraduate degree in psychology, followed by a masters in social work.

“I had been waffling back and forth on my decision to turn pro for a while, but ultimately I decided to commit to it this year because I missed competing in a sport so much,” said Rohrabacher, a former South Carolina tennis player. “I also love pickleball. It’s everything I loved about tennis curated into its own sport. After I played the U.S. Open in April, I spoke to some individuals whose opinions I value and I decided that it would be beneficial to pursue a professional pickleball career.”

This wouldn’t be the first time Rohrabacher had to make a hard decision when it came to sports. She participated in high-level gymnastics and tennis while she was growing up and had to make a decision about which sport to focus on when she turned 12. She chose tennis, leaving gymnastics behind.

Being confronted with a major fork-in-the-road wasn’t foreign to Rohrabacher… and this time, she decided to go all-in on pickleball. 

“I see myself continuing to treat this as a job,” she said, noting she’s hired a fitness trainer, a physical therapist and nutritionist to help her get to her full potential. “I hope I can be ranked in the top five by the end of next year.”

We’ll hopefully be seeing Rohrabacher compete regularly on the PPA Tour in addition to her commitment to playing MLP. She’s set to team up with Jackie Kawamoto in the PPA Tour’s Las Vegas stop this weekend as well as with Rafa Hewett in mixed doubles.

Rumor has it, she’s also got some seriously high-level partners locked up for next year, but Rohrabacher only smiles and says all that is still a secret for now. She does reveal that women’s doubles is probably her favorite division right now, despite her initial success coming on the singles side.

“There are shots specific to pickleball that I forget exist,” Rohrabacher said of her transition to pickleball. “The hardest adjustment from being on the pro circuit? It’s getting used to the format of the tournaments, each event being the entire day as opposed to tennis where we would play two matches a day.”