Suzanne Rouse was “buzzing” after Team MCMX won the Premier Pickleball League Masters final.
It was the second year in a row that she had helped her team to the trophy.
“I’ve been picked for PPL for the last three years, ever since the very first one,” she tells Pickleball 52. “I was in [Team] SCAN last year and beat MCMX in the final – and I got picked for MCMX this year, and we won it.
“It was absolutely brilliant. The team were amazing. It was actually the first time we’d all got together, as a team, with our manager, all season.
“It was just such an amazing feeling watching. It went down to the last game. It was more nervous watching than it playing really, because when you’re playing, you’re in it.”
And it came after a traumatic two years in which she suffered the loss of her husband and then her mother.
“Winning it twice is special,” she says. “[Team manager] Lou [Stephens] introduced me to pickleball and she chose me for her team – that was very special as well, because she’s been extremely supportive on court and off court, and she knew my husband.”
The 62-year-old adds: “I’m the oldest in the team and it’s just amazing to be able to play competitive sport at that level and at my age, to be honest with you.
“When you’re on court, age doesn’t matter.”
