Fierce debate over Pickleball, a hot sport in Vietnam and globally, but is considered the "killer" of Tennis

I don’t know since when, the sport with the name that sounds like a fast food – pickleball – has become a hot topic in the land of the flag. In recent years, when everyone is still struggling to run on the tennis court, pickleball has secretly sprung up like mushrooms after the rain, and turned tennis courts into… their home.

The funniest part is that the American Tennis-Warehouse forum is suddenly flooded with questions like: “What is pickleball? Why is it killing our tennis?” Well, people are talking about it, but the situation is not very good. Tennis courts are shrinking, while pickleball courts are growing alarmingly.

Pickleball is no newcomer. It’s been around since 1965, but as the saying goes, “If you want to be popular, you have to wait.” And pickleball’s time has come. In just the last five years, the number of pickleball players in the United States has increased by more than 52%, reaching 13.6 million. That’s a number that any sport would envy.

So tennis courts were forced to “give way” to be converted into pickleball courts. Perhaps, if you are a tennis lover, seeing your tennis court being cut down, invaded by a sport with a name that does not sound serious at all, surely you will not be able to sit still.

A tennis court in West Hartford, Connecticut, USA had to divide the area for pickleball players, and separate the two sides with a wire mesh fence.

“It’s funny to think about the growth of pickleball,” lamented one veteran player on the Tennis-Warehouse forum. “What kind of sport uses a ball that’s a little bigger than ping pong, and it’s played outdoors! Plus, the sound of the pickleball is everywhere, as if it’s teasing us.”

The situation has escalated beyond complaints to real-life battles. In Arlington, tennis players have distributed flyers accusing pickleball players of bullying children and taking over the courts. In Boston, pickleball nets were cut and thrown to the ground, like something out of an action movie. And in Santa Rosa, someone poured six gallons of oil on a pickleball court, forcing it to close for several days. Pickleball is truly taking over tennis.

Tennis courts are being renovated to accommodate the growing demand for pickleball players in the US.

Meanwhile, some people see this as a delicious business opportunity. One pickleball player calmly declared: “Pickleball is a fun social sport, and many tennis players will play it. Even though it is growing fast, pickleball will eventually reach saturation. No sport has to die.”

A tennis court in suburban Denver, Colorado, was partially converted into a pickleball court to meet the needs of players of this sport.

So, amid the noise and controversy, pickleball continues to flourish, while tennis – a symbol of elegance and sophistication – has to share the field. A never-ending battle between two seemingly unrelated sports, but it turns out that they are fighting for every square meter of grass across America.