Players flock to Regina for Canadian pickleball championships

A few years ago, most people had never heard of pickleball before.

Now it’s one of the fastest-growing sports in Canada and hundreds of players are in Regina for the national championships.

The event is being hosted at REAL District, where the Queen City Pickleball Hub is located. The tournament has events for players of all ages and skill levels.

Karl Boutin travelled to Regina from Montreal for the tournament.

“I started playing eight years ago and I just (fell) in love with it. Now I’m a coach, a high-level player (and) also I referee,” said Boutin, who brought his wife with him to Regina.

He’s a Level 2 referee for the game and is getting some hours in at the tournament to get to a higher level.

Boutin said the game is fun and easy to get addicted to.

Pickleball is a racquet sport that has been described as a combination of tennis and ping pong. It’s played on a badminton-sized court 20 feet wide by 44 feet long.

The game includes a seven-foot zone in front of the net called “the kitchen,” which is a non-volley zone. The ball has to bounce inside “the kitchen” before it can be returned, and players cannot hit the ball out of the air in that zone.

Games are typically played to 11 points, and must be won by two.

For the championship tournament in Regina, games will be played in either a double-elimination format or a round-robin. It all depends on the number of registered players for each event.

There are 640 registered players at the championship, and more than 110 events for them to participate in.

There are so many events because the tournament is split into a number of skill and age categories, with players between the ages of 16 and 77 competing.

According to the president of Saskatoon Pickleball Inc., the provincial body that oversees the sport said there are 2,700 people playing it across the province. A recent study that had been completed showed there are more than a million people playing the game across Canada — and that number continues to grow.

This isn’t the first time the club in Regina has played host to a major event; it also staged the Saskatchewan provincial championships as well as the western regional championships.

Pickleball Regina is one of the largest active clubs in Canada.

The national tournament is slated to run until Sunday.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Nicole Garn