Pickleball National Championships now underway in Farmers Branch

FARMERS BRANCH, Texas - The 2023 USA Pickleball National Championships are underway in North Texas!

By now, you've probably heard of or even played pickleball.

"Anybody can play. Grandchildren can play with their grandparents, it’s a very equalizing sport," said Gerry "Ay, Caramba" Meyer.

The 60-year-old Meyer has played the sport for 8 years.

"You get to hit 10 times as many shots in Pickleball as in tennis because it’s you know it’s such short range and intermediate," he said.

The national championship Brookhaven Country Club in Farmers Branch officially kicked off Sunday, but tournament competition starts on Nov. 6.

Tennis is the go-to pickleball comparison.

"Some of them even say table tennis, or you know you get some other different sports," said professional pickleball player Rianna Valdes.

Valdes played professional tennis before turning pro at pickleball.

She's competing at the 2023 USA Pickleball National Championships at Brookhaven Country Club in Farmers Branch.

"This is huge for our city. We’ve got about 3,500 participants that are playing," Terry Lynne, Mayor of Farmers Branch.

Organizers say the event is the world's largest-ever pickleball tournament.

"This is the first time they’ve ever done anything this big," said Lynne. "We have people that have come here from as far away as the Mariana Islands, that’s 8,000 miles away."

Professionals and amateurs will compete on dozens of courts throughout the week. Brookhaven went through a $5.3 million renovation to prepare for the tournament.

USA Pickleball and the Professional Pickleball Association moved the tournament from California to DFW because it's centrally located in the country.

"Pickleball, you can grab a paddle and right away, you can dink the ball back and forth, you can kind of move it around, you know you’re already having fun," said Valdes.

Pickleball was invented in 1965, but it's been the fastest-growing sport in the country.

"Give it a try. It's the most fun you can ever have," Meyer said.

So much fun that Gerry Meyer says it's a sport in which he no longer uses a foul mouth when things don't go his way.

"I developed ‘Ay, Caramba’ so if things go wrong I just say ‘Ay Caramba’ so I don’t get in trouble with the referees," Meyer said.

On Tuesday, several famous faces will take the court in the Celebrity Pickleball Showdown.

Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Romo, Jason Kidd, Tyler Seguin, Scottie Scheffler and John Isner will play at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

The professional division will start to play on Wednesday, Nov. 8.

The winners for the pro events will win a $150,000 purse, the largest in the history of the tournament.

For the fans, they put together ‘Pickleball Boulevard’ with interactive activities and plenty of food and drink inspired by Texas.

There will also be live musical performances every night.

Organizers expect more than 25,000 people to attend the event.