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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Sport
Adam Gabbatt with photographs by Christopher Lee

Blame, threat and clash: the war between pickleball and tennis players is escalating – on and off the court

A man stands on one side of a low net on a pickleball court facing two women, all holding paddles.
Zorano Tubo, right, leads a pickleball clinic in West Hartford, Connecticut. Photograph: Christopher Lee/The Guardian

There’s a storm brewing on the tennis courts of America. Admittedly a very middle-class, middle-aged storm, but a storm nonetheless. On one side are the tennis players, with their eons of history, perfectly pressed shorts and thousands of dollars to spend on lessons. And on the other are the advocates for America’s fastest-growing athletic pursuit: pickleball.

Almost 5 million people in the US are classed as pickleball players, depending on how closely you read the pickleball-published statistics, and in the last two years the number of people playing pickleball has grown by almost 40%.

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