FROM TENNIS ROOTS TO PICKLEBALL REBIRTH, MEET XIAO YI WANG-BECKVALL
THE FIRST SERVE
Born and raised in Honolulu, Xiao Yi Wang-Beckvall grew up with tennis in her blood. Her parents met on the courts, and from the time she could toddle in a walker, she was surrounded by rackets and rallies. Tennis defined her childhood; she did brief stints with other sports like paddling and track, but tennis was always the constant.
In high school, she captained the Iolani School tennis team but after graduating, she shifted her focus to academics. When she returned to competition years later through pickleball, Xiao Yi said, “being on a court again felt very foreign. But when I came back, I’d forgotten how much I love to compete, and I was like, whoa.”
FROM LABS TO COURTS
At Hawaii Pacific University, Xiao Yi majored in Biology, originally preparing for a possible future in medicine. “Maybe medical school,” she thought at the time. “I knew I really enjoyed STEM classes. And I was good at it, which made me enjoy it even more, because I’m very competitive.”
Intrigued by genetic counseling, she shadowed at the Fetal Diagnostic Institute and, by early 2022, was on staff as a genetic counseling assistant. Yet even as that career path opened up, something else was quietly taking root—pickleball.
THE BUG BITES
She was signed up before she even signed on.
It was 2022, and her boyfriend, Eland, entered them in the Diamond Head League because, as Xiao Yi put it, “he thought it’d be a fun thing for us to do.” At that point, neither of them had really played. “I’d only been on the court maybe once for ten minutes, and I didn’t love it—it felt awkward after tennis. The paddle felt short, the timing was off. Honestly, it wasn’t as easy as I wanted it to be.”
With their first league match just days away, they decided to practice.“I’m whiffing the ball and it’s frustrating me,” Xiao Yi remembered.
But the competition flipped a switch. “The competing part… I just really enjoyed it. I got the bug after that,” she said.
Motivation followed quickly. “I think it was because I wasn’t that good when I started that it made me want to get better. I couldn’t stand that he (Eland) was a little bit better than me at the beginning. I grew up playing tennis. He came from baseball. I should be better than this.”
HOOKED AFTER BRONZE
Her first big test came at the Hawaii State Pickleball Tournament, just months after she started playing. “I was scared—I hadn’t played a tournament since I was 18 in junior tennis. It was taking me back to my junior tennis days,” Xiao Yi recalled.
She entered multiple divisions: 3.5 women’s singles, 4.0 women’s doubles, and even pro mixed doubles. “I figured if I’m going to lose, I want to lose in the best category.” she laughed.
To her surprise, she and her partner came away with bronze. “We did pretty good,” Xiao Yi said. “We got bronze in—oh my gosh—‘pro,’” she added, using air quotes. From there, I was hooked. I was like, you know what? This is fun. I feel like I can do it. I feel like I can get better.”
From there, she entered monthly K2 tournaments and soon expanded to the mainland. Her first events included a Las Vegas tournament, followed by APP Newport in July 2023, where she earned a silver medal in women’s 5.0 doubles and 4.5 mixed doubles.
THE TURNING POINT
The moment Xiao Yi began to truly believe in a professional path came at the Hawaii Open in January 2024, when she teamed up with Keven Wong in mixed pro doubles. “I think maybe the first time I was truly convinced that I could maybe make it in pro was that tournament,” she said.
They went on to win, defeating Daria Walczak and Augustus “Augie” Ge—both of whom are successful on the national stage. “Augie plays on the (MLP) Dallas Flash, and Daria does really well on APP, she medals in women’s doubles. So after that win, I was thinking, maybe I can do this. I did it once. Maybe I can do it again. I think I want to try and see where this thing takes me.”
Soon after, in early 2024, she was drafted for her first season of MLP Australia. It was also the moment she made a decision to leave her genetic counseling work to focus full-time on pickleball. “I kept asking for time off every month for tournaments, and I felt bad. I felt like I was constantly saying, ‘Sorry, I have another trip.’ So I thought, maybe I should just focus on pickleball for now.”
SETBACKS AND A NEW FOCUS
When she boarded the plane for MLP/PPA Australia in January 2024, it was the first time she had ever traveled overseas by herself.
