From PhD to Pickleball: China’s Yufei Long Tables Doctorate Studies, Goes All-In on World’s Fastest-Rising Sport

Chinese pickleball player Yufei Long is supposed to be pursuing a doctorate degree. But she’s had a change of plans and is now firmly on the exhilarating chase for pickleball glory.

The 26-year-old pickler from Shenzen, China initially planned to pursue a PhD in biomedical informatics in the U.S. In fact, she already had offers to study at the University of Washington and Washington University in St. Louis. That plan will have to wait, though Long is still going to the U.S. nonetheless because the new path she chose will take her there anyway—at least for the next few months.

The Long and Short of It: Yufei Long Can Play Pickleball

Yufei Long, of course, chose to pursue a potential pickleball career after she was chosen to be part of the inaugural UPA Asia Trailblazers Programme Class of 2025 alongside some of Asia’s young and emerging picklers, like compatriot Liu Longsheng, Vietnam’s Ken Tam and Sophia Tran, Malaysia’s Jimmy Liong, and Japan’s Mayu Ito.

The decision to choose pickleball was anything but easy, though, especially since Long had already put so much effort into her impending doctorate pursuit. Already a holder of a Master’s degree in public health from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Long was actually in the midst of preparing for her university applications when the UPA came calling.

“I had invested months crafting potential research proposals and preparing applications, The sunk cost was high,” Long said. “I spent the whole of February evaluating the best option … I was choosing between two different life trajectories [PhD and pickleball].”

Making a decision in this case might be just as hard as the pursuit itself. Long ultimately went for pickleball—and she did so knowing that her family, mentors, and friends had her back.

Sports Is in Yufei Long’s Blood

Then again, that Long chose pickleball doesn’t seem that much of a surprise. After all, competitive sports seem to be in her blood. The 26-year-old previously played NCAA Division I tennis at Vanderbilt University and was the senior captain at Boston College. But when her college tennis career ended, she soon started missing the thrill of competition and the highs of playing in competitive settings.

Enter pickleball, which Long says rekindled her passion for sports.

“[Pickleball] rekindled that drive while introducing me to new challenges. When I went to my first local tournament, I realised I could not rely on my power and tennis technique only. Unlike tennis, pickleball demands more patience and precision than raw power,” Long said of her start in pickleball. “The ‘kitchen’ battles require split-second decisions and fine motor control, creating a different tactical challenge than tennis.”

Indeed, Long will be challenged in so many ways as part of initial cast of the UPA Trailblazers Programme. Aside from a rigorous three-month training in the U.S., Long and company will compete in five events all across Asia—in Kuala Lumpur twice, and once each in Hong Kong, Japan, and China. The biggest of these tournaments is the China Slam, where the world’s top picklers are expected to compete for a prize pool of USD $1 million.

But if there’s anyone who can overcome a pickleball challenge, it might as well be Long. Currently ranked No. 71 in women’s singles by the Professional Pickleball Association, Long recently won the Baton Rouge PPA Challenger in Louisiana in April, and best believe she’s out to win more as she’ll surely be looking to prove that she made the right choice of picking pickleball over pursuing a PhD.

Then again, who says Yufei can’t do both in the future?