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Monday, December 23, 2024

Australian Open to provide platform for pickleball

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The Australian Open will embrace one of many quickest rising sports activities on the earth 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 pals, pickleball is a fast-paced paddle sport much like tennis and badminton performed on smaller courts utilizing a perforated plastic ball, and curiosity has skyrocketed lately.

Melbourne Park’s court docket three will rework into pickleball central from Jan. 24-26 subsequent 12 months, as a world subject of gamers compete for honors.

“Pickleball is a sport for everybody, and its fast progress globally highlights its distinctive means to attach individuals 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 aren’t diverted away from it to pickleball.

That has not stopped pickleball from pushing forward with its personal enlargement plans.

The Skilled Pickleball Affiliation based mostly in the US introduced in July that it might maintain rating tournaments outdoors the nation for the primary time subsequent 12 months, with stops in Australia, India, Canada, Asia and Europe.

Its dad or mum physique the United Pickleball Affiliation had mentioned then that pickleball was the quickest rising sport within the U.S. with a 52% enhance in contributors from 2022-2023.

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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.

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