In A Pickle: Novak Djokovic to Play Pickleball Event After Suggesting It's Killing Tennis

When you're the cool kid, you don't need to ask people to hang out. Eventually, they'll come to you.

Right now, pickleball is that cool kid.

And even some of the biggest critics of our game – namely high-profile tennis players – are knocking on our door to see if we'll come out and play with them.

We'd like to officially welcome tennis star, legend, and 24-time Grand Slam singles champion Novak Djokovic to the dark – we mean, dink – side.

The HEAD NYC Mash Up event

Djokovic has signed up to play in The HEAD NYC Mash Up, a pickleball event being held before the upcoming US Open.

Jannik Sinner (currently No. 1 ranked on the ATP Tour) and Barbora Krejcikova (reigning Wimbledon champion and currently No. 8 on the WTA Tour) will also play alongside veteran pickleball pro Callie Jo Smith.

The event will be held on August 22nd from 6:40 to 8:00 p.m. ET and will be streamed live on HEAD's Tennis Instagram account.

Of course, not everyone – especially the tennis world – is excited about this news:

Djokovic playing pickleball?

In early July, we wrote about how Djokovic was very concerned about the growth of tennis amidst the popularity of pickleball and other paddle and racquet sports. He was quoted at the French Open as saying tennis was "in danger" unless something changed.

"Now we have padel tennis, which is growing and emerging. People have fun with that and say: ‘Yes, but tennis is tennis’. Tennis is the king or queen of all racquet sports, that’s true," Djokovic said. "But at the club level, tennis is in danger. If we don’t do something about it, like I said, globally or collectively with the growth of padel in Europe and pickleball in the United States, we’re going to see more tennis courts converting to padel and pickleball because it’s cheaper. 

"You have a tennis court and you can build three padel courts on the same space ... do the simple math. It is much more financially viable for a club owner to have that set-up."

Few would've guessed that after those comments, that change would be him holding a HEAD pickleball paddle instead of a tennis racquet.

Of course, we're completely stoked and happy to open the door to him.