Clijsters, Blake and Roddick debate pickleball: "On the down side, it’s easy, and people tend to wanna watch sports that aren’t"

Andy Roddick and several other former players debated the sudden rise of pickleball with Murray sceptical about it.

The sport has seen a sudden spike in popularity this year with many former tennis players jumping onto the bandwagon. Judy Murray promotes the sport in the UK and she jokingly said that the sport could overtake tennis which seems far-fetched. Other former players like James Blake and Kim Clijsters became owners in the newly formed professional league for the sport.

They defended it when Tennis Channel's Brett Haber noted a negative about the sport:

"Here’s the biggest problem with Pickleball I’ve seen so far: I beat the head pro at my club tonight 11-0 — in the first singles match I ever played. And just to alleviate the suspense: I ain’t that good. As you were."

Blake responded:

"So you got to a proficient level very quickly. That’s a problem with a sport so now you can play with many different levels in a short amount of time? So you and I could probably play together sometime and it would be fun for both of us. Would that be true in tennis for us?"

Clijsters added:

"I beat most of my tennis coaches in singles too ;-)"

Roddick jumped into the debate as well asking Clijsters:

"Did you beat them the first time you ever played singles?"

He then added:

"It’s strengths are its weaknesses. On the plus side, it’s not hard, so everyone can play (except for the head pro that Brett skunked in his first attempt) On the down side, it’s easy, and people tend to wanna watch sports that aren’t."