The Australian Open will embrace one of many quickest rising sports activities on this planet when it hosts the inaugural AO Pickleball Slam on the ultimate weekend of subsequent month’s tennis main with $100,000 in prize cash.
Invented in 1965 by a gaggle of American buddies, pickleball is a fast-paced paddle sport just like tennis and badminton performed on smaller courts utilizing a perforated plastic ball, and curiosity has skyrocketed in recent times.
Melbourne Park’s courtroom three will remodel into pickleball central from Jan. 24-26 subsequent yr, as a world discipline of gamers compete for honors.
“Pickleball is a sport for everybody, and its fast progress globally highlights its distinctive means to attach folks of all ages and backgrounds,” mentioned Tennis Australia’s chief tennis officer Tom Larner.
“By bringing pickleball to the AO, we’re embracing the way forward for racket sports activities and offering an unbelievable expertise for gamers and followers alike.”
Pickleball was additionally a part of the Miami Open in March and was demonstrated on the French Open Grand Slam in June.
However some followers view the convergence of the 2 at mainstream tournaments as efforts by tennis to make sure promoting funds usually are not diverted away from it to pickleball.
That has not stopped pickleball from pushing forward with its personal enlargement plans.
The Skilled Pickleball Affiliation primarily based in america introduced in July that it could maintain rating tournaments exterior the nation for the primary time subsequent yr, with stops in Australia, India, Canada, Asia and Europe.
Its mother or father physique the United Pickleball Affiliation had mentioned then that pickleball was the quickest rising sport within the U.S. with a 52% enhance in individuals from 2022-2023.
Main League Pickleball, knowledgeable league the place NBA nice LeBron James is a part of a crew’s possession group, believes the game can attain 40 million gamers by 2030.
The game has additionally attracted the eye of former athletes and celebrities like Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Tom Brady, Taylor Swift and George Clooney.
