Alix Truong: How a Teenage Prodigy Became the #1 Vietnamese Pickleball Player | S3 E8

Alix Truong is the number one Vietnamese pickleball player in the world and currently ranked eighth on the PPA Tour. She's one of the sport's most compelling rising voices — a player who came up through every level of the game and is now helping grow pickleball across an entire continent.

In this episode, Alix sits down with Roscoe and Jared to talk about her journey from a hyper-competitive Vietnamese-American household in Northern Virginia to the PPA Tour. They get into what it's like being a trailblazer for Asian representation in pickleball, the realities of grinding for points without a consistent partner, and why she sees herself playing well into her senior pro years.

Alix breaks down what it was actually like going to Vietnam for the first time — working 13-hour days with no time to explore — and how returning on her own terms completely changed her relationship with her heritage. She describes being treated like a princess at tournaments, playing in front of a world-record crowd of 7,900 people in Đà Nẵng, and why she believes the Asian pickleball scene will eventually surpass the US in sheer scale.

Alix also opens up about the burnout she hit during MLP last season, getting traded down to Challenger right after one of her best runs with Eric Johnson, and the heartbreak of losing her committed partner Lane to hip surgery just as they'd committed to building something real together. She's candid about what it means to be the only top-10 player without a consistent doubles partner — and what it's going to take to break through.

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Timestamps:

1:04 — Introducing Alix Truong

2:46 — Growing Up Vietnamese-American in DC

5:36 — How She Found Pickleball Through Her Parents' Friend Group

10:18 — First Big Tournaments and the Simone Foundation

11:30 — Coming Up With Anna Leigh, Hayden, and Gabe

13:22 — When Pickleball Stopped Being a Hobby

16:23 — The Hard Conversation With Her Parents About Dropping Out

18:17 — Building Her Brand From Day One

20:09 — Going to Vietnam for the First Time

21:17 — Being a Star in Asia and the 7,900-Person World Record Crowd

23:46 — Sponsor Conversations and the Vietnamese Market Opportunity

27:15 — How Asian Conditions Compare to the US

30:19 — Playing With Her Brother LJ and the Sibling Dynamic

34:05 — Her Ceiling and Competing in Anna Leigh's Era

35:32 — Burnout, Getting Traded Down in MLP, and the Mental Toll

40:42 — Losing Partner Lane to Hip Surgery Mid-Season

43:00 — The Next Generation of Junior Players

46:31 — The Future of Asian Pickleball in 5 Years

51:44 — Learning Vietnamese and Falling in Love With the Culture

54:59 — What Makes Anna Leigh Waters So Hard to Beat

58:41 — 2026 Pickleball Predictions

1:01:05 — The Olympics, Vietnamese Citizenship, and What's Next