Latest news with #PickleballEngland
IOL News
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Forget the tennis finals. At Wimbledon this July, it's pickleball.
Here. Of all places. It took a while, but even at Wimbledon, Britain's fortress of tennis traditionalism, pickleball is at the gates. On Day 6, it was louder. More than 100 people showed up to try a new court sport as Emma Navarro and Barbora Krejcikova prepared to face off on Wimbledon's Court No. 1, a few hundred yards away. Pickleball. On Day 4 of Wimbledon, some of the fans who queued up outside the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club to see Novak Djokovic take on Dan Evans might have heard a distinctive thwock thwock thwock coming from the public park next door. It wasn't lawn tennis, or croquet, and it wasn't there a year ago. The American-invented hybrid of tennis, ping pong and badminton was officially recognized as a sport in December by the top sporting councils in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and is gaining footholds. The upstart racket sport, which has upended court culture in the United States, Canada and Australia, is taking off across the United Kingdom. After being slowed by the coronavirus pandemic, membership in the country's national pickleball organization grew by 73 percent last year and is on pace to jump by 114 percent in 2025. 'It's getting bigger all the time,' said Emma Wells, who runs tennis programs in Wimbledon Park. Wells introduced pickleball last year and is reconfiguring more of the courts each season. 'You respond to demand, and the demand is definitely here.' More like foot faults, aghast tennis purists say. As it booms here, pickleball is bringing the same frictions with tennis players (jealous of court space, sniffy of the skill needed), and complaints from neighbors (annoyed at the noise) that has marked its explosive spread in the United States. There was controversy at the highest levels - court intrigue, as it were - when the top governing body of English tennis in 2024 attempted unsuccessfully to wrest control of the new, suddenly everywhere sport from Pickleball England, the grassroots organization that has nurtured its growth since 2018. Critics said the motives of the Lawn Tennis Association were as much to keep pickleball in its place as a 'poor relation' as to promote it. The association denied being up to anything nefarious. 'We just felt that we could play a role by growing tennis and pickleball in a complementary way,' said Olly Scadgell, the association's managing director of tennis development. Perhaps nowhere is the juxtaposition of the ancient 'sport of kings' and the newcomer recreation of the masses as acute as in Wimbledon, the leafy London suburb where tennis is a religion and the first fortnight of July are holy weeks. At the venerable All England Club, the players wear white, the fans wear ties and, this weekend, the top pros will vie for trophies in the 'Gentlemen's' and 'Ladies'' divisions. Asked about pickleball, many were not amused. 'My job is to maintain decorum and protocol,' said the honorary marshal dressed in a straw boater hat, a smart blue blazer and a flawless Windsor tie as he scanned the crowd around Centre Court last week. 'It would not be appropriate for me to say what I think of - ' the honorary marshal paused in apparent pain, 'pickleball.' He declined to be quoted by name. 'It's a fun game,' Dean Goldfine, an American coach waiting to watch Djokovic, said with a shrug. 'I mean, you can't compare it to tennis.' 'Could they please call it something else?' wondered Wimbledon resident Nina Ruiz, still in tennis whites from her morning game and watching a doubles match on a jumbo screen set up at nearby Roehampton Club, the site of some of Wimbledon's practice courts. 'I've played it, and I like it,' Ruiz said, 'but that name.' Roehampton is one of dozens of clubs where pickleball is breaking through, but with growing pains. Responding to requests, club management allows one of its indoor tennis courts to be taped over into four pickleball courts for one day each week. Pickleball players want more. Many tennis players don't. Paul Lindsay, who oversees the club's nascent pickleball program, said the sport is gaining traction, but is still 'stifled' by the trad-tennis resistance. The club's tennis committee is split between those who think pickleball should get more space and those who warn 'it will devour tennis,' said committee member Emily Monson, who was also watching Wimbledon on the outdoor screen. One possible solution: reconfigure a few tennis courts for pickleball each day between 1 and 5 p.m., when even retiree tennis players tend to retreat from the heat or, this being London, the rain. 'That's a lot of retaping,' Ruiz said. 'It's certainly treating them like second-class citizens,' Monson said. Carolyn Laville grew up in Wimbledon, lives less than 500 yards from Centre Court and loves the grass-court pageantry that consumes her neighborhood each summer. She also wears her love of the new sport as loud as her pink-and-blue T-shirts that say 'Wimbledon Pickleball,' the group she co-founded with her son, pro pickleball player Louis Laville. The family discovered the game in Florida a few years ago and went crazy for it. Louis introduced the sport at Roehampton, played in national tournaments and helped start a nationwide Premier Pickleball League. He's now playing the pro circuit in Australia. Carolyn Laville, a business owner, plays at a growing number of courts around Wimbledon and recruits more and more players. 