How much of a threat is pickleball to tennis, or can the two co-exist?

The countdown to the 2023 season is underway. As we close in on the start of the new, dual-gender United Cup (December 29), TENNIS.com's writers will debate the 10 biggest questions heading into the new tennis year.

How much of a threat is pickleball to tennis, or can the two co-exist?

Jon Levey: The heart says tennis will be just fine, but the head has concerns. I don’t think tennis is going anywhere—it has history and an infrastructure on both professional and recreational levels. Other paddle sports have bubbled up over the years and attracted participants, but tennis remains a sport for more serious athletes and competitors. However, pickleball is making significant inroads on the casual player and has gobbled up court space and time. There’s even a pro league backed by the likes of LeBron James and Tom Brady. If this trend continues, tennis could eventually be seen as the little brother in the relationship.

David Kane: Much as pickleball has captured the public's imagination, the war between it and tennis is largely imagined. The apoplectic tone tennis fans take when it comes to where pickleball fits in the racquets sports discourse ignores the fact that the racquet sports ecosystem has always been large. Racquetball, anyone? How about squash, or padel, or ping pong?

Pickleball is just another sport, one that has become an interesting avenue for tennis players looking for a change: both Noah Rubin and Sam Querrey expressed interest in making the switch in 2022. Is it in any danger of consuming tennis entirely? Absolutely not: the two sports aren't similar enough for one to supplant the other. Pickleball will eventually level off, and the sooner that happens, the sooner its detractors find something new to complain about.

WATCH: Pickleball round-up at the Orlando Cup

Joel Drucker: Listening to lovers of these respective sports disparage one another turns my stomach. I cringe when I hear a pickleball player use the words “take over” to describe their plans for tennis. Ditto for when a tennis player calls pickleball “the dark side.” Perhaps the very uncertainty and divisiveness that’s so much a part of our world today has compelled some folks to feel the need to take a stand, even with two leisure activities. But certainly, it’s possible for tennis and pickleball to thrive concurrently. After all, two sports that each involve a racquet-paddle, a ball and a rectangular-sized court already share at least a few forms of common ground. Here’s hoping the next year gives all the chance to find peace. The world can use all it can get.

Steve Tignor: With its deep-pocketed backers, pickleball made itself the talk of the sports world, for better or worse, in 2022. This was considered bad news for tennis; in the fight for court space, pickleball was on the offensive, and tennis in retreat.

The first thing to do in 2023 is admit that pickleball is here to stay, stop seeing it as a threat, and learn to live with our new sidekick sport, the way skiing learned to live with snowboarding. Some tennis-club owners will tell you that converting a court or two to pickleball has helped them stay in business. More important, as pickleball gets younger, there will be more opportunities for tennis to position itself as the next step up on the racquet-sport evolutionary tree.