It was a gruelling weekend in the Rome heat for Team England’s Anna Linton during the European Championships.
But she had a great tournament at the Foro Italico nevertheless, as part of the senior women’s doubles team that won gold, and taking silver in the singles.
“It was an amazing event, as was last year’s – very well organised, as was last year’s,” she tells Pickleball 52. “It’s very different playing outside. The heat made a real difference; some of the other countries are a little more used to that than we are, both the heat and outside, but we adjusted well, although at times it was hard going physically.”
She says the atmosphere was just as good as last year’s inaugural competition, in Southampton – with the standard of play even better, with more countries and more players taking part.
England finished in second place this time, just behind champions Spain. Anna, however, says they aren’t too disappointed that they weren’t able to successfully defend their title.
“I was really happy with my performance individually, and from a team perspective we all worked really well together. All the events that I played in, the rest of the team also played in – the doubles, the singles and the mixed was very much a joint effort. Some of us played more than others, but definitely all participated and had a big impact on the success.
“I wasn’t disappointed with silver at all – as the standard was higher, I thought we did really well to get the silver. Of course we’re disappointed not to get the title again, but very happy.”
Coming up are October’s English Nationals, where Anna is a triple crown champion, having also won the singles earlier this year – but she says the biggest honour of her pickleball career has been to represent her country.
“It’s a completely different thing playing in a team event, particularly for your country,” she says, adding: “It’s definitely my favourite achievement.”
Before that, she’s straight back into Premier Pickleball League action for The Pickleball Store this weekend, which she’s looking forward to.
And reflecting on the last few weeks as well as the last year more broadly, she says: “I feel really grateful and lucky that England can compete at that level and do so well.
“It’s a great thing, and to be supported as we are by Pickleball England and have such a good set-up – it becomes more obvious when we compare ourselves to the rest of Europe how good we have things here.”
Anna played an amazing final in Senior Women’s Singles. She won the first game 11-2, narrowly lost game 2 12-10 and had match point on her paddle when she overturned her out call, earning the respect of spectators but costing her the match. Team England are proud of her sportsmanship. She came back the next day and took the Gold with Kirsty Gray. They got the job done in 2 games 11-5 and 11-6. Brilliant performance.