Although it was the first Grand Slam to join the Open era of professional tennis in 1968, Roland Garros has often been the last to adapt to changes in the sport. While the main show courts at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open all featured retractable roofs in 2016, Court Philipe Chatrier didn’t get one until 2020. And while players in Melbourne, London and New York have long used hawk-eye technology to challenge line calls, in Paris it’s still up to the umpires to decide.
But the move, four days before this year's tournament ended, to convert court number 5 into three pickleball courts was a sign of how organizers are moving with the times.
The rising demand for new racquet sports is also visible at grassroots level in the UK. Together, padel and pickleball are reshaping traditional lawn tennis clubs as they seek to strengthen their financial position post-pandemic and attract and retain members of all ages.
Padel and pickleball have established fan bases in Spain and the US respectively. The sports were invented a few years apart, in the 1960s, and are played on smaller courts and with smaller rackets and paddles than tennis. Padel uses the same scoring system as tennis, but combines elements of tennis and squash. Pickleball, on the other hand, combines aspects of table tennis, tennis and badminton, and a game is typically played to 11 points.
Such differences have not been a deterrent to its introduction in Britain. According to the Lawn Tennis Association, which oversees tennis in Britain, around 90,000 people played padel in November last year, compared with just 6,000 in 2020. Padel’s attractions include its social aspect, the doubles teams, and its ease of play, with no overarm serves and more opportunities for long rallies. Meanwhile, PickleballEngland, the sport’s governing body in England, puts the number of players at 30,000, just over a decade after the first British courts opened.
Individual tennis clubs across the country are busy meeting the increasing demand. Grahame Robb, co-chair of the padel committee at Winchester Racquets and Fitness, said high booking rates for two padel courts installed in autumn 2020 quickly led to a third. All three are now almost always in use.
Padel membership has increased by 285 percent in two years to 203 people and we have had to freeze it, he says, noting that the club had around 2,200 members in total. The catchment area is phenomenal, with people travelling from as far away as Portsmouth [a city 30 miles away] to play.
Robb, who used to play squash, racquetball and tennis but now calls himself a padel addict, says his committee has presented a business case to the club for the construction of three additional courts, which is being considered.
However, integrating the new sport has been a challenge, he admits, following opposition from some members who wanted the club, which has 15 tennis courts, to remain focused on the traditional game.
Still, he says investing in padel makes financial sense for clubs still dealing with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as restrictions on social activities hit revenues.
I would say that padel will definitely increase the financial stability of any tennis club, he explains. The return is higher and, depending on how you finance the courts, whether it’s court fees or membership fees, you’ll probably get at least three to four times the return from a padel court than from a tennis court.
Some clubs will be more risk-averse, he thinks, and probably hope that private padel clubs will be created and that they will simply disappear. I don't think that will happen; if tennis tried to exclude padel, it would be counterproductive.
Ben Nichols, founder and director of specialist consultancy Padel 22, estimates that an average padel court in the UK generates around 50 players per hour. According to him, tennis clubs can introduce padel without this being at the expense of their history.
It doesn't have to be either-or, he argues. We all respect that the UK is a racquet sporting nation. That should be embraced, but there will be new opportunities to embrace new members.
In the case of Mary Kirkpatrick, it took some convincing to convince colleagues at Macclesfield Tennis Club in the north of England to convert two unused junior tennis courts into pickleball courts by the end of 2022.
The club, founded in 1905, had 41 pickleball members at the end of last year out of a total membership of 263, and the number has been growing, said Kirkpatrick, the club president and manager of the new venture. Anyone can play, and we end up with more members than we would like.
Kirkpatrick, who plays socially at least three times a week, says about a third of people who inquired about pickleball bought a membership, which costs $55 a year. The rest opted to pay $3 per session. Both fees are likely to increase soon. Current tennis members can play for free, she adds, which should be a significant advantage in recruiting new members.
While Kirkpatrick recognizes the potential financial benefits for the club, with three pickleball courts fitting on the footprint of one tennis court, she rejects the idea that this would exclude the sport of tennis.
Pickleball members who play regularly say we need more courts…but we would need a complete reorganization which I don't see happening. It would upset too many people, she says.
Nichols also points out that Britain lags far behind the US in providing facilities, and that the challenge of finding land and then obtaining planning permission to build courses is a bigger obstacle to the development of padel than the British preference for traditional tennis.
Ultimately, he sees the sports as complementary. They encourage more non-racket players to pick up a racket, he notes. Padel players are switching to tennis just as much as the other way around. A rising tide lifts all boats.
