There is a big group of Pickleball professional players that played collegiate tennis, which of course helps their Pickleball game, but what about the wave of professional tennis players that are saying goodbye to tennis to be the rookies in the pickleball tour?

Could they bring more fans to the games and are they a threat to the top-ranked players?

There have been a couple of waves in the world of sports, far beyond tennis.

In soccer, for example, successful players started to come to the US to finish the last years of their careers. We see it now with Messi and his ex-FC Barcelona ex-teammates joining him at Inter Miami. Now they are also going to Saudi Arabia, it started with Cristiano Ronaldo and now multiple big names In the sport are playing in the league.

Several professional tennis players have ownership of different MLP teams like Naomi Osaka, Nick Kyrgios, Kim Clijsters, etc. 

Several players have now retired permanently from tennis like Sam Querrey and Jack Sock, with Sock winning a mixed PPA event in 2023 along with Anna Leigh Waters. One can say he has been the most successful of the bunch. Others seem to need more time like Donald Young or Genie Bouchard, who in the first Masters event of the year at Palm Springs did not have a good run, and it was very noticeable that she was not comfortable on the court. Her game looked very tennis-ish and miss-hitting the ball many times. There is no doubt that though similar they’re different sports, that require different skill sets and simply adapting to a paddle and a different ball takes time. 

Pickleball requires very good hands, though tennis too, some players would rarely hit a drop shot or any other similar shot but just stick to just forehands and backhands. I believe that tennis players with soft hands, like Jack Sock in this case, who can slice and give the ball any spin and place it anywhere they want on the court, will have a smoother transition to the pickleball court.

I’m almost certain that those ex-pro tennis players will at least stir up the curiosity of the amateur tennis player who has not yet given pickleball a chance. I am a Jack Sock myself, (who remembers his own signature USA Babolat racquet!?), and mainly tuned in to watch the Masters to watch his debut.

Any advertisement the sport gets, for good or bad, is still good and soon tennis fans will be following up on the tennis players who decided to trade their racquets for paddles. They will still be hitting a yellow ball, though not fuzzy, and the same wave of curiosity that first brought them in, will bring their fans along.

Will they represent a threat to players like Ben Johns or Tyler McGuffin? Ben Johns was just beaten by a 17-year-old who won the Orange Bowl tennis tournament just last year. Which is one of the most important junior tournaments in not only the United States but the world. 

Before that he was beaten a couple of times by collegiate players, so why not?

Give Jack Sock a couple of months and I can almost promise you he will be on Championship Sundays fighting for the singles trophy.