When tennis coach Matt Manasse left the Indian Wells Open as the pandemic shut down the tour, he had no plan, no players to coach and no clear next step. A casual invitation to try pickleball changed everything.

Manasse, a former collegiate tennis player who had coached pros like Shelby Rogers, picked up a paddle in Erie, Pennsylvania, and immediately recognized the sport’s potential. His tennis instincts translated so quickly that within months he was one of the best local players, soon entering one of the earliest Professional Pickleball Association events in California.

That trip to Los Angeles revealed something more powerful than a new sport. On private courts with Entourage creator Doug Ellin and former top-10 tennis pro Sam Querrey, Manasse saw that pickleball was a social connector, a shortcut into rooms he had never accessed in years on the tennis circuit. The game was fun, fast and disarming, and it put him at the center of a new cultural moment.

He leaned in. At Riviera Country Club, Manasse said yes to every lesson and every opportunity, then began designing live pickleball events: birthday parties, corporate functions, private equity gatherings. He did not just run drills; he grabbed the microphone, emceeing and shaping the experience. That on-court presence became a bridge to broadcasting.

Manasse had long admired television voices like John McEnroe and the ESPN crew, but he lacked the résumé of a traditional commentator. Instead of accepting that, he created his own lane. He invited Tennis Channel executives to a clinic at Riviera, put paddles in their hands and let the sport sell itself. The executives left as converts, and when the network later partnered with the Professional Pickleball Association, Manasse was a natural choice to help front the coverage.

From there, he treated his career like a startup. Coaching became only one revenue stream alongside broadcasting, live events and content creation. He cultivated a recognizable persona, “Pickleball McNasty,” and positioned himself as both expert and entertainer, a guide to the sport for celebrities, brands and new fans.

For Manasse, the real play is not just winning matches but building an enduring brand in a sport he believes is still at the ground floor. As pickleball grows from backyard fad to global business, he has already turned a pandemic pivot into a media platform and a model for how a coach can become the face of an entire game.