Susannah Barr

Susannah Barr took one of the more unusual paths to professional pickleball: five years in the U.S. Army as a military linguist, learning Arabic and working as an interceptor, then teaching English to adult refugees and immigrants as an adjunct professor. She picked up pickleball in 2017 at a YMCA in Boise, Idaho, looking for something fun to do with her 10-year-old son. A year later she played her first tournament, and by the end of 2023 she was the No. 1 ranked mixed player on the APP Tour with 50+ medals to her name. She won an MLP Super Final with the Chicago Slice and is sponsored by Selkirk.

Off the court, Barr co-founded The Flying Pickle in Meridian, Idaho, a pickleball facility where, as she puts it, "our staff know members by name, and we have a core value of treating everyone like an MVP." She's also passionate about growing the sport internationally, having competed at the England Open and encouraged cultural exchange through pickleball. Her playing style is cerebral rather than athletic. She describes her secret sauce as seeing "the court as a puzzle that needs to be solved," maneuvering the ball creatively rather than overpowering opponents. Follow her on Instagram @susannahbarr_pb.