Bend hosts first pickleball tournament

This weekend, Bend hosted for the first time a USA Pickleball Association-sanctioned tournament at Juniper Fitness Center.

Pickleball — think ping-pong played on a small tennis court — may be considered the nation’s fastest-growing sport.

More than 100 participants from five states played on the eight tennis courts.

It’s a fairly simple game comprised of rules that come from volleyball, badminton, tennis, table tennis and racquetball.

Each game takes about 20 minutes and is played to 11 points.

“You get a little bit older, you don’t have quite the wheels that you do, you can’t quite cover a whole tennis court or the front to back of a racquetball court quite as well, and you still got all the speed necessary,” said A.J. Fraties, president of Bend Pickleball Club.

He said it has “all the net play and everything else that makes a competitive sport fun, and can also bring all the other sport skills into it.”

The average player at the tournament was over 50, but some winners have been in their 20s.

Bend doesn’t have an official court yet but the Pickleball Club is hoping to get one some time next year.