Eugenie Bouchard has become the latest member to join the ongoing tennis vs pickleball debate as she issued a challenge to Nick Kyrgios for an on-court pickleball battle.After receiving a walkover in the opening round, 18th-seed Bouchard stunned the sixth-seed Lauren Stratman 11-5, 7-11, 11-0 in the Round of 16 of the Carvana Professional Pickleball Tour’s Fanatics Sportsbook NC Cup in North Carolina. This was the Canadian’s first singles win in pickleball.
Speaking at the post-match interview, the 30-year-old was asked about Kyrgios’ comments during his war of words with former collegiate tennis player and current pickleball professional Christian Alshon. The ongoing tennis vs pickleball debate on social media was first sparked by Alshon’s tweet, where he claimed pickleball required a higher skill level than tennis.The Canadian issued a challenge to Nick Kyrgios hoping to make him realize that both sports are completely different and explained the complexities of pickleball.
“Yes. Um I mean I’d love to play him out on the pickleball court like come out here Nick, let’s go. All of them will see that the skill is different, especially at the net like the soft touch game, the dinks, the drops, that is so different than tennis. Especially for me, I wasn’t exactly known for my touch games, so that like, working on that has been probably the toughest challenge.”
Eugenie Bouchard amid her pickleball challenge to Nick Kyrgios: “People think it’s an automatic transition and it is not”
Eugenie Bouchard admitted to having a hard time transitioning from tennis to pickleball and acknowledged the differences between the two sports after her first-ever pickleball singles win.
The Canadian revealed that she had been training in Dallas to get comfortable with the sport and said that people who think it’s easy for a tennis player to play pickleball without any trouble were wrong.
“Oh my gosh! I’m still out of breath cause I’m so nervous um .. first of all, my first match win was a walkover so as much as quarterfinals sounds amazing it was my actually just first match win at all, so I’m just so excited about that”, she said, via the aforementioned source.
“Um I’ve really just been putting in the hours you know, I went to Dallas a few times to train with the guys over there and just try to practice as much as possible, it’s um it’s really different than tennis. People think it’s an automatic transition and it is not”, Eugenie Bouchard added.
Bouchard lost her subsequent quarterfinal match to World No. 3 Catherine Parenteau 11-5, 11-4.