On the plane, she remembered thinking, “Wow, I’m traveling to play pickleball. This is weird, but so cool. Not many people get to say this is their work,” she said. “Every time I travel now, I tell myself to enjoy it. My mom always reminds me, ‘Are you still having fun? Be in the moment.’”
But Sydney also delivered her biggest setback yet. In her very first team event, her back gave out. “It wasn’t one specific swing—it was just a combination of all the movement and stress,” she said. Without an MRI or x-ray, she never got a clear diagnosis. “They told me it was probably a disc issue, maybe ruptured or an extrusion. To this day, I don’t know exactly what it was.”
The timing was brutal. Her team had been playing well, and she felt they could have gone the distance. Instead, she struggled through matches and was sidelined for nearly three months. “It sucked,” she admitted. “First event of the season and I get this back problem. We ended up taking third, which was still really good, but I was so bummed out.”
The next stop was New Zealand. “I told my captain I wasn’t ready, but he still wanted me to play,” Xiao Yi said. “Even though I wasn’t fully recovered, he thought I could still help the team. But honestly, I could barely move. I didn’t want to re-injure myself. I didn’t play like I wanted to.”
She finally rested fully and came back at the third and final event of the season—the PPA Brisbane, where she won gold in women’s pro doubles.
“So that felt good. It felt like I was getting back into my old form again. But my back...I didn’t really feel like I could fully trust it at that time. It took a while, but now I’m very serious.”
Looking back, she calls the injury a turning point. “Before I got hurt, I honestly didn’t do fitness. I didn’t work out, which is silly when you’re trying to play a professional sport,” she admitted. “I promised myself I’d never let that happen again. I was going to get in the best shape I’d ever been in.”
She kept that promise. Despite the challenges of travel and changing training environments, Xiao Yi found a rhythm with Lagree Pilates, weight training, and consistent gym sessions at home. Once she felt strong enough, she added weights back into her routine, calling her current fitness level “a game-changer for my game.”
She’s not just stronger physically; her mindset on the court has shifted too.
When asked about her greatest strength as a player, she said, “I’m a pretty adaptable player.” Early on, she had just “one mode”—hitting drives—but over time she’s learned to mix in nuance, recognize patterns, and avoid predictability.
“When you become predictable, your opponent feels more comfortable, so I try not to let that happen.”
A STORY REWRITTEN
For a family steeped in tennis, pickleball was initially unfamiliar. “When I first started, my parents were just happy I was competing and exercising again,” Xiao Yi said. “They were surprised because I was self- motivated and disciplined in a way I hadn’t always been in junior tennis. They didn’t want to interfere; they let me do my own thing.”
When she first told her mom she wanted to become a professional pickleball player, the reaction was surprise. “But they didn’t try to stop me or say it wasn’t wise,” she recalled. “They were very supportive, and I’m really grateful for that.”
Part of that support came from lessons learned. Her junior tennis years had ups and downs—injuries and, at times, the weight of how much everyone cared.
“Because they cared so much, it sometimes felt like there was a lot of pressure,” she admitted.
Later, they reflected together as a family. “We even talked about it, and they said, ‘We’re sorry, that was too much at times.’” When Xiao Yi chose not to pursue tennis after high school, they understood completely. “They didn’t pressure me because they knew I wasn’t enjoying it anymore...it had just become a source of stress,” she said.
Pickleball is different.
With this new chapter, her parents kept their distance and let her find her own way. The very first time they ever watched her play was at the ESPN Hawaii Open in April 2025. “It was really special to have them there,” Xiao Yi said. “It felt like we got to rewrite the past in a sense—like we could make it better.”
Today, her mom is one of her biggest fans, streaming pro pickleball matches daily and cheering her daughter from afar.
QUICK FACTS & FAVORITES
Favorite Shot: Inside-out backhand.
Dream Mixed Doubles Partner: Roger Federer.
“So I could introduce him to my mom. I think she’d love to meet him.”
Walk-up Song: Still searching for the perfect track.
Post-Game Snack: “Anything soupy—ramen, donburi, any kind of soup or stew.”
