Tim Henman takes on the Telegraph's Simon Briggs in pickleball with his partners. Photo: Sion Sylvester for The Telegraph
“Terrible people!” said Tim Henman, tossing a yellow plastic ball and hitting it with a rectangular racket.
Henman complained about the lack of etiquette in pickleball, a new and aggressive form of indoor tennis. When a pickleball player wins a point thanks to a lucky net cord, he or she would rather celebrate than make a Wimbledon-style apology.
Yet despite Henman's misgivings, he loves competition, and soon that famous buttoned-up buttons, the athlete shot at the winners in all directions, and then offered his signature crooked grin.
In a sport that pulls all four players forward towards the goal, a volleyball player with a serve is sure to excel. His punches soon found their mark — sometimes in the faces of his opponents, a practice that insiders call «body bagging.» I had a bruise above my left knee that lasted a week.
Pickleball is an American invention of the 1960s, conceived by a group of businessmen who wanted to entertain their moody teenagers during the long summer holidays. But only in the last decade has it become widespread in the United States, like the racket-sport equivalent of Japanese knotweed.
Progress has been slower on this side of the pond. But last fall I discovered a pickle party at the Beaverbrook Hotel in Surrey. Two tennis courts have been converted into four pickleball courts, making this the first hotel in the UK to offer the sport.
As a founding partner of Beaverbrook, Henman attended the launch day, although he needed to be reminded of what he signed up for. “Are you ready to shoot my first padel throw?” he asked upon entering the court for the first time. Right idea, wrong tennis spin-off, because Beaverbrook's padel court, surrounded by a squash-style wall, is located further down the hill.
Being a pickleball virgin, I also needed instructions from the two pros leading the session, Thaddei Locke and James Chaudhry. They demonstrated the correct swing form—more like an underarm throw than the side kick used in tennis—and shouted “foot fault!” as I stepped forward into the restricted area known as «The Kitchen».
As expert as this training was, it wasn't enough to get me through a doubles match against Henman and fellow Oxonian Laura Bailey, a model and photographer. Playing alongside Beaverbrook co-founder Joel Cadbury, I managed to stay away from The Kitchen, but I still couldn't handle the heat.
If it felt like a baptism of fire, it was partly due to my tactical naivety. When elite pickleball players get together, they slow the game down by throwing the ball low over the net. These soft hits, known as «dinks», are impossible to attack with any confidence, and they also lead to an overabundance of those lucky lanyards I mentioned earlier.
Unfortunately, such sleight of hand was beyond my comprehension. And because I was serving too many juicy high balls, the game, which was played to 11 points, seemed to unfold at the speed of light. I was often still mulling over my previous shot when Henman's volleys zipped past winners or into my breadbox. With teams standing no more than 15 feet apart, the pickleball champion needs a caffeinated rattlesnake response.
A small crowd of wealthy guests and Beaverbrook members was gathering, so Taddea and James split the four of us and used all the courts. Now the tinny sound of a plastic ball hitting a plastic bat has become a real racket, punctuated by screams of rage or triumph. Imagine a grandfather clock in an interrogation center: “Click, click, click, Aaaaah!, click, click, Yes!, click, click.”
Tim Henman demonstrates his backhand. Photo: Sion Sylvester for The Telegraph
That signature pickleball sound has its critics. Not only is the «plink» of head on head less pleasing to the ear than the deep «thwack» of felt on strings, but there is more chatter and shouting because the players are so close to each other. This distance of 15 feet is completely different from the tennis distance of over 85 feet.
This is one reason why pickleball is not popular among planning committees. Luckily, Beaverbrook — a property once owned by the king of the military press, Lord Beaverbrook — is located in its own private valley, away from its nimble neighbors.
While pickleball is still a curiosity in the UK, it's a big deal in the States has already made a lot of noise. There are nine million regular players, including celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and George Clooney. LeBron James is one of several basketball stars who own shares in professional pickleball teams, while famous rocket players such as Eugenie Bouchard and Sam Querrey have crossed over from tennis.
This rapid expansion created a series of turf wars. Traditionalists are furious about the tennis court conversions (the city of San Diego hired a parks management expert to mediate between the two camps) and about TV networks showing pickleball matches before regular tennis tours. One ESPN blockbuster pitted Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick against John McEnroe and Michael Chang.
John McEnroe appears in blockbuster television movies with pickleball. Photo: Manny Hernandez/Getty Images
So where does Henman stand? A key member of the Wimbledon committee, he personifies the tennis establishment. However, at this early stage he seemed quite calm about the emergence of pickleball on the British scene. More than that, actually: he seemed positively excited.
“I was really impressed by how diverse it was,” Henman told Telegraph Sport. “I saw it on television in the States and wasn’t particularly interested. But there are a lot of tactical elements to it when you play it, and it rewards the smart thinker as much as it rewards the one who hits the ball hard. Additionally, in terms of participation, the barriers to entry are much lower than in tennis. The ball is much easier to control.”
Easy to control, eh? I knew the bruise was no accident.
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