Victoria Azarenka joins Break The Love to launch custom pickleball paddles in Cincy

Break The Love is on a mission to break down any and all barriers that keep people away from the courts. Whether it’s tennis or pickleball, the rapidly growing sports booking platform creates ‘virtual racquet clubs’ by connecting potential players to each other and to court spaces.

They were back at it in Cincinnati, where Break The Love unveiled a limited-edition capsule collection in collaboration with partner Walmart during a weekend of pickleball play and instruction ahead of the Western & Southern Open.

Hosted at Ace’s Pickleball + Kitchen, the two-day event drew sports fans and local players—and featured an appearance from former WTA world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, who gamely gave pickleball a try and chatted up fans during an exclusive meet and greet.

“Break The Love is a mission-driven sports booking platform,” said Kim Patel, Break The Love’s Chief Operating Officer, in an interview with Cincinnati’s Fox19. “We have around 40,000 spaces in our platform across the US for people to play any type of racquet sport they want.

“Our goal has always been to ‘break the country club’ and democratize access to sport, so this year we partnered with Walmart to actually provide 125,000 free reservations for pickleball across the country. All you have to do is go to our website and upload a receipt from Walmart.”

To celebrate the partnership, Break The Launch launched a collection featuring custom racquets, arts and accessories featuring the gorgeous artwork of Cuban-Bahamian artist Reyna Noriega. Her pieces have been featured in Apartment Therapy, HuffPost, Mitu and Teen Vogue and more, and will now be available to Walmart+ customers that sign up on site at upcoming Break The Love x Walmart community events.

This is one of 25 community events planned in cities across the country, which will feature play, instruction, giveaways and more. Walmart customers and associates will also receive exclusive perks like peak reservation times, co-branded swag, meet and greets with pro-pickleballers.