CITI Open: Pickleball Exhibition

I wanted to share with you my experience participating in the USAPA’s first sanctioned event…a pickleball exhibition at the CITI Open.

Pickleball Exhibition at a Tennis tournament

The CITI Open is a professional tennis tournament that acts as a warm-up event for the US Open. The tournament contacted the USAPA asking that we put on an event in conjunction with their tournament. Christine Barksdale coordinated all the activities for this event and did a great job. She asked me to organize the players’ exhibition and clinic that was offered to 64 participants.

I participated as a Head representative as did:

Lucy Kovlova (representing Engage),
Simone Jardim (representing Prince),
Irena Terashanko (representing Paddletek),
Tyson Mcguffin (representing Selkirk),
Matt Wright (representing Engage),
Joey Farias (representing Gearbox), and
Chad Williams (representing Prince).

As you can see from the list above, we were able to get the support of many of the top players and this allowed many of the paddle companies to be represented as well.

it took a lot of volunteers

Of course, you can’t pull off an event like this without the support of a lot of volunteers. The local USAPA Ambassador Helen White organized the local volunteers who taped off 8 courts and supplied clinic participants with food and drink. Jack Thomas, USAPA President, provided commentary during the Livestream of the exhibition and Laura Patterson came out to act as the referee.

We were a bit concerned that the event would be rained out, but with the help of scores of volunteers, we were able to offer the event as planned.

Exciting future

I think it is so exciting to see tennis facilities, tournaments, and professionals reaching out to the USAPA and embracing our sport. I’m pleased that so many tennis professionals have signed up as members of the PPR as well. Our move the Indian Wells Tennis Facility for Nationals this year is just one more example of this trend. If your local tennis club is interested in a pickleball exhibition, I hope you will work with Christine and the USAPA to promote our sport.

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