Cnn
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Nerves were rarely a problem for Steffi Graf During her decorated tennis Career, even if she found herself to play on the greatest stages of sport many times.
“I did something with which I was so comfortable, that I made all my life,” said Graf, who won 22 titles of simple big slam and spent a female record 377 weeks as The world n ° 1, says CNN Sport. “I knew all the ins and outs.”
It was therefore perhaps a surprise, 25 years after his retirement from tennis, that Graf was suddenly seized by nerves while playing in front of a large crowd. This time, the circumstances were different from what she had experienced during her professional career: the courtyard was smaller, the racket lighter and the game occurred at Lightning Pace.
It was not tennis but stingA game with which Graf has only known for a few years. To give meaning to the emerging popularity of sport, an ESPN cutting -edge audience of almost a million looked at that she and her husband Andre Agassi beat John McEnroe and Maria Sharapova in Hollywood, Florida last year.
“It’s such a quick game, things can happen so quickly that you don’t have time to accelerate in a match,” said Graf about playing in the 2024 Pickleball Slam 2 event. “You don’t Do not know the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents and it was so unknown. ”
Not entirely disturbed by the experience, Graf, 55, will appear in a successful competition, Pickleball Slam 3, in Las Vegas on Sunday, playing alongside Agassi and against the other stars of Tennis Andy Roddick and Eugenie Bouchard. A $ 1 million handbag is at stake and the action will also be a television live on ESPN.
Many Americans would never have heard of pickleball before the Pandemic of Cavid-19, but now, for the fourth consecutive year, it claims to be the fastest sport in the country. It is estimated that 48.3 million adults played it at least once between 2022 and 2023, according to The Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP), which represents almost 19% of the total American population.
It is increasingly common to see megastars like Graf and Agassi get involved in pickleball. Beyond tennis, Tom Brady And LeBron James have invested in professional teams, while Hollywood actors Catherine O’Hara and Willem Defoe were filmed on the ground in a recent advertising of the Super Bowl.
A large part of this popularity, thinks Graf, rests with the accessible pickleball.
“You can see progress so much faster than in tennis,” she says. “The fun factor is immediately there, and the game equalizes a little more, playing more double and mixed … You have the impression that everyone you know can just jump.”
Graf and Agassi are aimed at playing once or twice a week, perhaps more in the accumulation of an event such as pickleball slam 3. Years of experience in professional tennis, of course, contributes greatly to excel in the Sport, but maybe not as much as you think.
The small 20 -foot terrain on 44 feet means that pickleball is played with a greater emergency feeling than tennis, lending themselves to those who count on quick reactions and sweet hands in other racket sports. In other words, not GRAF.
“For me, it was really a lot of unlearning and in fact, it was one of the things I really enjoyed because it really challenged me,” she said.
“I like to hit the ball in tennis, but no, not in this match. This is much more feeling, choosing to reset and remove the speed than driving the ball. So patience is not my strength. I appreciate it really withdraw me from my comfort zone a lot of times.
Graf easily admits that Agassi, who played in the three Pickleball slams, is the best player between the two.
“It’s so good,” she adds. “And he played a little more, he is physically stronger and faster. His meaning for this game, how quickly he picked it up, was absolutely phenomenal to look at.
“Not that I have not seen him in other sports in which he is so good, but he picked it up and he loved the analysis, since the start of watching videos and other clips. When he leaves and plays with some professionals, he will have very specific questions he needs to answer to improve. »»
Agassi, eight times Grand Chelem champion in single on the tennis court, has become a vocal defender of pickleball. Promote sport in India recentlyHe defended tennis as “the most difficult racket sport in the world”, but praised pickleball as a more accessible alternative.
“It will grow as you cannot even imagine,” said Agassi, adding that he could “absolutely” see the pickleball in Olympic Games.
The debate is underway to find out if tennis is threatened by the growth of games such as pickleball and palettewhich is particularly popular in Europe. These are undeniably some of the racket sports that is easier to play, but tennis as a show has a more historic meaning and its best players are among the most convincing, the most skilful and the most physically impressive athletes.
Graf’s point of view is that tennis and pickleball complement each other, the latter’s growth creating only “more options” for recreational racket sports players. And almost three decades after her retirement from tennis, she relies on events such as Pickleball Slams to feed her competition instinct.
“You cannot remove the competition from us,” said Graf about playing with and against the old tennis stars. “He tends to get it in this way.”
And in this spirit, there will undoubtedly be a lot of nerves once again when she heads towards the court in Las Vegas on Sunday.