'Oh, well done!' she shouted, breathless, during a recent women's drill at Roehampton after failing to reach a wicked crosscourt backhand. Coming off the court, she unzipped her prized paddle, a JOOLA Agassi Pro signed by Andre Agassi. (Agassi is one Wimbledon vet who has embraced pickleball; as have Steffi Graf and Andy Roddick. John McEnroe has said 'compared to tennis, I think pickleball does suck, honestly.') The keen new players are phlegmatic about the resistance from tennis die-hards. 'It's a cultural thing,' said Serena Norgen, who says she joined the pickleball 'cult' after retiring. 'This club prides itself on being at the center of tennis. There's a lot of anxiety about that. But pickleball is here to stay.' It may be that no one ever orders a Pimm's Cup or strawberries and cream at a pickleball grand slam. And demand is still nowhere near the tidal wave washing through U.S. parks and tennis clubs. By some estimates, almost 50 million Americans have tried the sport, which fans hail as more accessible than tennis, and scolds deride as akin to riding an e-bike in the Tour de France. But popularity is building in the U.K. The number of venues climbed tenfold in the last six years, and the estimated number of players jumped from 2,000 to 45,000. 'A lot of clubs have embraced it, and a lot of them are now at full capacity,' said Karen Mitchell, a retired American Express executive who runs Pickleball England. 'We're always running out of space.' Four dedicated pickleball courts debuted in June at Park Sports, a pay-to-play tennis complex on the grounds of Chiswick House, an 18th-Century neo-Palladian villa just across the Thames from Wimbledon. It was their second run at the sport; eight courts launched last year were popular but sparked noise complaints. 'We learned some things,' said Luke Brosse, the marketing manager for Park Sports. 'With two tennis courts you have four players and two balls. With eight pickleball courts, you have 32 players and eight balls; it does make a bit more noise.' The new courts, farther from nearby houses and showcased by the club entrance, have drawn double the bookings - 'I've never seen a sport grow so fast,' Brosse said - and has inspired eye rolls from tennis-firsters. 'I think it's a little silly compared to tennis, to be honest,' said Benjamin Borger, 19, a university student playing tennis at Chiswick last week. 'My biggest issue is that it takes courts away.' But Park Sports wants to expand pickleball. It is eyeing courts it manages in Hyde Park, Regent's Park and other billboard London locales. But in those 'Royal Parks,' owned by the Crown, pickleball has been a tougher sell. 'They have been a bit more hesitant about a new sport,' Brosse said. Maybe, in the House of Windsor, pickleball has met its match.
Yomiuri Shimbun
13-07-2025
- Sport
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Forget the Tennis Finals. At Wimbledon This July, It's Pickleball.
WIMBLEDON, England – On Day 4 of Wimbledon, some of the fans who queued up outside the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club to see Novak Djokovic take on Dan Evans might have heard a distinctive thwock thwock thwock coming from the public park next door. It wasn't lawn tennis, or croquet, and it wasn't there a year ago. On Day 6, it was louder. More than 100 people showed up to try a new court sport as Emma Navarro and Barbora Krejcikova prepared to face off on Wimbledon's Court No. 1, a few hundred yards away. Pickleball. Here. Of all places. It took a while, but even at Wimbledon, Britain's fortress of tennis traditionalism, pickleball is at the gates. 'It's getting bigger all the time,' said Emma Wells, who runs tennis programs in Wimbledon Park. Wells introduced pickleball last year and is reconfiguring more of the courts each season. 'You respond to demand, and the demand is definitely here.' The upstart racket sport, which has upended court culture in the United States, Canada and Australia, is taking off across the United Kingdom. After being slowed by the coronavirus pandemic, membership in the country's national pickleball organization grew by 73 percent last year and is on pace to jump by 114 percent in 2025. The American-invented hybrid of tennis, ping pong and badminton was officially recognized as a sport in December by the top sporting councils in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and is gaining footholds. More like foot faults, aghast tennis purists say. As it booms here, pickleball is bringing the same frictions with tennis players (jealous of court space, sniffy of the skill needed), and complaints from neighbors (annoyed at the noise) that has marked its explosive spread in the United States. There was controversy at the highest levels – court intrigue, as it were – when the top governing body of English tennis in 2024 attempted unsuccessfully to wrest control of the new, suddenly everywhere sport from Pickleball England, the grassroots organization that has nurtured its growth since 2018. Critics said the motives of the Lawn Tennis Association were as much to keep pickleball in its place as a 'poor relation' as to promote it. The association denied being up to anything nefarious. 'We just felt that we could play a role by growing tennis and pickleball in a complementary way,' said Olly Scadgell, the association's managing director of tennis development. Perhaps nowhere is the juxtaposition of the ancient 'sport of kings' and the newcomer recreation of the masses as acute as in Wimbledon, the leafy London suburb where tennis is a religion and the first fortnight of July are holy weeks. At the venerable All England Club, the players wear white, the fans wear ties and, this weekend, the top pros will vie for trophies in the 'Gentlemen's' and 'Ladies'' divisions. Asked about pickleball, many were not amused. 