Will Vietnamese people eventually get tired of pickleball?

Just before the SEA Games, Vietnamese sports fans received great news when Ly Hoang Nam won the prestigious PPA Tour Hangzhou Open 2025 pickleball tournament.

Ly Hoang Nam brings great joy to Vietnamese pickleball fans - Photo courtesy.

The strengths are also the weaknesses of the pickleball.

Undeniably, pickleball is the sport in which Vietnamese athletes have the best chance of reaching the top ranks in the world.

In the world's top 30 according to the PPA Tour rankings, there are three Vietnamese players: Phuc Huynh, Hoang Nam, and Vinh Hien. This is something that Vietnamese fans will never have the opportunity to see in tennis – a similar sport, and perhaps even table tennis and badminton for many years to come.

If pickleball can make it to the Olympics, Vietnamese people can absolutely dream of the day when a Vietnamese athlete wins a gold medal at the Olympic Games in a professional sport.

Unfortunately, to this day, pickleball has yet to make it into the SEA Games. The Olympics will probably remain just a dream for pickleball.

A few weeks ago, the sport suffered a major blow when the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) recognized and included padel in the Asiad (Asian Games) competition program.

Padel is also a racket sport that is a variation of tennis, considered a major competitor to pickleball in its globalization efforts.

In terms of player numbers, padel may be at a disadvantage compared to pickleball, as the latter is more expensive and requires a more complex playing field – specifically, four sides of the field are enclosed in a glass enclosure (made of high-quality tempered glass).

But in terms of top-level performance, padel surpasses pickleball in attracting a large number of professional sports stars. For example, both Ronaldo and Messi consider padel their second form of exercise after football.

Top sports stars like Ronaldo choose to play padel instead of pickleball - Photo: INSTAGRAM

And padel's qualification for the Asian Games is a big step forward, showing they are very close to the Olympics, while pickleball is still struggling to find its way into the SEA Games in the Asian race.

The pickleball's strength is precisely its weakness when compared to the padel – its ease of use.

Many studies indicate that the average number of shots in professional padel play is 10-11, with an intensity of approximately 0.80 shots/second. In contrast, the corresponding figure for pickleball is only 5-6 shots, with an intensity of 0.65 shots/second.

Simply put, padel requires more complex techniques and offers a different feel compared to tennis – a sport already very popular with Westerners. Athletes, choosing a truly unique sport, would opt for padel over pickleball – a sport too similar to tennis, yet considered an "easier" version.

Pickleball trend trap

Pickleball's defeat to padel in the race to qualify for the Asian Games also points to a truth: in Asia, almost only Vietnam is "obsessed" with this sport.

A survey by the PPA Tour published last month showed that Vietnam has the highest percentage of players in Asia, and four times higher than China – a country that also develops pickleball.

On a global scale, pickleball has developed almost exclusively in the United States. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that 15 out of the top 20 players on the PPA Tour are Americans.

This raises a question: can a sport develop sustainably if the number of countries where the movement is widespread is too small?

Tim Murphy, a sports investment expert, calls pickleball a "passing fad," and advises investors to avoid being "trapped by the trend."

Top pickleball players are not actually recognized as professional athletes - Photo courtesy.

"The entire pickleball business model is just a passing fad. It's everywhere, and it seems like every business is chasing this trend."

But people are forgetting one big truth - pickleball is a trend that's popular today, and gone tomorrow.

What makes you believe that if your son tries this sport today, he'll continue playing it in about five years? If it were tennis, I'd be sure of it. But pickleball? Not necessarily.

"This sport has never produced athletes who have become world-renowned figures, and probably never will. Pickleball has existed in the US for decades, but it has never achieved that," Murphy analyzed on LinkedIn.

The fact that so few countries play pickleball prevents it from being included in major sporting events. This also makes its journey to becoming a professional and mainstream sport even more difficult.

If pickleball continues to develop in isolation, will Vietnamese people get tired of it? That's entirely possible, once similar "fun, easygoing" sports emerge in the next few years.

Pickleball is far inferior to badminton and table tennis.

Pickleball is often compared to tennis, but in reality, at the professional level, it lags far behind badminton and table tennis.

A simple factor to consider is the prize money. Despite making history at the PPA Tour - Hangzhou Open, a major Asian tournament, Ly Hoang Nam actually only received $5,000 in prize money.

This figure is significantly lower compared to other badminton tournaments of the same level. For example, the Singapore Open, a relatively large Super 750 tournament in the badminton system, awards $75,000 to the champion.

The Hong Kong Open, a Super 500 tournament (intermediate level), awards a prize of US$37,500 to the champion, and the Macau Open, a Super 300 tournament (smaller level), also awards a prize of US$28,000 to the champion.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguoi-viet-roi-se-chan-pickleball-2025120619530208.htm