Leaving Tennis for Pickleball

Date	02/04/2026
Tags	Tennis Pickleball Sports

TL;DR

Pickleball feels like it fits my life, goals, and social life better. Tennis will always have a spot in my heart but it's taking a backseat for now.

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I have a lot of mixed feeling about this as weird as that sounds for someone to have who isn't a professoional in either sport. I really like tennis. It has been a great creative outlet for me in terms of being physically active, photo, and web. I really enjoy watching grand slams and other level ATP tours (despite it being difficult, more on that below). I fully understand I am not a good tennis player by any definition. I enjoy rallying, and scoring points. I have never been competitive, but strictly a social enjoyer of the sport. With that being said, I still feel like the sport of tennis is working against me.

Why pickleball?

It's inexpensive.

I can play at open play for around $10 for 2 hours of open play. This is incredibly inexpensive for a couple hours of entertainment and light exercise. A full month membership at an indoor pickleball location is around the price of 1 hour at an indoor tennis complex. This makes it very approachable when everything is becoming more expensive.

Why not tennis?

It's expensive.

I know it doesn't always need to be, and the equipment I have isn't the most expensive and that isn't the problem. It's court time/availability. I am located in the Northeast and that means we have some long and cold winters. A lot of the public courts around here have their nets taken down in the winter. Even if they didn't, the snow and cold makes it either not enjoyable or impossible to play outdoors in the winter (and sometimes even spring/fall). There is only one indoor complex in the surrounding area of which I live, and it's not cheap.

To rent a court for 1 hour it is anywhere from $50 to $68. For a single hour. That does not include a ball machine to practice on, to rent a ball machine it is an additional $10. So we are looking at $60-$78 just to play for an hour during the winter. "Why don't you rally with someone then and split the cost?" If only it were that easy, more on this in my next point below.

It's not popular.

Okay, hold on for a second. Hear me out. When I say it's not popular, I am saying it's not popular here. I don't know anyone else that plays tennis. My wife would come and rally with me a little bit but there are plenty of other things she would rather do. Like I mentioned above, it makes it more expensive to be a solo player. God-forbid I find enough people to play double with AND find a time when all 4 schedules line up. I've scoured the local outdoor courts as well for a practice wall that is intended for the use of tennis practice and none of the courts in this area have one. This increases the need for a partner to play with which is increasingly difficult.

It's hard.

This is a positive and a negative for me. I enjoy the challenge, I really do. At the same time, it makes it really hard to just hand someone a raquet and ask them to come play when handing someone a pickleball paddle is much less intimidating. I also fully acknowledge I will not do anything in tennis at a competitive level. I play for fun. I play all sports at this point in my life, wether it is running a 10k, playing tennis, soccer or anything else. Pickleball is fun. Tennis is too, but sometimes it's just too hard for me and I can admit that.