Should pickleball have rivalries?

DALLAS, TX – University of Michigan and Ohio State. Yankees and Red Sox. Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens. Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier. These are some of the greatest and most iconic rivalries in sports.

Both team and individual rivalries are a staple in athletics across the globe. There’s nothing more exciting than seeing players or teams go head-to-head in an epic battle. The stakes are high, the crowd’s excited, and the winner gets bragging rights until the next encounter. Some of the best moments in sports come from rivalries.

But, do these kinds of iconic rivalries have a place in pro pickleball?

Pickleball’s most comparative pro sport, tennis, has its fair share of rivalries, most recently involving Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, who’ve met 59 times throughout their careers.

Julian Arnold is among the most vocal competitors on the PPA Tour during matches. PPA Tour

The format of pickleball tournaments makes creating rivalries rather difficult at the highest level because a lot of pros play gender doubles together and then battle in singles competition. It would be a little strange if Catherine Parenteau and Anna Leigh Waters supported each other en route to a gold-medal victory in doubles, only to then heckle each other in singles, right?

Once the number of pro players increases, pickleball rivalries could look more like tennis rivalries when top athletes shine in one event as opposed to all three. Top pairs could rival each other in doubles, and singles would have a different set of individual rivals.

At this point, there are certainly some budding rivalries in America's fastest-growing sport. There's Collin Johns and Julien Arnold. These two have been clashing for a few years now, and there’s no sign that things are going to change anytime soon.

Pro pickleball is young compared to some of the more established leagues in other professional sports, so there is no long-standing rivalry like the Lakers and Celtics. Leagues are being built from the ground up, and with such brief histories the potential for rivalries feels a bit unnecessary at this point.

Pickleball has a lot of room to grow when it comes to viewership and tournament attendance, so perhaps fostering rivalries over time could be the solution.

The thing about rivalries is they create buzz and anticipation. There’s inherent tension and build-up at the prospect of certain players or teams finally facing off again after a previous contest. Fans arrive at the venue prepared to support their favorites until the very end.

It’s the joy of competition.

Tyson McGuffin always loves showing emotion. PPA Tour

Nevertheless, rivalries can get ugly. It’s not hard to find horror stories of players and fans taking a rivalry too far. Banter is fun, but genuine aggression is not. One could argue that the sheer intensity of rivalries can sometimes push people to engage in off-putting behavior.

Look at Connor McGregor, who’s become a textbook example of a master pot-stirrer and trash talker by regularly calling out his opponents in press conferences, weigh-ins, and on social media to generate buzz for an upcoming fight.

Rivalries like these can often feel more like stunts designed specifically to increase viewership. Sometimes, all the hateful trash talking leads to an anti-climactic result that leaves viewers feeling like the build-up was more about clickbait than an actual rivalry.

On the King of the Court podcast, PPA pro Tyler Loong stated: “There’s no place for that here,” referencing trash talking he’s personally witnessed on the court.

Loong has a point. Pickleball doesn’t need unnecessary cruelty and verbal cheap shots. We want a nice, clean game.

Maybe a little verbal sparring wouldn’t hurt, though. I respect and praise pros for showing good sportsmanship and not being sore winners or losers. And I certainly don’t want this kind of behavior on the rec or junior courts. But on the pro level, I think there’s room for a a few more outbursts, call-outs, and tension.

After all, don’t we all love the moment when we’re sitting in the crowd watching Jaume Martinez Vich make it to Championship Sunday and engage in some good banter with his opponent?

A little taunting and teasing on the court is fun. It shows personality and embraces the spirit of competition. After all, they are pro athletes. They are here to win, and their opponent is standing in their way.

Rivalries add excitement and bring a bigger sense of community to a sport that can be pretty individualistic. Now, the spectator next to you in the stands is either your friend or foe when they cheer on one player and you’re rooting for the other. It gives the fans a way to connect with each other, too.

Rivalries feel a bit inevitable given the nature of sports. And I look forward to seeing what pickleball’s iconic rivalry will be.