'My job is to maintain decorum and protocol,' said the honorary marshal dressed in a straw boater hat, a smart blue blazer and a flawless Windsor tie as he scanned the crowd around Centre Court last week. 'It would not be appropriate for me to say what I think of – ' the honorary marshal paused in apparent pain, 'pickleball.' He declined to be quoted by name. 'It's a fun game,' Dean Goldfine, an American coach waiting to watch Djokovic, said with a shrug. 'I mean, you can't compare it to tennis.' 'Could they please call it something else?' wondered Wimbledon resident Nina Ruiz, still in tennis whites from her morning game and watching a doubles match on a jumbo screen set up at nearby Roehampton Club, the site of some of Wimbledon's practice courts. 'I've played it, and I like it,' Ruiz said, 'but that name.' Roehampton is one of dozens of clubs where pickleball is breaking through, but with growing pains. Responding to requests, club management allows one of its indoor tennis courts to be taped over into four pickleball courts for one day each week. Pickleball players want more. Many tennis players don't. Paul Lindsay, who oversees the club's nascent pickleball program, said the sport is gaining traction, but is still 'stifled' by the trad-tennis resistance. The club's tennis committee is split between those who think pickleball should get more space and those who warn 'it will devour tennis,' said committee member Emily Monson, who was also watching Wimbledon on the outdoor screen. One possible solution: reconfigure a few tennis courts for pickleball each day between 1 and 5 p.m., when even retiree tennis players tend to retreat from the heat or, this being London, the rain. 'That's a lot of retaping,' Ruiz said. 'It's certainly treating them like second-class citizens,' Monson said. Carolyn Laville grew up in Wimbledon, lives less than 500 yards from Centre Court and loves the grass-court pageantry that consumes her neighborhood each summer. She also wears her love of the new sport as loud as her pink-and-blue T-shirts that say 'Wimbledon Pickleball,' the group she co-founded with her son, pro pickleball player Louis Laville. The family discovered the game in Florida a few years ago and went crazy for it. Louis introduced the sport at Roehampton, played in national tournaments and helped start a nationwide Premier Pickleball League. He's now playing the pro circuit in Australia. Carolyn Laville, a business owner, plays at a growing number of courts around Wimbledon and recruits more and more players. 'Oh, well done!' she shouted, breathless, during a recent women's drill at Roehampton after failing to reach a wicked crosscourt backhand. Coming off the court, she unzipped her prized paddle, a JOOLA Agassi Pro signed by Andre Agassi. (Agassi is one Wimbledon vet who has embraced pickleball; as have Steffi Graf and Andy Roddick. John McEnroe has said 'compared to tennis, I think pickleball does suck, honestly.') The keen new players are phlegmatic about the resistance from tennis die-hards. 'It's a cultural thing,' said Serena Norgen, who says she joined the pickleball 'cult' after retiring. 'This club prides itself on being at the center of tennis. There's a lot of anxiety about that. But pickleball is here to stay.' It may be that no one ever orders a Pimm's Cup or strawberries and cream at a pickleball grand slam. And demand is still nowhere near the tidal wave washing through U.S. parks and tennis clubs. By some estimates, almost 50 million Americans have tried the sport, which fans hail as more accessible than tennis, and scolds deride as akin to riding an e-bike in the Tour de France. But popularity is building in the U.K. The number of venues climbed tenfold in the last six years, and the estimated number of players jumped from 2,000 to 45,000. 'A lot of clubs have embraced it, and a lot of them are now at full capacity,' said Karen Mitchell, a retired American Express executive who runs Pickleball England. 'We're always running out of space.' Four dedicated pickleball courts debuted in June at Park Sports, a pay-to-play tennis complex on the grounds of Chiswick House, an 18th-Century neo-Palladian villa just across the Thames from Wimbledon. It was their second run at the sport; eight courts launched last year were popular but sparked noise complaints. 'We learned some things,' said Luke Brosse, the marketing manager for Park Sports. 'With two tennis courts you have four players and two balls. With eight pickleball courts, you have 32 players and eight balls; it does make a bit more noise.' The new courts, farther from nearby houses and showcased by the club entrance, have drawn double the bookings – 'I've never seen a sport grow so fast,' Brosse said – and has inspired eye rolls from tennis-firsters. 'I think it's a little silly compared to tennis, to be honest,' said Benjamin Borger, 19, a university student playing tennis at Chiswick last week. 'My biggest issue is that it takes courts away.' But Park Sports wants to expand pickleball. It is eyeing courts it manages in Hyde Park, Regent's Park and other billboard London locales. But in those 'Royal Parks,' owned by the Crown, pickleball has been a tougher sell. 'They have been a bit more hesitant about a new sport,' Brosse said. Maybe, in the House of Windsor, pickleball has met its match.
