Pickleball England’s ‘Pickleball Slam’ event in London on Wednesday night brought sporting stars and the pickleball community together in a bold display of solidarity ahead of this month’s Sport England meeting to decide the future governance of the sport.
Former US Open tennis finalist Greg Rusedski and ex-British No.1 Johanna Konta were among the guests who joined the English pickleball glitterati at the new Franklin Pickleball Club in Kingston upon Thames, south west London.
Rusedski and Konta took part in a highly entertaining night of exhibition matches involving top British players James Chaudry, Pei Chuan Kao, Thaddea Lock, Louis Laville and some of the country’s most promising junior players – all of whom kept a packed and riveted crowd royally entertained.
The event, arranged with less than 10 days’ notice by Pickleball England’s Chair Karen Mitchell and a bunch of volunteers, epitomised the unity and spirit of the pickleball community. That togetherness may be a critical factor when Sport England meet on 25 June to discuss Pickleball England’s submission to become pickleball’s officially recognised national governing body. Thereafter, they will review the rival governance bid from the Lawn Tennis Association.
As the outcome of this custody battle draws near, Pickleball England received backing from none other than Rusedski, who as a former GB tennis player benefited from LTA funding between gaining British citizenship in 1995 until his retirement in 2006.
“This game is growing really rapidly – it’s on the crest of a wave. It has a strong social aspect and you can play it straight away whether you’re aged eight or 88,” the 50-year-old told Pickleball52.
“Tennis has its own federation, squash and badminton have theirs and pickleball has its own here already in Pickleball England. I feel like tennis and pickleball are two separate sports. I think pickleball should have its own federation. Both are racket sports but they are very, very different – you can’t compare them.”
Fresh off the court from his final exhibition match of the night, Pickleball England’s Strategy and Development Advisor and English singles champion James Chaudry, echoed Rusedski’s sentiments and sent a bold message to Sport England ahead of its meeting in two weeks’ time.
“Regardless of what the Sport England ruling is, Pickleball England looks after and governs the sport. Everyone at Pickleball England, county reps, players, communities, the leisure centres and other venues, they all put in countless volunteer hours to drive the sport – and that’s not going to go away any time soon.
“I don’t see a world in which Pickleball England isn’t the national governing body of the sport because I don’t feel like the community is suddenly going to leave our side and give their volunteer hours to the LTA.
“It’s a shame that it has come down to something like this. Pickleball England needs and deserves support but is now being assessed against a body of another sport. It doesn’t seem fair but we can only respond to the situation in front of us. It’s now about how we put our best foot forward and look after all the stakeholders who play pickleball in England, so we’ll continue to do that.”
Sport England’s latest Active Lives survey, released last month, included participation figures for pickleball for the first time. They showed that 20,000 adults (over-16s) had played pickleball at least twice a month in the year up to November 2023 and 27,000 had played at least once in the same period. The figures showed that tennis participation, meanwhile, had shrunk an average of 0.6% each year since 2016.
In a statement to Pickleball52 in February, the LTA said: “Pickleball is an exciting sport with a large potential cross-over audience amongst tennis players. We believe that the LTA’s relationship with over 15,000 registered venues, 1.5m tennis fans on our database and an existing infrastructure around coaching, safeguarding, facility investment and workforce could be hugely beneficial to pickleball and help it to grow and flourish.”
In response to this concept of “crossover”, Chaudry said: “The LTA are tasked with looking after tennis and they should be 100% focused on tennis. If they believe having pickleball under their belt will help convert people from pickleball to tennis, well, those are their thoughts. Although there may be some crossover, I think everyone in this community will tell you they are quite happy staying in pickleball.”
