MIAMI — If tennis and pickleball are adversaries as some say — the traditional racket sport vs. the upstart with the funny name — then mark Sunday as the first major battle in the war, with the volley of shots fired in South Florida.
John McEnroe, Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Michael Chang are retired tennis stars with 17 Grand Slam wins among them. But Sunday they will be on the other side competing for $1 million in prize money in the inaugural Pickleball Slam at the Hard Rock Live near Hollywood. With starpower and televised live on ESPN at noon prior to NCAA Final Four women’s basketball, this will be the biggest splash of national attention yet for pickleball in its young , fledgling history.
A few miles south at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday will be the men’s championship match of the Miami Open tennis tournament, televised by the Tennis Channel.
Pickleball is a downsized cousin of tennis, played on a smaller court, with a hard plastic ball and smaller, solid paddles. It’s popularity grew during the pandemic and now at least three pro leagues have bloomed, with celebrity and sports stars drawn to the buzz as part owners.
Hard Rock and promoters have a five-event deal for the new Pickleball Slam.
“This came to us, like, ‘What, you’re going to throw some money at us? OK,” McEnroe told the Miami Herald.
Roddick, 40, will face Chang, 51, in Sunday’s first singles match, followed by the heavyweight bout between, McEnroe, 64, and Agassi, 52. A third match — McEnroe-Chang vs. Agassi-Roddick in doubles — will determine the split of the $1 million pot.
Agassi won eight Grand Slam titles and McEnroe seven. Roddick and Chang won one each but each was notable: Chang at 17 was the youngest to ever win a men’s major, and Roddick in 2003 was the last American man to win a Grand Slam event.
(For tickets and additional information visit thepickleballslam.com.)
An amateur competition with 96 doubles teams will take place Friday and Saturday with $10,000 to the winning team.
Agassi has been throwing shade at his older opponent, saying he will never again play any competition in any sport if he loses to McEnroe.
“He wasn’t gonna do it either way,” McEnroe returned the shot. “From what I’ve been seeing he hasn’t done a lot of that anyway.”
McEnroe admits that four aging tennis stars on a pickleball court, hitting plastic balls and serving underhand, is the great unknown.
“I’m an old man, way over the hill, but this is unpredictable,” he said. “Who knows how any of us are gonna do!”
McEnroe cast as a guy promoting pickleball is funny, because he’s too honest to admit he loves it.
We have enjoyed McEnroe’s bluntness and spark for decades. Enjoy his candor as a tennis analyst on TV. And enjoyed his volatile nature on the court, when he would melt an umpires chair if the call were going wrong. His most famous trade produced one of sports’ most memorable, and enduring, lines.
“You cannot be serious!”
“Not a day goes by where people don’t say that to me, whether it’s an 8-year-old kid or a 75-year-old woman,” he says. “I gotta take that and look on the bright side. Who’d a thought things I got fined for is what people want me to do now. ON the senior tour I could hit a great shot but [the crowd] waited ‘til I said something to the umpire to go, ‘Yeah! Awright!’”
Now I enjoy his candor as a star of a pickleball event declining to fawn over pickleball. I asked if he enjoys playing it.
“No, I don’t enjoy it. Tennis is my game. But it’s something I’ve been enjoying with friends because it’s sort of an equalizer. You can learn and pick it up and be reasonably good at it. My friends come and they think they can beat me. They forget I know something about the geometry of a court. I do like the camaraderie of pickleball. Playing for $1 million, that is enjoyable also. But the cement court ain’t exactly ideal for a 64-year-old man at this point.”
What McEnroe objects to is that pickleball is this phenomenon that’s going to kill or at least hurt tennis.
“i don’t look at pickleball like, ‘Oh my God this is great!,’” he says. “If I hear one more time that pickleball is the fastest-growing sport I’m gonna throw up. I look at like, there’s the NFL and then there’s arena football. It’s hard to imagine something small like pickleball being great on TV. It’s like watching ping-pong on TV. Tough to see how that can really work. But I’ve had people say they started watching tennis because of pickleball. Hopefully it’ll be a win-win for both.”
Might McEnroe delight the crowd with a mock tirade against the umpire on Sunday? No promises.
“I just hope it will be fun and that the right team wins. Which would be us.”