Forbes
11-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Association Of Pickleball Professional Fires Next Salvo In Battle For International Expansion In The Sport
United States-base pickleball associations continue their quest to expand their influence abroad, in an ongoing battle amongst titans in the sport to tap into burgeoning markets for pickleball underneath the (more than reasonable) assumption that the sport will experience similar growth abroad that is has here domestically. The latest salvo in that battlefront has been launched. On June 11th, 2025 The Association of Pickleball Players (APP) announced a pair of agreements (one new, one the extension of an existing collaboration) that will help elevate the talent level in events abroad while also bringing the APP's marketing and logistics expertise into play for growing markets in the sport. The APP is announcing a new agreement with Global Sports Pickleball (GSP), the leading pickleball organization in India and extending their long-standing relationship with Pickleball England, the national governing body (NGB) of the sport in England and operators of the English Open. I caught up with the principals of each group to discuss their organizations and these new collaborations; Ken Herrmann (Founder of the APP), Shashank Khaitan (co-founder of Global Sports), and Karen Mitchell (Chairperson of Pickleball England) to talk about these deals and the future of international pickleball. The APP is entering its 4th year collaborating with Pickleball England on the English Open, and have for years been sending both its top touring Pros and its top NextGen stars across the pond to compete. Per Mitchell, the sending of the top US pros 'helps elevate the level of play in our events. People want to play where the pros play. This gives people added excitement of playing against that caliber of player. The APP also helps us with sponsorships, streaming of our event to APP-TV, and promotional help on social media.' The collaboration has helped make the English Open not only the largest current tournament in Europe, but the largest outside of the US (they're projecting to nearly 2,200 players at this year's event). The English Open is essentially the leading fund-raising event for Pickleball England (the UK equivalent of USA Pickleball), and allows the NGB to fund the operations of the rest of its goals. Says, Mitchell, "Our focus is grassroots. We've developed curriculum to create and train coaches, which we feel will develop more players. We're going into schools and universities. We're trying to reduce the average age of players. We want to be the Carlsberg of events. [side note: I did not at first understand the context of this comment about Carlsberg. Only after some pointed googling did I learn about Carlsberg Beer's advertising campaign where they claim to 'Probably be the Best beer in the world.' I may have to incorporate this English idiom into my day to day speech]. Pickleball England was more than happy to extend its relationship with the APP. Says Mitchell, 'I believe that the APP does such great work, both in the US and helping to expand pickleball's reach internationally. They do right by the players and they genuinely are interested in growing the game internationally.' The timing of announcing the two collaborations together is not without some history; as it turns out, Herrmann of the APP first met Shashank Khaitan of GSP at the English Open two years prior. GSP got its start three years ago, held its first major tournament in February of 2023, and now plays host to three marquee events each year: the Monsoon Championships (held in August), the Indian Open (held in February), and the Global Sports Pro league, which debuted in February this year and featured 100 pro players from all over the globe participating for a total prize purse of $550k. (Note: if you're reading this and you're wondering which of the multiple India-based organizations GSP is, I suggest reading The Dink's Eric Tice's excellent comprehensive January 2025 overview of all things Pickleball in that region of the world. It provides an overview of GSP and its evolution of partnerships with other orgs in the region, some of which are now defunct). Khaitan describes the beginnings of the APP collaboration, which has been two years in the making, 'We first met at the English Open. We saw APP Next Gen players competing and were really impressed. We started a relationship with some of the APP pros there and became very close with Rob Nunnery in particular. This led to Nunnery and his partner Andrei Daescu traveling to play in the 2024 Indian Open." Nunnery and Daescu won the doubles title in that event, and in the final they played Armaan Bhatia & Harsh Mehta, who stretched them to three games before falling. This of course is the same Bhatia who has now come to the US and medaled in both the US Open and the APP's NYC Open in May 2025. This turned out to be a seminal match in Indian pickleball, as (in Khaitan's words), 