A trend that even worries Novak Djokovic: how pickleball is conquering the world and challenging tennis

Novak Djokovic expressed genuine concern when he said: "Tennis is in danger. If we're not careful, all tennis clubs will be converted into paddle and pickleball clubs." The controversial global athlete hasn't missed the enormous popularity these trend sports are currently experiencing.

Pickleball has been dubbed "the fastest-growing sport in the USA." That's not exactly a testament to its quality, considering what else is growing in the US these days, but that's another story.

The sport was one of the discoveries during the COVID pandemic, when people had finally had enough of baking banana bread and were looking for something to pass the time. But pickleball, something like a mix of tennis, badminton, and table tennis, isn't just one of those countless trendy sports that will be collectively forgotten and fade into obscurity after a short summer. It's foreseeable that in the medium term, more people will play pickleball than tennis.

Pickleball has been played in the Northwestern United States for six decades, but it's only in the last decade that it has emerged from its niche status: In the last four years alone, the number of players has grown by more than 300 percent. It's an unprecedented boom.

And it's also worn by big names. Among its numerous celebrity fans are Taylor Swift and Leonardo DiCaprio. Andre Agassi, the former tennis star, says: "As long as I can walk, I'll be playing pickleball."

In general, several tennis greats have discovered the sport for themselves. And some of them earn decent money on the pickleball tour, whose prize money increases annually. There's no shortage of capital – among the obscenely wealthy people who have invested in pickleball teams are Tom Brady and Kim Clijsters in Las Vegas, basketball star Kevin Durant in Brooklyn, and Heidi Klum in Chicago.

Top players include former tennis pros Jack Sock, Donald Young, and Eugenie Bouchard. Sock, 32, was ranked No. 8 in the ATP world rankings in 2018 and has earned more than $11 million in career prize money. Today, he is ranked No. 12 in the pickleball rankings and earns several hundred thousand dollars a year from his new career.

Bouchard, 31, reached the Wimbledon final in 2014 and shortly thereafter rose to world No. 5 in tennis. She is currently No. 12 in pickleball and a sure bet—she recently dueled Steffi Graf and her husband Andre Agassi in an exhibition match in Las Vegas.

As always, when a phenomenon makes it into the mainstream and pop culture, vultures quickly circle to squeeze a few dollars out of it: Hollywood just finished filming the pickleball movie "The Dink," which will be released in 2026. Starring: Ben Stiller, John McEnroe , and Andy Roddick.

In Europe, attention is also growing, albeit at a more leisurely pace. The sport is struggling somewhat with the not entirely fictitious accusation that it's a kind of watered-down version of tennis, tweaked with a few tricks to make it accessible to older people and those with, let's say, limited mobility.

But things are also progressing in Switzerland: In Basel, for example, a 2,000-square-meter hall opened in March. Magnus Stedile-Foradori, president of the Swiss Pickleball Association, says there are more than a thousand active players in the country.

However, the association currently has just under 400 members. The 1,000-member limit is set to be dropped in 2026 – and not simply for the sake of prestige: To be recognized as an official sport by Swiss Olympic and the Federal Office of Sport, it needs at least 1,000 active members and 20 clubs from at least two language regions. This would make many things easier – among other things, there would be markings in gyms nationwide from then on. A somewhat regular inclusion in school sports could explode the popularity of pickleball.

Stedile-Foradori is confident that these targets will be reached within a year. He says, "We receive a huge number of inquiries and can barely keep up with the responses." He also talks about tennis facility operators converting some of their courts into pickleball courts. The area of ​​one tennis court can accommodate four pickleball courts – one can be rented for around 35 francs per hour.

The need seems to be there. Cedric Meury of the Zurich Pickleball Club, for example, says that in Zurich in particular, demand significantly exceeds supply. "One of the strengths of this sport is that it doesn't require much. You can set up a net somewhere, and that's enough." It's also this democratization that worries Djokovic and the tennis purists.