Novak Djokovic has warned tennis that they face a big threat from pickleball and padel, with club tennis “endangered” moving forward.
Growth of similar racket sports has made a dent in tennis’ popularity, despite huge crowds flocking to Wimbledon, as Djokovic issued a very clear message.
“Now we have the padel … that is growing and emerging,” Djokovic said. “People kind of have fun with it and say: ‘Yeah, but tennis is tennis.’ Tennis is the king or queen of all the racket sports, that’s true. But on a club level, tennis is endangered.
“If we don’t do something about it, as I said, globally or collectively, padel, pickleball in [the] States, they’re going to convert all the tennis clubs into padel and pickleball because it’s just more economical.
“You have one tennis court. You can build three padel courts on one tennis court. You do the simple math. It’s just much more financially viable for an owner of a club to have those courts.”
