Tennis legend Andre Agassi believes pickleball still in its infancy amid unprecedented growth

HO CHI MINH CITY – It was a throwback to a golden era at the Rach Mieu Sports Complex in Ho Chi Minh City on March 26, as Andre Agassi took to the court in front of a packed crowd.

But instead of a tennis racket, the American tennis legend wielded a paddle, playing pickleball alongside some of the world’s top professionals as part of the Joola Legends Asia Tour.

Organised by Joola, a pickleball and table tennis company, the tour features coaching clinics, exhibitions and product demonstrations, with additional stops in Hanoi (March 27) and Shanghai (March 28 and 29).

What started as a family activity during the Covid-19 pandemic has evolved into a passion for tennis great Agassi, who has become deeply involved in pickleball, both as a player and investor.

Pickleball has experienced unprecedented growth, with participation soaring in the last few years.

And the American, who emerged as a precocious teenager in 1986 and had a career lasting two decades, believes that this is just the beginning of the sport’s rise.

The eight-time Grand Slam champion told The Straits Times: “From a participation deal, I think we’re at its infancy. So they say we have about 30 million people in America playing. I think that’s gonna double, triple, in not too long at all... globally, I think it’s gonna be probably the fastest-growing sport we’ve ever seen.”

According to a market.us report from October 2024, the global pickleball market size is expected to increase from US$1.5 billion (S$2 billion) in 2023 to US$4.4 billion in 2033.

While Agassi is optimistic about the future of pickleball, the 54-year-old believes the sport needs to consolidate for it to grow further.

Currently, pickleball lacks a single, universally recognised ranking system, with the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) Tour and Major League Pickleball (MLP) – both of which merged in early 2024 and now fall under the United Pickleball Association – operating separately from the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP) Tour.

The former world No. 1 said: “I believe that if we all worked together, we could raise the water level and all the boats would rise...

“I would like to see the sport as a whole work together, to take the entire sport collectively to the world and not be so fragmented.”

There is ongoing debate about whether pickleball is a true spectator sport, but Agassi believes it has entertainment value.

He said: “It’s a harder sport to communicate the nuance in. People that ever try tennis can then look at tennis and go, ‘Wow’, right?

“People that try pickle watch for a while, and then they think they can go do it, but the more you do it, the more you realise how nuanced it is.

“Thirty million people play in America, but maybe only one million really, really appreciate the nuance, right? So I think there’ll always be a lag in that awareness.”

Many pickleball players come from a tennis background, including Jack Sock and Eugenie Bouchard, who reached career-high rankings of world No. 8 and fifth respectively.

Agassi and his wife, 22-time Grand Slam champion Steffi Graf, are among those who have embraced the sport, as has former world No. 1 and four-time Grand Slam winner Kim Clijsters, who co-owns MLP team, the Las Vegas Night Owls.

Despite the overlaps, there remains a resistance in the tennis community towards pickleball.

But Agassi believes both sports can coexist, saying: “At the end of the day, I think we all can get along, because one sport is going to grow dramatically from a participation standpoint, and that other sport has such a long history of traditional events that have hundreds of thousands of people coming to watch the US Open or the Grand Slam.

“They don’t cannibalise each other and I’m proud of both of them – anyone that doesn’t see that, they’re not my friend.”

Agassi still has a deep affinity with tennis, especially the Majors, as he casts an interested eye at the attempt by Novak Djokovic to better the all-time singles Grand Slam mark of 24 he shares with Margaret Court.

At 37, age is not on the Serb’s side but Agassi, who coached Djokovic from 2017 to 2018, still believes the Olympic champion has at least one more Grand Slam victory in him.

He said: “He has the mindset to keep pushing himself as far as he can go. His body has to hold up, so he needs to play enough to make sure it does. But of course, I think he can do it. Pretty amazing, given his age. But betting against Novak is betting at your own peril.”

In the meantime, Agassi and Graf, who retired in 2006 and 1999 respectively, showed that they still have that winning touch after claiming victory at Pickleball Slam 3 in February after beating Andy Roddick and Bouchard.

But beyond the trophies, pickleball has brought something even more valuable to their lives.

Agassi joked: “As they say, pickleball either strengthens your marriage or breaks you up, but for us, it’s only made us stronger.”