Pickleball brings people together, sometimes forever and ever

Carlos Zambrano and Macy Vonderschmidt met while playing pickleball.

They fell in love while hanging out after pickleball matches.

And, when they got married on Feb. 8, 2025, their wedding reception featured a pickleball net where the happy couple dinked a bit while bubbles cascaded from the ceiling. Macy, who now goes by the last name of Zambrano, wore a long, white dress. Carlos wore a black tuxedo, and they volleyed with matching white paddles.

The Zambranos love pickleball so much that they even played their favorite sport during their honeymoon at Enchantment Resort in Sedona, Arizona.

“I never imagined that a pickleball court would be where I met my husband,” said Macy, who is 30, two years older than Carlos. “But that’s the magic of pickleball. What began as a hobby has become a shared passion as well as a community and ultimately the foundation of our life together.”

But the Zambranos are not the only couple who met, fell in love and married all because of pickleball.

There’s also Joan Sturge, a 59-year-old director/recruiter for Ascendo Resources, and Ron Ayala, a 56-year-old Coral Gables firefighter.

They met while randomly getting partnered up for a pickleball match at Miami’s Salvation Army Sunset Corps. At one point, Ayala cut in front of Sturge and “poached” a ball.

That annoyed Sturge and led to the following conversation:

Sturge: “What are you doing?”

Ayala (also annoyed): “Do I know you?”

Sturge: “No, but you’d like to.”

That line led to a friendship. Months later, they started dating, and, on March 29, 2025, got married in Islamorada.

And, yes, their honeymoon – which was in Marco Island – included pickleball.

“Ron once said to me, ‘Do you ever wake up and your first thought is not pickleball?’” Sturge said with a laugh.

“I’m much more pickleball obsessed than he is, but we’ve made a lot of friends through pickleball. It’s special.”

Coincidentally, Masha Zhankov, 30, and David Nelson, 29, also met at the Salvation Army’s pickleball courts.

Zhankov, who played NCAA Division III tennis at Ithaca College, learned pickleball while spending much of the COVID era in her home state of New York.

When she returned to Miami in 2021, she struggled to find a place to play her new favorite sport until she found Salvation Army … and … simultaneously, Nelson.

“My first day there I happened to see this cute boy, and that was David,” said Zhankov, who works for Burger King’s consumer insights team. “I was definitely eyeing him.”

Nelson made the next move, asking Zhankov if she wanted to join a group of friends to practice together.

Just one problem: There was no group. It was just Nelson and Zhankov.

“I had intentions to start a group,” Nelson said with a laugh. “I just got distracted.”

Added Zhankov: “It was the easiest way ever to get my number.”

Nelson, who was introduced to pickleball by his grandparents, William Nelson III and Mary Louise Nelson, and Zhankov have now been dating for more than four years.

“We started winning tournaments together, and we’re now sponsored by adidas,” said Nelson, who works for Cornell University’s project management office. “She’s a lefty, and I’m a righty. We ‘stack’ so our forehands are both up the middle.

“It just works. Our love for pickleball and our love for each other has continued to grow.”

The same can be said for the Zambranos.

Macy Zambrano is a Texas native who played NCAA Division I tennis at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Then, in 2022, she moved to St. Petersburg, which is where she found pickleball.

“I had moved to St. Pete without knowing anyone, and I was looking for community,” said Macy, who is a senior account manager for a digital-marketing company. “I found it at Crescent Lake Park, where I started playing pickleball every day for multiple hours a day.”

That, of course, is how she met Carlos, who is the pickleball director at the Racquet Club of St. Petersburg.

But while the Zambranos are enjoying wedded bliss, Carlos said there have been times when playing pickleball together has created stress.

“We had trouble playing mixed doubles in the past because we’re both very competitive,” Carlos said. “But we’ve found that we play better when we do what works better for her and lean into that.”

Smart man.

Carlos acknowledged that in competitions – such as the World Cup of Pickleball during which both he and his wife competed at The Fort in Fort Lauderdale – the male player routinely poaches into the female’s half of the court.

However, Carlos said he and Macy divert from this trend.

“Macy is a better player than I am,” Carlos said. “Instead of being egotistical, I let her play more.

“There are some wars you don’t want to fight.”

This story was originally published December 15, 2025 at 6:00 AM.