Morning or Night: “Definitely a night owl. Not even a question.”
Sweet or Savory: “Both. I always need something sweet after.”
Dogs or Cats: Dogs.
Hidden Talent: Plays the piano.
Food She Can’t Stand: Ong choy stems. “Too crunchy, like wood”
Three Words Her Friends Would Use: Funny, competitive, adventurous.
MEDAL COUNT 2025
SEPT 2025: PPA TOUR ASIA VIETNAM OPEN:
SILVER (WOMENS DOUBLES WITH LAUREN MERCADO) AND REACHED THE BRONZE MEDAL MATCH IN MIXED DOUBLES
AUG 2025: PPA TOUR ASIA HONG KONG OPEN: SILVER (WOMENS DOUBLES WITH YUFEI LONG)
AUG 2025: PPA TOUR ASIA FUKUOKA OPEN: REACHED BRONZE MEDAL MATCH IN WOMENS DOUBLES (L WITH Y HSIEH)
JULY 2025: PPA TOUR ASIA PANAS MALAYSIA OPEN: GOLD (WOMENS DOUBLES WITH TING CHIEH WEI)
WHAT MOST PEOPLE DON’T SEE
Most people assume Xiao Yi is quiet or reserved. “But those close to me know I’m silly, I love to joke around and sing,” she said. “I’m a pretty private person, so very few people get to see that side.”
What they also don’t see is the mindset she’s built through pickleball. “It’s not the absence of mistakes that makes players good, it’s how quickly you reset,” she said. She remembers hearing Roger Federer admit he only won about half his points. “It’s all about mindset. Focus on the next ball, control what you can.”
Another piece of the puzzle fell into place when she was diagnosed with ADHD a few years ago. “Suddenly so many things made sense,” she said. “Why I was always late, why I couldn’t tell if it had been five minutes or an hour, why everyday tasks felt overwhelming.” She later learned there’s a name for it — time blindness. “For a long time I thought, why am I this way? Why can’t I change? But now I get it.”
The diagnosis gave her clarity, and while medication helped, pickleball turned out to be just as powerful. The sport gave her structure, routine, and a space where her ability to hyper focus became an advantage. “I think a lot of athletes have ADHD,” Xiao Yi said. “In sports, it’s actually an advantage...you can hyper focus when the game demands it.”
That perspective has helped her manage anxiety and adapt to new challenges, whether traveling, meeting new people, or competing in unfamiliar places. “Pickleball has put me in situations that used to make me nervous, but now I just go with the flow and give myself grace.”
THE NEXT SERVE
Xiao Yi’s goals keep evolving.
She’s already found success in Hawaii, on the mainland, and abroad, and now her sights are set on playing in MLP in the U.S. “At the end of the day, I want to enjoy myself,” she said. “But I also want to achieve certain goals, like getting on an MLP team.”
Lately, she’s been realizing that her journey is about more than wins or losses. When a young fan named Aria traveled just to watch her play, Xiao Yi was reminded that people are paying attention. “I don’t always realize people are watching, but they are,” she said. “That makes me want to be thoughtful about how I represent myself and Hawaii.”
That same pride carried through at PPA Fukuoka just last month, where she teamed up with fellow Hawaii player Tama Shimabukuro to beat Tyler Loong and Pei Chuan Kao. For Xiao Yi, it was more than a big win. “It was also a great moment for us to represent Hawaii pickleball and put us on the map internationally,” she said.
There have been serendipitous moments along the way too, like rooming on tour with Albie Huang, the first cover star of our sister magazine in New Mexico — little reminders of how tightly connected the pickleball world really is.
Pickleball has rekindled her love of competition, fueling a comeback story that’s still being written. And for her family, it’s opened a new chapter...a second chance to support her in a way that feels lighter, freer, and more joyful than the pressures of junior tennis.
Her story shows how the game can spark renewal— inspiring the next generation, strengthening families, and building bridges that stretch from Hawaii to courts around the world.
For Xiao Yi, it’s a journey that’s come full circle, and if her next serve is any indication, the best is yet to come.
Xiao Yi with Hawaii doubles partner Tama Shimabukuro
