New games on the block serving up a storm

Pickleball, padel, Ironman rising the popularity charts

- VAISHALI DAR

TENNIS LEGEND ANDRE Agassi made his professional pickleball debut at the US Open Pickleball Championships in Florida this year, elevating the new-age sport that is having its moment globally. Other new sports rising the popularity charts include padel and Ironman to the arena, with 21 humanoids competing in a half-marathon in Beijing in April this year. In August, China even hosted an all-robots games with various sports being played.

Data from the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP) suggest that the US alone is estimated to have nearly 50 million adults volleying a ball over a 34-inch net between 2022 and 2023.

Estimates also suggest that 4,000 new locations were added in the US in 2024, bringing the total to 15,910 courts nationwide.

India, too, has over 70,000 active players in pickleball with 10,000 playing professionally. The game is rapidly moving from a niche, leisure activity to a mainstream sport, said Aditya Khanna, director, Pickleball World Rankings (PWR), a unified global ranking system for pickleball players.

INDIA HAS OVER 1,000 dedicated pickleball courts, and the number is growing, especially in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi-NCR and Chennai. The ease, accessibility, and social appeal has contributed to creating a dedicated playerbase cutting across age groups," said Khanna.