PicklePod: "I'm Happy to Say I Was Wrong About Pickleball" w/ John Isner

John Isner holds the record for hitting the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) fastest "official" serve at 157.2 MPH.

He was also ranked as high as world No. 8 in singles and No. 14 in doubles during his career and recorded 16 singles titles.

He dropped by the PicklePod this week (subscribe here) with Thomas Shields and Zane Navratil to talk tennis, pickleball and plenty more on an entertaining episode.

The legendary Isner tennis serve

John Isner's serve is legendary. At his peak, no one could touch his power, proven by the fact that he's the all-time ace leader in tennis.

Zane is also legendary for his serve in pickleball – the 'Zanesaw' – which was outlawed in 2023.

Two great servers of their respective sports talk shop and discuss what pickleball would be like if they changed the serve rules.

Isner's original thoughts on pickleball

John started playing pickleball three years ago and has enjoyed it since the beginning. He says tennis will always be king of the racquet sports, but he is really enjoying playing pickleball.

Originally, he didn't buy into the concept of pro pickleball or that it was something that could last before admitting, "I'm happy to say I was wrong."

When Sam Querrey made the jump from pro tennis to pro pickleball, John confessed: "I thought he was joking."

Once he saw Sam, Jack Sock, and Donald Young all begin to take it seriously, he realized there was something worth pursuing.

What's John's DUPR?

"If Ben (Johns) is a seven, then I think I'm a 3.5," is John's answer when Zane and Thomas ask him to guess his own DUPR.

Clearly, John is not familiar with DUPR scores, since his DUPR actually turns out to be a 5.276.

Djokovic takes the court

One of the most significant pieces of news this week was Novak Djokovic playing a little pickleball at the NYC Mash Up event presented by HEAD.

Get Isner's reaction to this and hear what he thinks about the backlash The Dink receives whenever we mention someone from tennis going into pickleball.

Are tennis guys grinding in pickleball?

According to John, tennis pros playing pickleball aren't training nearly as hard as they had to with tennis. Part of it is that pickleball isn't as strenuous, but it's also because pickleball is taken less seriously for most of them.

Zane asks Isner what he thinks Jack Sock's ceiling is if he does spend the next year getting really serious about pickleball. According to Isner, he'd be the best.

Questions from the boys

"The Boys" referred to during this segment include:

• Sam Querrey
• Wes Burrows
• Donald Young
• Jack Sock

Zane received a few questions from these guys to ask Isner while on the PicklePod. The segment starts strong with Zane saying, "I heard Querrey tried to kill your dog."

It turns out that this is 100 percent true, and according to Isner, "Sam is soulless."

If you liked this episode, you can watch the new podcast "Nothing Major," which features these good friends spending time talking tennis and pickleball.

Zane's stance on the serve rules debate

After John signed off, Zane and Thomas spend the rest of the podcast talking about hot topics in pickleball.

First on the list are the rumors surrounding possible serve changes coming to pickleball. Zane provided his opinion to The Dink earlier this week.

He explains this stance further on the pod.

Hear what Zane thinks is the answer to the serve (spoiler alert: he believes it's the drop serve), while Thomas offers his rebuttal.

You can also hear what he thinks the real reason for the serve change is, ONIX suing over thermoformed paddles, and results from PPA Bristol.