Last Updated on September 14, 2026 by Drew Pierce
Every year when the US Open rolls around, I get a little nostalgic for tennis.
I can play pickleball several times a week and spend far too much time thinking about paddles, strategy and whatever part of my game happens to be failing me that month. Pickleball has become my sport.
Then I watch the US Open.
And I remember.
Tennis is a beautiful game.
Something about the movement of a great tennis player that pickleball simply cannot replicate. The court is bigger. Points can develop slowly and then explode. Covering that much ground for hours at a time takes a physical commitment.
Tennis still has a little elegance.
I don’t mean that as an insult to pickleball. I love pickleball.
But nobody has ever called Tuesday night pickleball open play elegant.
And that’s OK.
In fact, I think one of the biggest mistakes we can make as pickleball grows is believing tennis somehow needs to lose for pickleball to win.
It doesn’t.
Growing Up With the US Open in My Backyard
My connection to the US Open goes back long before I knew what a dink was.
I grew up in Flushing, New York, not far from the National Tennis Center. When I was younger, I would ride my bike over during the days leading up to the tournament.
This was a very different US Open experience than the highly polished event it is today.
At least that’s how I remember it.
During setup, it felt like you could go almost anywhere. I would ride around the grounds on my Mongoose Expert dirt bike and watch things come together. Players were practicing. Equipment was being moved around. There wasn’t the same sense of separation between the event and everything happening behind it. But that’s most events these days.
I was just a kid on a bike who had somehow wandered into the orbit of one of the biggest sporting events in the world.
It was cool.
It was exciting.
And it made tennis feel important.
That’s probably why I still feel something when the US Open comes on television every year.
Pickleball Changed My Relationship With Tennis
I played recreational tennis for most of my life before discovering pickleball.
That seems to happen to a lot of us.
The smaller court made the game easier on my body. I loved how social it was. I could play more often, find games more easily, and compete without dedicating half my day to it.
Eventually, I went more than two years without even picking up a tennis racquet.
When I finally played again, I was shocked by how foreign tennis suddenly felt.
The court looked enormous.
My racquet felt ridiculously long.
Balls were coming at me differently than my pickleball-trained brain expected. Skills I assumed would always be there had started to disappear.
It also reminded me how difficult tennis is.
That experience actually increased my appreciation for both sports.
What Pickleball Can Learn From Tennis
Pickleball is growing up incredibly fast.
Sometimes I think we forget just how young the sport still feels.
Professional pickleball is working toward things tennis has had generations to establish. Traditions take time. So does history. So does creating an event that people attend because the experience itself means something.
The US Open has that.
Even people who barely follow tennis understand what the US Open represents. The crowd knows when to get loud and when to pull back. A night match at Arthur Ashe feels different from watching another sporting event.
Pickleball is still developing its version of that.
Maybe it gets there.
Maybe pickleball becomes something completely different.
I actually hope it does.
Pickleball doesn’t need to become miniature tennis to prove that it matters.
The Pickleball vs. Tennis Fight Is Getting Old
Unfortunately, the conversation around pickleball and tennis is often framed as a competition.
Pickleball players need courts.
Tennis players don’t want to lose theirs.
Municipalities are trying to figure out how to accommodate exploding demand, while longtime tennis players understandably wonder why the facilities built for their sport are suddenly being converted.
I’ve been on both sides of that net.
I understand why pickleball players want more places to play. Demand is real.
I also understand why a tennis player can look at painted pickleball lines on a tennis court and feel like something is being taken away.
Both things can be true.
What I don’t understand is why we sometimes act as if racquet and paddle sports are natural enemies.
They shouldn’t be.
Tennis, pickleball, platform tennis, padel, and the other games in this increasingly crowded family can help each other.
They get people moving.
They get us competing again.
And many of us move between them.
The person playing pickleball today may be the same person watching the US Open tonight.
I’m living proof.
There Is Room for Both
Maybe instead of worrying so much about whether pickleball is stealing from tennis, we should be thinking about how the sports can build off each other.
A tennis facility can introduce someone to pickleball.
A pickleball player can rediscover tennis.
A kid watching a US Open match might eventually pick up a paddle. Another kid who starts playing pickleball with his parents might become curious about the bigger court next door.
That seems healthier than drawing battle lines.
Pickleball Doesn’t Need to Replace Tennis
I don’t play nearly as much tennis as I once did. OK, I never play tennis anymore.
Pickleball fits my life better now.
But when I watch the US Open, I don’t look at tennis and think I chose the better sport.
I still find myself admiring the game.
The movement.
The stamina required to survive a long match.
That little bit of elegance tennis has somehow managed to hold onto.
Pickleball has things tennis doesn’t have, too. That’s why millions of us have fallen in love with it.
We don’t have to choose one sport and root against the other.
Pickleball doesn’t need tennis to disappear.
Tennis doesn’t need to fear every pickleball court that opens.
The future of racquet and paddle sports should have room for all of them.