Sloane Stephens has joined the growing conversation around the new sport that is has taken off in the United States, speaking warmly about the craze that has caused some consternation among ardent tennis fans.
Pickleball is essentially a low-concept, easy to play version of tennis, with smaller courts, rackets and a lighter ball.
It has exploded in popularity over the past year, with courts popping up all over the country and even being aired on Tennis Channel in place of regular live tennis matches.
2017 US Open champion, Sloane Stephens, is just the latest in a long list of tennis players and pundits to have recently discovered the game.
“I was watching Tennis Channel and I was looking for a match that was happening live and it wasn’t on, it was live pickleball and I was like, ‘What is this? Why is this on right now? Why is tennis not on?” Stephens told NBC. “So that’s how I first heard about it and obviously now everyone plays pickleball.”
Although its inception was back in 1965, the surge in popularity has been a relatively recent phenomenon and its accessibility is the key to its success it seems.
“The game is faster, shorter court, shorter time, anyone can really play, you don’t have to run that much,” Stephens said. “There’s a lot of exciting variables about it but I think people just enjoy it.”
Pickleball is also a much shorter game than tennis, which also serves it well when competing for air time, as well as those looking for some quick and easy exercise.
“I'm used to playing a match where it's two out of three sets and obviously, the men play three out of five at Slams so it's very different in the timing of it,” Stephens said. “How one set to 15 can be a match, which I was like, ‘Why?’”
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