'it showed Indian players where they needed to go, and when Bhatia & Mehta played the American pros in the final, they realized they really could compete against the best.' The most immediate and apparent impact of the APP-GSP collaboration will be the cross-pollination of US-based APP pros in GSP-run events going forward, and vice versa. The top 12 APP Male and Female pros will be offered seeded slots at the forthcoming 2025 Monsoon Open, and will be entered into the league auction for the 2026 iteration of the GSP League. Conversely, GSP will work with the APP to provide more opportunities for both established Asian pros and up-and-coming Indian & Asian players at the APP's Fort Lauderdale training facilities and academies. Both organizations clearly have respect for one another, and they both share some of the same values when it comes to growing the game. Says Herrmann, 'GSP has proven themselves as the premier leading organization in India, and as the APP continues to grow internationally it's always been my goal to keep my inner circle credible and full of quality people.' Khaitan agrees, 'We believe our ideology with APP is similar; we don't want to lock players down and want to give players growth experience opportunities.' Herrmann mentioned that the APP is now working on the development of international camps, both at the Fort in December and potentially at Mumbai-based events in 2026. Perhaps the most interesting takeaway from my conversations with Khaitan and Herrmann were the statements of their collective visions of international pickleball. One of Herrmann's longer term goals with partnerships like these is the pursuit of a global ranking system. He says, 'I want and foresee results in India to count towards APP rankings. If the No. 1 player from India comes here and there's a question where to seed him or her, there's a proven record of results for that player in international events, whether they're in India or in England or wherever.' Khaitan is more expansive. 'We want to set a common goal, see how to build towards it. We want to build something global. Tennis and the ATP really shifted when they globalized and held events all around the world, and we feel the same thing will happen with pickleball.' One thing is for certain; every year that US-based pros extend their presence in major international tournaments and leagues is a year where we get close to these goals. We've already seen a top player from India come to the US and succeed at the pro level, and it's just a matter of time before that becomes a regular occurrence.
BBC News
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Norwich pickleball champ 'didn't think it was a real sport'
A national pickleball champion said he did not know it was a "real sport" until he picked up a paddle. Richard Love, 51, from Norwich, along with three other players from Norfolk took gold at the English National Singles Championships in Loughborough earlier this a former tennis coach, said he first got into the sport after hearing a "horrible noise" coming from a sports hall. "Pickleball is mainly about the people. It is so much more social and I have met the best people through it," he said. Pickleball is a sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton and table is played on a badminton-sized court with a tennis-style net, which players use paddles to hit a lightweight, perforated plastic ball grew up playing and coaching tennis before he began managing Dereham Leisure Centre. "On my first day there, I heard a horrible noise coming from our sports hall and went to have a look and there was about 30 people in there, all hitting plastic balls around with a plastic paddle," he said ever since getting dragged on to the court, he been "absolutely hooked" on pickleball."It's a funny sport. I must admit, when I first saw it I didn't think it was a real sport," he said."Since then, I have given up my job - my proper, real-life job - to become a pickleball player and coach." According to Pickleball England, about 45,000 people are currently playing the sport nationwide and with participation says the sport has "skyrocketed" in recent years, and this year's English Open in August will feature about 2,000 players. "There's tens of thousands of people all over the country playing, and fairly soon, in September or October we'll see the first proper full-size pickleball venue opening just on the other side of London. When that happens, I think it will skyrocket again."Also finding the sport addictive is 17-year-old Ellie Tomkinson who took gold in the English Nationals Women's Singles Open Championship weeks before her A-level said: "I played tennis since I was about four... I stopped tennis a year ago to do this full-time and it is the most addicting thing I could have picked."Other Norfolk winners were Anna Linton who took gold 50+ Women's Singles Open Championship and Kevin Jay, who took gold in the 50+ Men's Singles 4.0 Championship. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
