Novak Djokovic weighs in on exponential growth of padel and pickelball

After his 6-0, 7-6(1) victory over Rinky Hijikata, it was clear to see that the former world No. 1 was in fine form and in a good mood.

During his post-match press conference, the 24-time Grand Slam champion was asked to give his verdict about the growing popularity of pickleball and padel.

Pickleball participation has grown by 311% over the last three years, with 41,000 additional padel courts being built around the world since 2016.

"Well, I think that the future, at least on the recreational club level of the tennis clubs, will be racquet clubs, to be honest," said Djokovic.

"I think the growing popularity of pickleball in this country, but overall padel, more than pickleball globally, is so big and so vast, it's such a great - you know, padel, for example, is such a great sport for recreational players who never maybe held a racquet in their hands. Easier to learn to play padel than tennis, certainly. And it's fun. You know, it's social and it's engaging.

"So I think that the future of the clubs is definitely a hybrid between all these sports. On a professional, competition level, I'm not sure. But why not?

"I think obviously if tennis being the king or the queen of all the racquet sports, you know, attracts the most people and attention.

"We have big tournaments, and padel is globally relatively, as pickleball, a relatively new sport, so it's going to be interesting to see the rise of these sports and on a professional level, see how people, whether they are interested or not to watch the tournaments, but padel has been growing very rapidly."

Both racket sports have become a common occurrence at many tennis and sport clubs, with the Paris Padel Major - a professional padel tournament - being held at Philippe Chatrier, the main stadium of Roland Garros, every September."They have had tournaments played at Roland Garros central stadium, for example, center court, Philippe Chatrier, I saw that. So there is an interest, for sure," recognised Djokovic.

"Why not? It could be fun to do, like, a little racquet sport, mixed racquet sport competition, you know. We can all try different sports and see how we do in different racquet sports, yeah.

"Plus I saw, I think, everyone probably saw that, this doctor was saying that people who play racquet sports live the longest. So, yeah, definitely play the racquet sports (smiling)."

The Serbian superstar is currently sitting on 99 career singles titles, one away from becoming just the third man in the open era to reach the century mark - after Jimmy Connors (109) and Roger Federer (103).

Djokovic, who has won six titles at the Miami Open, is looking to reach the milestone as soon as possible: "I'd love to celebrate the 100th win here.

"But let's see. You know, it's a long tournament. Just the first win. Of course it encourages me knowing that I can play the way I played today, but it's a long ride."

"Hopefully I can do well and I can get myself in a good position in the finals to fight for a trophy. That would be amazing. But let's see."

Djokovic will next face Argentina's Camilo Ugo Carabelli in the third round of the Miami Open.

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