Tennis Australia embraces pickleball in a groundbreaking tournament featuring Australia’s top talent competing for a $104,000 prize pool – the largest seen in Australia to date!
Is tennis Australia breaking barriers?
The event is hosted by Tennis Australia in what marks their first major involvement in the professional pickleball space. It’s also the first time pickleball has been featured at a tennis Grand Slam event. Tennis Australia have previously expressed interest in working with (read: absorbing) Pickleball Australia, however, that never eventuated. Instead, the organisations sit side-by-side. It is promising that TA are showing interest in the sport, and with the largest single-event prize pool seen in Australian pickleball on offer ($104k AUD total), it seems to be more than just an acknowledgement of the sport’s existence.
Australian Open Pickleball Slam – tournament essentials
- Dates: 24-26 January, 2025
- Venue: Court 3, Melbourne Park
- Format: Invitational team-based competition featuring six teams of four players, evenly split men and women, competing in a time-restricted rally scoring format
- Prize pool: $104,000 AUD
- Teams: 6 teams, 24 players total
The teams: Melbourne Laneways edition
The 6 teams are named after famous Melbourne laneways, which is pretty cool! Teams were randomly selected, then adjusted to ensure skill levels were as even as possible across the board.
Follow along the action: how to watch
- Join in person with an AO grounds pass at the Australian Open in Melbourne Park > Court 3
- Watch live via the AO stream service on the 9Now app or via the AO TV YouTube channel
- Peep the live scores and results via this link
What does this mean for the sport?
This could be the next big break for pickleball in Australia. With over a million people attending the Australian Open this year, the publicity is massive! Add in a spicy pb activation with Thanasi Kokkinakis in the middle of the city, and things are really cooking.
A few other predictions for future opportunities that could come from this:
- Tennis (handshake emoji) pickle: Could this be the start of a future where tennis and pickleball peacefully coexist? Will even more tennis players get around pickleball? Could there be pickleball grand slams?!
- PB featured at more large events: If all goes well, it would be great to see the AO pickleball slam become a yearly tradition! And, the largest event of all… could this bode well for pickleball’s olympic dreams?
- Proliferation of pickle venues: Until now, dedicated pickleball spaces exist but have been quite limited. A larger player base should make it easier to petition to local councils for more permanent courts around the country and likely more investors funding large venues.
What else do you think this could mean for pickleball?
Speaking of increased publicity… stay tuned through next week as the US PPA arrives down under. Read all about it here!
xx,
Tati
