Megan Fudge’s father was from New Zealand and moved to Germany to coach tennis at a club there. The moment she was able to walk, she was on a tennis court, swinging a racket around.
Megan Fudge. (Photo credit: Twitter @TheMeganFudge)
Megan Fudge will be one of the star attractions when the PWR World Series is launched on July 24 in Dubai. Like a lot of other pickleball players, she turned her attention from tennis to the sport and has excelled in it. Currently ranked No.1 in the APP Rankings, she will be looking to spread her name and fame in this latest tournament as well.
Fudge grew up playing tennis since her father was a tennis coach. He was from New Zealand and moved to Germany to coach tennis at a club there.
The moment Fudge learnt how to walk, she was on a tennis court with her father, swinging a racquet around. She grew up breathing and living tennis and her entire family was involved in the sport.
“I later came over to the States to play college tennis and I got recruited by University of Illinois, where I met and fell in love with my husband [APP pro Ryler DeHeart] in college. As the dream goes, I got to stay in America,” Fudge told APP in an interview last year.
The Kiwi picked up pickleball during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fudge and her husband were looking for things to do and they drew up a court with chalk in their driveway and began playing the sport as a leisurely activity.
“Ryler and I are very competitive, so as soon as we started playing, we started just beating up on each other. Before we even knew it, we were looking around and all our neighbors were watching us out of their windows, cheering us on, and it was just super fun,” Fudge said.
Two months later, the couple moved to Florida and people around them suggested that they could go and play some pickleball, which would be a great way to socialise as well. Fudge and her husband were told that not just old people, but youngsters had also taken to the sport and they decided to check it out.
“We went out to this club and put our paddles in, as I say and we never looked back. We met these other couples with children and we became really good friends with them, started training, and it’s just been a really, really fun journey for us to embrace,” Fudge said.
A student at the Illinois University, Megan played both singles and doubles and was quick to reach top 50 in the singles and top 25 in the ITA national doubles rankings. Currently, she is top-ranked in the sport.
