Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 23 January 2025 | Sean A’Hearn
Tennis continues to be the world’s premier racquet sport, however three associated disciplines have been rising in reputation over the previous couple of years: pickleball, padel and POP tennis.
All three are performed on a smaller court docket with a shorter racquet and a slower ball, making them accessible to a variety of contributors.
Recognising their current fast progress, pickleball, padel and POP tennis have been showcased for the primary time at Australian Open 2025.
Pickleball
Performed each indoors and open air on a badminton-sized hard-court with a perforated, hole polymer ball and
that includes a simplified scoring system, pickleball is simple to select up, entertaining to observe and, most significantly, enjoyable to play.
With the inaugural AO Pickleball Slam operating from 24-26 January, it marks the primary skilled pickleball match carried out throughout a Grand Slam occasion, together with a $100,000 prize pool, reworking Courtroom 3 right into a hub of high-energy motion.
The AO Pickleball Slam will showcase an elite roster of worldwide and home expertise, together with Emilia Schmidt, Australia’s highest-ranked feminine pickleball participant, in addition to India’s Armaan Bhatia and Harsh Mehta , Cyril Peltier and Caroline Dhenin from France and the USA’s Zack Taylor.
Schmidt spoke to tennis.com.au concerning the constructive impression Pickleball Slam could have.
“It means the world to me,” she stated. “I grew up in Australia, enjoying tennis my total life. The Australian Open is such a particular occasion for thus many causes. The truth that pickleball is being included in it’s superb. I actually respect the popularity from Tennis Australia.”
Now based mostly on the east coast of the US, Schmidt defined how a tennis-related harm led to her turning into an expert pickleball participant.
“I performed tennis at a reasonably excessive stage. I performed all of the junior ITFs. As soon as I graduated from highschool, I took a niche yr from college attempting to go professional in tennis. Round June of 2023 I obtained bone stress in my elbow simply from overtraining,” she stated.
“It was really my pal Andrew Horridge, who I went to high school with [who introduced me to pickleball]. He lives in Perth the place pickleball is fairly outstanding and he requested me to play a match there. So, I stated, ‘positive, why not? I’m injured from tennis.’
“As soon as I began enjoying, I fell in love with it and the remaining is historical past.”
Schmidt says pickleball is just not solely simple to select up however simple on the physique, though she notes there’s nonetheless a good quantity of ability required.
“It’s positively higher [than tennis] by way of harm prevention,” she stated. “Any individual can step on the pickleball court docket and play. Pickleball is like mini, enjoyable tennis. It positively requires athleticism however [it’s] simply not as brutal on the physique as tennis.”
Inside two months of taking over the game, Schmidt was No.1 in Australia. Now making a full-time wage and travelling to tournaments all around the world, she believes pickleball has huge enchantment.
“Anybody can get into the qualifying and make their method to championship Sunday at a Skilled Pickleball Affiliation occasion, whether or not it’s in the US or right here, or anybody can join the Nationwide Pickleball League,” she stated. “There are such a lot of nice alternatives that anyone can provide it a go.”
Whereas pickleball is effectively suited to social play, the pathway to elite stage is gaining momentum. The institution of the AO Pickleball Slam is cementing Australia as a vacation spot for international touring gamers.
Schmidt believes Australia is “doing all the proper issues” for the game to proceed rising domestically on the skilled circuit, comparatively quicker than the US.
“I feel Australia is unquestionably No.2 on the planet by way of pickleball. We’re beginning to get that depth. We’re beginning to have gamers come over from Asia and begin competing,” she says.
“We’re taking that step fairly early on, in comparison with the US. It took the US almost 10 years to essentially get skilled pickleball going. In Australia it solely took us 4 or 5 years. Now we now have gamers on a full-time wage, together with myself.”
Padel
A fusion of tennis and squash, padel is a dynamic racquet sport performed on an enclosed court docket with glass partitions, which gamers can use to strike rebounding pictures, including an additional layer of complexity and pleasure.
With the same scoring system to tennis and primarily a doubles sport, padel emphasises technique, precision, and teamwork.
Proof of its rising reputation, the variety of padel courts, golf equipment and gamers is on the rise in Australia and related improvement pathways have been established.
The head in Australia is the Australian Padel Open, which completed in Sydney earlier in January. On a worldwide stage, Premier Padel is the tour for the elite stage.
Showcasing prime padel gamers from world wide, the Pink Bull Rally Professional was held from January 17-19 on the Pink Bull Rally Padel Area at TOPCOURT within the AO’s latest precinct.
British padel stars Aimee Gibson and Catherine Rose claimed the championship, reaching a unprecedented milestone by securing their third consecutive padel title in Australia with a commanding victory over the Australia-Chile pairing of Jessica Brycki and Pascalle Thenoux.
Their hat-trick cements the pair’s standing as one of many sport’s most fun partnerships, and one which has propelled Gibson into the world prime 100, a major rankings milestone making her the primary British girl to achieve that stage.
Having just lately received padel occasions in Sydney and Melbourne, Rose was ecstatic with the pair’s current success.
“Profitable Sydney was surprising, and we have been completely buzzing,” she stated.
“Then in Melbourne, we performed freely with nothing to lose and shocked ourselves once more. To win right here on the Pink Bull Rally Professional is the right ending to an unbelievable journey.”
Having made the swap from tennis to padel just a few years in the past, Rose is passionate concerning the sport, advocating for gamers of all ranges to offer it a go.
“Padel is so sociable and newbie pleasant,” she stated. The group is welcoming, and it’s simple to select up. You’ll be able to have an excellent sport with gamers of all ranges. Simply discover a native membership, begin enjoying, and also you’ll find it irresistible.”
POP Tennis
Because the oldest complementary self-discipline of the three (invented in 1898 as paddle tennis), POP Tennis is legendary for its presence alongside Venice Seashore, California, though it may be performed indoors and open air and on quite a lot of surfaces.
POP Tennis, a relative newcomer in Australia in comparison with pickleball and padel, provides the identical social thrill as tennis and is a lightweight various for folks seeking to get shifting.
Though there isn’t but a longtime pathway, POP Tennis is a well-liked social sport at tennis golf equipment throughout the nation.
Its capacity to be performed on a number of surfaces and be arrange wherever, any time, for anybody is driving curiosity from coaches, golf equipment and councils round Australia.
Including publicity to the game, a POP Tennis court docket has been featured on the AO 2025’s TOPCOURT precinct, situated at Birrarung Marr Center Terrace.
