Jansen Earns Her Way to Finals, Announces Seattle Will Be Her Last Singles Event

Lea Jansen is back in another singles final.

Nothing new. Nothing surprising, either. She’s one of the most-decorated players on tour with 45 medals in all, making her a top-three professional pickleball player in the women’s game. 26 of those medals came in singles, a number that places her as second best of all-time behind AL Waters who is at 30 medals. Catherine Parenteau is close behind Waters and Jansen with 24 singles medals.

And Sunday, when Jansen takes the court against Anna Leigh Waters in the final of the Seattle Open, it will be her last singles match.

“I was thinking about it in Texas (back in June), but I couldn’t go out with having those two match points against her [Waters],” Jansen said. “And I didn’t want my last match to be altitude sickness. We’ve been talking about it a while now. I’m 31. I’m a diabetic. Under doctors’ orders, they strongly advised me not to play anymore. It’s detrimental to my health. Sunday will be the last time you see me out there.”

Jansen had a pair of match points against Waters at the Texas Open in June but was unable to win. She suffered altitude sickness in her last singles tournament last month in Denver and even before both of those events, Jansen has been outspoken on social media about not wanting to play singles. 

“I’ve been wavering with it,” she said. “A lot of people have seen how I hate playing it. It was really after the last couple tournaments my doctor was saying this isn’t good. It was really after this last tournament in Denver when my doctor said I needed to be done.”

One of the best players in PPA Tour history in singles, Jansen has a pair of gold medal finishes – the first coming against Waters, which was also the first time the two had played for a medal on the PPA Tour. Jansen’s last gold came in August of 2021. Jansen has 16 silver medals and eight bronze medals in her singles career and this year alone, Jansen has six silver medals and two bronze. Her 8 medals are the second-most this year behind Waters who is at 9.

Only Waters has had more singles medals on the PPA Tour, yet Jansen said she doesn’t think she gets the credit she’s due.

“Absolutely,” she said. “I think it’s because of my attitude on the court, they [watchers] never want to give it to me. Eventually, people will have to wake up to it.”

Jansen lost just one game in three matches Thursday in Seattle and beat Yana Newell, 11-1, 11-0 in the semifinals. That puts Jansen back in a familiar spot – a matchup against Waters where she’s 1-12 all-time in finals against the tour’s top player. Jansen was fantastic the last time the two met in the heat of the Texas Open in June with Jansen nearly getting the win.

“I feel like I’ve been trending upward with my training,” she said. “I’ve been working off-court and have started doing a lot of mental training, which I was against before, but I’ve reached out to someone to help me with that. It’s working. I feel like I can keep it together more. The margins are so thin that I feel like I need everything I can get.”

And now, in her home state of Washington, Jansen will get one last opportunity for a gold.

“I don’t want to leave with any regrets,” she said. “I just want to go out there and swing away. I’ve been hitting the medal stand for three years. There’s nothing to prove, except to beat Anna Leigh, so maybe this is my time.”