Mariana Humberg

Mariana "Mari" Humberg is Brazil's No. 1 ranked pickleball player, and she's on a mission to make the sport massive in her home country. A former advertising technology professional who spent six years in the corporate world, Humberg picked up a pickleball paddle for the first time in late August 2022 after a tennis background. By December of that same year, she was playing in her first professional tournament. If that timeline sounds bananas, that's because it is. She went full-time in 2024, ditching the desk job to chase paddles and podiums, and she hasn't looked back.

Fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, Mari competes on the PPA Tour and was drafted to the MLP Premier level on Anna Leigh Waters' team. When she's not competing in the U.S., she's flying back to Brazil to run clinics, train coaches, and create Portuguese-language pickleball content to grow the sport. Her spin-heavy game, born from her tennis roots, makes her a tricky opponent at the net and from the baseline. Mari is one of the most globally-minded players in pro pickleball, and her efforts to build the sport internationally are as impressive as her results on court. Follow her on Instagram @marianahumberg.