The debate over pickleball and tennis has intensified since Christian Alshon tweeted about pickleball being better. Alshon, a former Division III NCAA Tennis player, felt that pickleball needed more skills on the court. He received a strong reply from James Blake, who mentioned that Alshon had only played a low level of tennis before jumping into pickleball. Alshon also received backlash from Nick Kyrgios, as he mentioned Roger Federer in his comment.
Nick Kyrgios got into the beef by asking Alshon to compare the best pickleball player in the world with Federer. The Australian was agitated by the comparison made by the World No.8 pickleball player. Kyrgios even suggested that Alshon was drunk enough to be talking like this. Kyrgios tweeted –
“Yeah. Let’s hide under the bed after this statement hahahaha bro get me the best pickleball player and compare his talent to Roger Federer. Wild tweet, wild thought. Delete right now,I love pickle. But you had too many tequilas.”
While defending James Blake, who is renowned as a former top 10 player from the United States and now as the director of the Miami Open, Kyrgios found support from his fanbase as well. Besides X, fans of both sports were engaged in a debate seeing this beef as to which one is better –
Nick Kyrgios has made it a habit to specifically involve Roger Federer in many of his conversations in the recent past.
The Australian’s candid revelations about the Laver Cup had also made headlines. The former World No.13 has played blockbuster matches against Federer on the ATP Tour. This tweet by the Australian will go down as another social media gem and example of Kyrgios almost worshipping Federer.
Nick Kyrgios and Andre Agassi are playing a vital role in promoting pickleball
The sport of pickleball has seen tremendous growth since 2021. It has brought in several key players to promote the game all over the globe. Kyrgios and Naomi Osaka had invested in the game while co-owning the Miami team in Major League Pickleball in 2022.
While players invest funds in the game, Andre Agassi uniquely promotes pickleball and was recently named as the Director of Pickleball for a group of fitness chain in the United States named Life Time.
The 8-time Grand Slam champion played the sport during the first two editions of the Pickleball Slam. Agassi played with Andy Roddick in the first edition of the Pickleball slam in 2023 and won $1 million in prize money.
In the second edition of the Pickleball Slam this season, Agassi played with his wife, Steffi Graf, to win the title. The pair won $1 million after defeating John McEnroe and Maria Sharapova in the final. The event raked in large crowds as the former legends of the game entertained the fans.
The growth of Pickleball has been attributed to various reasons. There are over 2,144 ambassadors in Pickleball currently, according to USA Pickleball. California has the most pickleball courts in the US, i.e. 3589, out of which 709 are indoor courts. Even though most experts say tennis is a lot harder to play, pickleball continues to flourish.
But it has been confirmed that the rise of pickleball has only picked up, and the spectators can expect tennis professionals to join the game. The next step for pickleball will be to introduce more events and competitions to engrave their name in sporting history.
