Pickleball England has announced a record number of players are set to compete at the forthcoming English OPEN, as the sport’s popularity continues to soar.
Taking place from the 8th – 14th August at the Telford International Centre, the English OPEN will be the largest pickleball event taking place outside of North America, with a record number of almost 2,000 players from 42 countries set to participate.
The English OPEN will comprise seven days of high-level competition, with the world’s top professionals from America Europe and Asia set to take to the court in singles, doubles, mixed, wheelchair and junior events.
With ages from 7 to 70+ set to compete, the event is reflective of the incredible growth in pickleball over recent years, with the English OPEN now establishing itself as a tournament which stands alongside the biggest in America.
We are happy to announce FansPlay as our Official Fan Engagement Sponsor at this year’s 2024 Skechers English Open. Be sure to sign up FOR FREE! by downloading the FansPlay app on your mobile device.#fansplay #fantasysports #fanengagement #pickleball #skechersenglishopen pic.twitter.com/QXGXfoNNTu
— Pickleball England (@pbEKaren) August 5, 2024
With over 30,000 active players and almost seven hundred places to play in the UK, pickleball has seen exponential growth in recent years. Indeed, Pickleball England has reported a 41% increase in member registrations since the end of 2023, highlighting growth and interest in the sport.
A hybrid of tennis, badminton & table tennis, the sport’s popularity has been attributed to its accessibility. Easy to pick up and fun to play, the sport’s accessibility transcends demographics, providing it with universal appeal.
Speaking about the forthcoming event, Karen Mitchell, Chair and Co-Founding Director of Pickleball England said:
‘We are absolutely thrilled to have a record number of players from over 40 different countries sign up to take part in this year’s English OPEN. The Telford International Centre is the perfect venue to host an event of this scale, and we cannot wait to showcase the best of our sport. We have some of the world’s top players set to compete and I know the level is going to be high. We are hoping the English OPEN will inspire more people to try the sport and we’d love to encourage anyone to come down and watch if they’ve never seen pickleball played before - it’s perfect for all ages and abilities.’
This year’s English OPEN title sponsor is Skechers and the APP power the tournament by coordinating professional and next generation player attendance. Other key sponsors are Franklin, Gamma, HEAD, Diadem, ProXR and local company Knotty’s. Head to www.pickelballengland.org or @englandpickleball to find out more or use the Club Locator to find your nearest place to play.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here