Goodbye padel: the craze for pickleball has also arrived, another discipline that derives from tennis and which is becoming popular especially in the USA.
He Tennis it is one of the oldest sports in the world. Its origins date back to the Middle Ages, when tennis was played, and from there it developed more and more, arriving at the definitive form that we all know today.
And so we have reached a moment in which we are seeing things that were difficult to imagine until a few years ago. Thanks to its main performers who rewrote its history to the tune of records. Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafa NadalSerena Williams, the champions who have most distinguished themselves on the pitch in the last twenty years. But, at the same time, far from the “traditional” playing fields, two disciplines in particular have emerged that have their roots in tennis.
It’s about the fell and of pickleball. The first is now a well-established reality, still expanding as we are seeing in Italy where dedicated facilities proliferate and with a world tour of its own where the best players from all over the world compete.
The second, however, is currently becoming particularly popular in the United States United States – however, it has an international Federation which also has many other member countries (including Italy) in addition to the USA – and, a bit like what happened in padel, it has also obtained consensus among former tennis players, athletes, entertainment celebrities and even among the most famous entrepreneurs in the world.
Pickleball, everyone goes “crazy” for it: even… them
Pickleball it’s a bit of a cross between tennis and padel which is played on a badminton court but with the net lowered like in tennis. Furthermore, it does not have the barriers that characterize padel, while the rackets are similar to padel shovels. You can play singles or doubles and the player who reaches a certain number of points (11, 15 or 21) wins.
With regard to the rulesbasically, they are similar to those of tennis and padel, but there are some important differences. Like the one that, in the event of a wrong serve, the point goes directly to the opponent in singles, while in doubles the teammate will repeat the serve.
Then, there is also the so-called “area kitchen“, the portion of the court under the net where you cannot return the ball on the fly or even drop the ball with the serve (in this case the aforementioned service rules apply). Another important difference concerns the balls, which are lighter and made of plastic.
The reasons for its success are those that have contributed to making padel a global sport: ease of play and speed of action mainly, but also a good way to keep fit while having fun.
And even the multimillionaire knows this well Bill Gateslong-time enthusiast. Besides him, not even the NBA star was able to resist LeBron Jameswhich invested in it by creating its own Major League team. He also played among basketball players Kevin Durantwhile among former tennis players we find Andy Roddick, John McEnroe e Andre Agassi.
