December 20, 2024 4:44 PM

Tennis-Australian Open to provide platform for pickleball from 2025

The Australian Open will embrace one of the fastest growing sports in the world when it hosts the inaugural AO Pickleball Slam on the final weekend of next month's tennis major with $100,000 in prize money. Invented in 1965 by a group of American friends, pickleball is a fast-paced paddle sport similar to tennis and badminton played on smaller courts using a perforated plastic ball, and interest has skyrocketed in recent years. Melbourne Park's court three will transform into pickleball centra...