Limited courts is a source of tension between pickleball and tennis players

Pickleball players and tennis players are running into problems over court space

Pickleball has become one of the fastest-growing sports in North America, especially for older adults. It's also led to tension with tennis players, whose courts are now being overtaken by pickleball players, with some municipalities adding pickleball lines to tennis courts.

Pickleball's ubiquity has led to a culture clash with tennis

Since the late 1800s, tennis has been the world’s premier racquet sport. But in the late 2010s, rapid growth and investment in Pickleball changed that dynamic. This Cult Tennis video explores the newly created tension between tennis and Pickleball players, both on and off the courts.

Pickleball's popularity has created a power struggle

The sport's sudden rise has led to a tumultuous landscape with battles over governance, court space, and player rights. This Sports Illustrated deep dive examines the competing billionaires vying for control, the conflicts over court usage and noise disputes, and how a second proposed Hall of Fame is dividing the sport.

Pickleball's popularity has exploded in recent years

Pickleball has seen rapid growth in the US, with around 50 million Americans playing in 2022. It doesn't appear to be slowing any time soon.

Pickleball combines elements of tennis, badminton, and table tennis

In this video, That Pickleball Guy walks you through the serve and two-bounce rules, what is “the kitchen,” and teaches five ways to win a rally.

Carmel, California, is looking into banning pickleball

Pickleball is the fastest-rising sport in the US, but it's not without its controversies. Chief among them is noise, which Carmel, California, a wealthy enclave on the state's central coast, seeks to remedy with a ban on the sport. It would be the first in the state.

Pickleball was originally intended for children

Bell and Pritchard only created the game to occupy their children's attention on vacation. As they continued playing the game, they began developing rules as-needed.

Pickleball injuries were responsible for $350M in medical costs in 2023

Unsurprisingly, picklers over 50 account for 90% of the injuries, with the most common being sprains, strains, and fractures. Experts say a substantial pregame warm-up can prevent most injuries.

One Connecticut prison is using pickleball for rehabilitation

The Pickleball for Incarcerated Communities League started in 2023 at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Hartford, Connecticut, but has already expanded to other facilities across the state. Inmates say it's been transformative. The program has plans to expand to other states.

The origin of the sport's name is disputed

How pickleball got its name has been a point of contention for decades. The McCallums claim the family dog, Pickles, used to snatch the balls as they played and named it for him. Joan Pritchard, though, says Pickles didn’t join the family until after the game was invented.

Pickleballs' loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels

That's about the same level as a hammer striking a nail. Luckily, it's not quite as loud for a player on the receiving side of the net, at about 80 decibels, though that's still quite loud—it's equivalent to heavy traffic.

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

Why professional tennis players are so picky about balls before serving

Just as swimmers shave their bodies before competitions to swim faster, experiments show that tighter, less fluffy balls experience less drag forces when moving through the air and thus produce faster serves at the cost of less control. Players may select a fuzzier ball in scenarios that call for safer, more cautious play.

Modern tennis was formalized in 1874

In the late 1800s England, a growing middle class could afford homes with lawns. With more lawns in England, Major Walter C. Wingfield saw an opportunity to bring lawn tennis to the masses. Modern tennis was formalized in 1874, when Queen Victoria granted a patent for Major Walter C. Wingfield's lawn tennis box set. The game was an instant hit, and by 1877, the new All England Club in Wimbledon began hosting a tournament.

Bowling was long male-dominated, but women pushed for change through the sport

The sport was often played on lawns attached to breweries and became a leisure activity for folks in taverns—mostly men, in the 1800s. But the game's highly communal nature attracted a more diverse set of participants who pushed for social change.

Court-packing is the attempt to change the number of Supreme Court justices to shift the balance

Because the Constitution leaves the court's size to Congress, presidents have periodically sought to expand or reshape it. This explainer examines past efforts—including Franklin D. Roosevelt's failed 1937 plan—and why court-packing remains so controversial.

Can courts end partisan gerrymandering?

This podcast explored whether courts can rein in partisan map-drawing, focusing on North Carolina's 2023 redistricting battle, the Moore v. Harper case, and the controversial "independent state legislature" theory.

Billie Jean King on playing tennis before Title IX

Before Title IX, tennis legend Billie Jean King not only had to deal with limited resources; she also had to deal with isolating experiences, like being excluded from team photos at Long Beach State and being told to "get lost" by male teammates. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Tennis match interrupted by 'Cotton Eye Joe'

Tennis players require extreme focus as they volley on the court, and officials typically enforce significant noise standards during play. So it was quite a shock when the 1995 hit "Cotton Eye Joe"—as recorded by Swedish Eurodance band...

Tribal courts handle justice on reservations, but face strict limits on whom they can prosecute

Reservation-based courts handle civil and criminal cases, but federal law sharply limits their authority over non-tribal members. As a result, non-Native individuals who commit crimes on reservations often fall outside tribal jurisdiction, creating potential gaps in accountability.

Courts referee federalism disputes between Congress and the states

Modern federalism is primarily worked out through litigation. The Supreme Court decides disputes in written opinions that explain when federal law preempts state authority, how far Congress's powers extend, and when states may resist.

MLB pitchers were charged with benefiting from sports betting

In November 2025, two pitchers for the Cleveland Guardians were charged with coordinating with sports bettors to enrich themselves and others. In many instances, they shared the kinds of pitches they would throw at specific points in the game. Bettors then placed money on those actions.

The Maya played a ballgame that symbolized the conflict between good and evil

Played on I-shaped courts across Mesoamerica, the Maya ballgame was a ritualized sport tied to cosmic struggle. Contrary to popular belief, the game did not involve mass sacrifice or basketball-style scoring.

The history of the NIT, college basketball's other tournament

When people refer to March Madness, they're referring to the annual NCAA tournament, the most popular event in college basketball. Often overlooked is the National Invitational Tournament, or NIT, which is viewed as a consolation prize for teams that fail to earn bids to the NCAA. However, the NIT began as the premier tournament until it was eventually beaten out (and ultimately acquired) by its competitor.

A 2004 brawl led to a strict dress code for NBA players

After the Malice at the Palace brawl between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons, Commissioner David Stern wanted to tamp down the league's bad-boy image, instituting a business casual dress code for all players on the sidelines and at team-sanctioned events.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Some attorneys are using true crime fans to their advantage

True crime fans are notorious for falling down rabbit holes. Now that passionate interest is being exploited by attorneys marshaling influencers to serve as informal public relations representatives, a trend that's blurring the lines between fan theories and reality.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.