Novak Djokovic Voices Concern Over the Future of Tennis With Pickleball Gaining Ground
Tennis legend Novak Djokovic, 37, is currently on a quest for his eighth Wimbledon men's singles championship, which would be his record-setting 25th Grand Slam title.
The No. 2 seed at this year's event has a Round of 16 match on Monday on the famed grounds of the All England Club against No. 15 seed Holger Rune of Denmark.
While Djokovic continues to astound with his elite level of play, it's what he said after his third-round victory when talking to the media that got the attention of the world of racquet sports and pickleball in particular.
The Serbian star offered his perspective on the health and future of the sport that has given him so much.
Thomas Shields
"Now we have padel tennis, which is growing and emerging. People have fun with that and say: ‘Yes, but tennis is tennis’. Tennis is the king or queen of all racquet sports, that’s true," Djokovic said. "But at the club level, tennis is in danger. If we don’t do something about it, like I said, globally or collectively with the growth of padel in Europe and pickleball in the United States, we’re going to see more tennis courts converting to padel and pickleball because it’s cheaper.
"You have a tennis court and you can build three padel courts on the same space ... do the simple math. It is much more financially viable for a club owner to have that set-up."
Johnny Barth
The turf war between tennis and pickleball is nothing new, with neighborhood leaders as well as parks and recreation departments going back and forth on the best solutions for court access for both sports. Djokovic is accurate, however, in stating that you can fit 3-4 pickleball courts into the space dedicated for one tennis court.
The bottom line is that even arguably the greatest tennis player to ever pick up a racquet acknowledges that his sport is quickly losing ground to pickleball.
