FILE PHOTO: Karen Povall and Mike Foster play pickleball against Marianne Christensen and Chris Corbett during the 2023 Ballpark Series at Fenway Park, home of Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., July 14, 2023. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo
(Reuters) - The pro tour for pickleball, the popular paddle sport similar to tennis, table tennis and badminton, will make its first foray outside the U.S. with events in Australia, India, Canada, Asia and Europe next year, organizers said on Thursday.
The U.S.-based Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) tournaments will mark the first time ranking points will be awarded to players competing internationally as organizers look to replicate the explosive growth of the sport overseas.
The inaugural international event will be held in Melbourne beginning on Jan. 29 before heading to Mumbai in early February and Toronto in September.
Tournaments in Asia and Europe at locations yet to be announced will follow, all leading up to the World Championships in Dallas in November.
"The United Pickleball Association... is excited to bring the best players and events in the world to new corners of the globe in the first true international pro pickleball tour," said Anne Worcester, strategic advisor for the UPA, the parent organization of the PPA Tour.
Worcester is the former CEO of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and the PPA's ranks include former Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard and two-time Olympic medalist Jack Sock, who retired from the ATP Tour last year.
The hottest names on the PPA Tour are 17-year-old women's world number one Anna Leigh Waters, world number one in doubles and mixed doubles Ben Johns, and top men's singles player Federico Staksrud of Argentina.
The fast-paced paddle sport using a perforated plastic ball was invented in 1965 and interest in it has skyrocketed in recent years.
It is currently the fastest growing sport in the U.S., with a 52% increase in participants from 2022-2023, according to the UPA.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Toby Davis)
