Pickleball 52 chats to Thaddea Lock, the ex-pro tennis player who shot straight to No.1 pickleball status in England and is a four-time England national title winner.
Q: How did you first get into pickleball?
I went on a holiday to the States at the end of 2018 and stayed with some friends. Their really good friend Lucy played and taught pickleball. I played with Lucy and in a moms group.
When I got back, I googled places to play and a club came up near me in London. I contacted them and said, ‘Oh, I’ve played pickleball a couple of times in the States and I’m really interested in continuing to keep playing. Can I come and play with you guys?’
They were like, ‘Yes, absolutely. What level are you?’ I messaged Lucy and she said, ‘Say you’re a 5.0’, which to me meant nothing because I didn’t know anything about the sport. I emailed the club in London back and they said, ‘No disrespect, but if you’re a 5.0, you’re going to be the best woman in the UK’. I was like, ‘Whoa! I’ve played maybe three times, don’t put that on me!’
Then they said, ‘Lucy, who you played with – what was her surname?’, I said, ‘Lucy Kovalova’. And they said, ‘Did you realise she’s the No.1 woman in the world?’
Q: Had you played any racket sports before then?
Yes, I played tennis to a relatively high level. I was ranked 300 in the world as a junior tennis player, and then I was ranked 900 in the adult tour. So, I played a decent level.
Q: You also work for the All England Club. How do you find the time to balance that alongside playing pickleball?
It’s not easy, it’s kind of like having two full time jobs. I basically use all of my holiday to go and play pickleball tournaments. The tournaments are on the weekends, so it usually works out that I only need to take a day’s holiday. I go on the Thursday evening to play on the Friday, so that works quite well.
I just do it around my full-time job. In the evenings, my weekends are taken up a lot by people, whether it be coaching, playing or ambassadorship, or various different things. So I just try and juggle the two, but it’s not easy.
Q: The 2023 English Open was just a few weeks ago. How did you find the experience of playing in it?
It was amazing. The English Open was actually the biggest indoor tournament that’s ever happened outside of North America – possibly the biggest [indoor] tournament generally, actually. So the event was a massive step up for the English Open.
This year it was a much bigger venue. I think we had just under 40 courts, and we had purpose-laid pickleball courts. All of the pickleball courts were rolled out, so it was a proper pickleball surface. We had a lot of Americans that came over to play, which is really good, because we got to see that next level up that we don’t get to experience a lot in Europe.
We had a big team from India come over and all of the top European players were there. There were over 1000 players and it was an incredible experience. I had just signed with Skechers, and they announced it the day the tournament started. They’re also a headline sponsor of the English Open, so the tournament took a massive step up, and showed everybody just what pickleball in the UK can look like.
Q: How happy are you with your performance in the tournament?
I went into the tournament with no expectations because I was coming off the back of working at Wimbledon. And I was exhausted, I hadn’t really practised, I hadn’t really been able to work out a lot, so I prepared myself mentally not expect too much.
I think maybe that led me to go into it being a little more relaxed. I actually had a really, really good tournament.
It was an amazing experience. I got to share the court with so many good American and European players. I just felt like I performed really consistently over the week.
It was a great event to be a part of. There were so many people there. I think everyone was just so excited to be at an event in the UK and in Europe of that size.
Q: You’ve played in tournaments in the U.S. before. What are the main differences between playing Europe and playing in the U.S.?
There’s obviously a lot more people playing pickleball in the States, but there’s still not hundreds of pro players at the top end, especially on the women’s side.
Having competed against some of the the US players that came over here, I think I kind of surprised myself that actually the gap isn’t that big between me and the players that came over. Maybe there’s kind of another jump between them and the top, top pros.
I would say the events in the States are just kind of a bigger scale.
There’s more people that go and watch and there’s obviously a lot more sponsors and money involved. ESPN have the rights to a lot of the tournaments in the States. Pickleball in the States is more commercialized than it is in the UK and Europe, which I don’t actually think is a bad thing.
I think it’s still quite a nice thing that we’re kind of in the infancy of the growth of the sport. In the States, because of the money and how it’s been commercialised, I think it’s a bit more competitive and cut-throat.
Q: What would you say is your career highlight?
Oh wow, my career highlight? I mean, I look at it in different ways. I really love competing and I love winning but for me, it’s also really important to be an ambassador for the game and to make sure that more people are getting involved in the sport.
When I play tournaments, it’s really important to me to chat to different people, get to know everybody of all different ages, all different levels, go and watch people’s matches and help people.
Each tournament for me kind of has its own personality. I’ve had some great tournaments last year at, including winning the singles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles and the last two English Nationals. I won the triple crown (women’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles) in Spain a couple of years ago.
I think I proved a lot to myself at August’s English Open. That was one of my favourite tournaments, just being able to compete at a higher level and show myself what I can do.
Obviously playing in the States at Indian Wells in 2019 was incredible. It’s a beautiful venue in the desert. So I think, I’ve had so many incredible different experiences that it’s kind of hard to pinpoint.
I think this English Open just gone, that’s been for me my proudest tournament, and maybe the event that I’ve enjoyed the most from all different angles.
