Amateurs and pros alike meet in Rockwall for pickleball tournament
ROCKWALL (CBSNewsTexas.com) – What's considered the largest pickleball tournament in Texas is taking place at the Oasis Pickleball Club in Rockwall – with 300 pros and 1,500 amateurs competing on 40+ courts.
"It's breaking a lot of records for us," Professional Pickleball Association's Hannah Johns said.
"I'm new in pickleball so I've been seeing these amazing facilities all over.. it's crazy," professional Jaume Martinez Vich said. "I think the growth of pickleball, it's amazing."
Players say one of the biggest appeals about this sport is that you can play at any age.
"You can learn within 20 minutes and be able to rally," amateur Krystyan Lazarin said. "So you can take your family out there, your kids, your spouse, which is something you can't do in most racquet sports if they've never played before."
North Texan and longtime tennis player Lazarin picked up the sport during COVID and says it quickly became an obsession. One unique thing about the tournaments is that amateurs get to play by the pros.
"You don't really see that," Lazarin said. "Normally, the pros have their own events and you buy tickets and you're pretty much a spectator. I tell people take it while you can because I don't know how long that will last with the growth of it."
This weekend, the pros are competing for around $250,000 in prize money as well as entrance into the USA Pickleball National Championships which will take place in Farmers Branch in November.
If you want to check out the tournament for yourself, tickets are still available here.