Val Olson (from left), Rick Kamm, Steve David and Dee Haskins play up to the net during a pickleball game at Monument Valley Park in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2011.
Pickleball is a popular racket sport which is widely considered to be very similar to Tennis
Judy Murray took to Twitter to enlighten fans about the interesting story behind the origin of ‘Pickleball‘. It is a racket/paddle sport that was created by combining elements of several other racket sports. Two or four players use solid paddles to hit a perforated hollow polymer ball over a net. The ball is much like a Wiffle ball, with 26–40 round holes. A pickleball court is similar to badminton, with a net similar to tennis, and the paddles are similar to those in table tennis.
Murray shared a picture of an excerpt from a book which reveals minute details about the hilarious story behind how the sport got its name. Pickleball has got popular with time and made TV appearances, notably the Professional Pickleball Association’s 2021 and 2022 U.S. Opens, on CBS Sports.
The sport currently gets considerable show time on the Tennis Channel. During the PPA’s current season, some events are available on the network’s website or app, and others are split among those platforms and the linear television channel.
Tennis fans have been left disappointed by the reduction in coverage of Tennis matches on the Tennis Channel. The ‘Tennis Channel’ is supposed to be the ‘Home of Tennis’ but has been dividing the showtimes of Tennis and professional Pickleball matches in the recent past.
Pickleball continues to increase in popularity in the US, with pro tournaments packing stands and pickleball courts popping up around the country like daisies. As a result, Tennis Channel have bought the exclusive rights to telecast the sport on their platform. In 2021, Tennis Channel aired its first ever live pickleball tournament, the Orlando Cup, in Orlando, Florida.
While the Tennis Channel is meant to exclusively cover ATP and WTA tournaments, they didn’t want to miss out on making profits out of Pickleball. The sports’s “unprecedented growth” in recent years has been on Tennis Channel’s radar for a while , revealed John MacDonald, senior vice president, content programming, Tennis Channel while officially announcing the tie-up with PPA. As the sport continues to grow rapidly, fans can certainly expect more coverage on various platforms especially the Tennis Channel.
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