Pickleball got its start in the late 1960s in the Seattle area, and has exploded in popularity in the 2020s. Pickleball is often described as “tennis with a whiffle ball” and is often played on a court lined onto an existing tennis court, so it is common to ask how pickleball courts differ from tennis courts. Here are some quick answers to some of those common questions.
What’s The Difference Between Tennis and Pickleball Courts?
Tennis and pickleball courts have different size dimensions and net heights. Tennis courts often include doubles alleys, while pickleball courts have no doubles alley concept.
Both pickleball and tennis courts have service boxes lined out, but the service rules are quite different. In tennis, the service box is nearer to the net, while in pickleball the service box extends all the way to the baseline.
The biggest difference between tennis and pickleball courts is the presence of the “Non-Volley Zone,” colloquially known as “the Kitchen.” Each side of a pickleball court has a line painted 7 feet from the net that forms this zone, and players cannot hit a ball out of the air while standing in this area. Tennis has no such zone; players can stand right behind the net and return shots.
Tennis Court Dimensions
A standard tennis court is 78 feet long and 36 feet wide, including the doubles alleys. A tennis net ranges in height from 36 inches in the center of the net to 42 inches at the posts. Tennis courts sometimes exclude the doubles alleys, which cuts the width of the court from 36 feet to 27 feet.
Pickleball Court Dimensions
A standard pickleball court is 44 feet long and 20 feet wide, and does not have separate lines for doubles. Pickleball nets are slightly lower than tennis nets, ranging in height from 34 inches in the center to 36 inches at the posts.
Interestingly, a standard pickleball court is the exact same dimension as a standard international badminton court. Why? Because the inventors of the game back in the late 1960s already had a badminton court chalked out on their property and decided to use those dimensions along with spare equipment to invent what is now known as “pickleball.”
Because pickleball courts are a bit more than half the length of a tennis court, they are often lined onto existing tennis courts. One tennis court can easily support two pickleball courts, and if there’s enough room on the sidelines fully four pickleball courts can be lined out onto one tennis court space.
Can You Play Pickleball On A Tennis Court (And Vice Versa)?
Certainly, players can try to play tennis on a pickleball court and vice a versa, but rallies would be difficult to maintain and the specific skills and strategies of each sport would not be in use. Tennis players hitting tennis balls with full swings on a pickleball court would be inherently dangerous to opponents, and pickleball players attempting to return a whiffle ball the full length of a tennis court would struggle to get to the shot before it bounces twice.
How To Make Adjustments To Play On Each
Singles pickleball strategy is quite similar to serve-and-volley tennis, where shot selection, hitting to space, athleticism, and working court angles is the key to success. This is why tennis players naturally adapt to pickleball, bringing top-spin heavy ground strokes and power to the game.
Doubles pickleball is an adjustment for tennis players, who can no longer rely on baseline technique to win points. Doubles points frequently end up with all four players at the net hitting controlled dink shots and looking for attacking opportunities. This play is almost never seen in tennis and requires significant paddle control.
Pickleball players moving to tennis have to adjust their mindset back to ground stroke mechanics and their service motion. The serve in pickleball is an underhanded mechanism to start the flow of play that mostly is not designed to be an offensive weapon, while the serve in tennis is an overhanded motion that can and is a major offensive weapon for many players.
Bottom Line
Many people describe pickleball as “mini tennis with a plastic ball.” If you are a tennis player, pickleball is a very natural sport to try because it will leverage all your current tennis skills. Join the tens of millions of Americans already playing pickleball!
