Brian Ashworth, right, runs down the ball while playing in the men’s doubles 35-plus expert gold-medal match with teammate Rob Davidson during the Pacific Northwest Classic pickleball tournament at Bend’s Pine Nursery Park on Friday. (Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photos)

The far northeast corner of Bend’s Pine Nursery Park was abuzz with activity Friday.

The parking lot was full, and hundreds of spectators and waiting players lined the fence outside the facility’s 16 pickleball courts.

On each court, a neon-yellow plastic ball was flying back and forth. Some of the points seemed to last forever on the first day of the USA Pickleball Association Pacific Northwest Classic.

“Ninety percent of the time you have really exciting points,” said Tony Tollenaar, a nationally ranked player from Portland who was waiting to play a men’s doubles match. “There’s a lot of strategy to it. When you have equal teams playing each other, there’s a lot of setup to the point and to the game. There’s just a lot of excitement. Typically you’re getting into a pretty good rally. It’s not uncommon to see a 25-, 30-hit rally.”

Excitement and accessibility seem to be the draws of pickleball, a relatively new sport (reportedly invented in the Seattle area in 1965) that continues to surge in popularity. Bend is hosting the Northwest Classic for the eighth straight year. The tournament serves as a qualifier for the 2020 USAPA nationals in Indian Wells, California.

More than 500 pickleball players — ranging in age from 12 to 90 — were expected to hit the courts at Pine Nursery Friday through Sunday. The tournament includes brackets for men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles.

“It’s not as hard on the body as tennis,” said tournament director Anne Reynolds. “It’s a smaller court. It’s just an easier sport to transition to, and many tennis players are moving into pickleball, even the younger ones. Now a lot of tennis courts are not being used, and they’re transforming them into pickleball courts.”

According to the USAPA, pickleball combines elements of tennis, badminton and pingpong. Pickleball is played with a somewhat rectangular paddle and a plastic ball with holes. The game is played on a badminton-sized court with a modified tennis net. Rules and scoring are similar to tennis, but players must serve underhand and only the serving team can score points.

Pickleballers play within their age groups and skill levels, which include 3.0 (beginner), 3.5, 4.0, 4.5 and 5.0 (expert). Their skill levels can fluctuate quarterly based on their performances in USAPA tournaments, according to Reynolds.

Tollenaar, 52 and a 5.0-rated pickleball player, was an avid tennis player, racquetball player and golfer when his father introduced him to pickleball in Sunriver several years ago. One day, they played for four hours.

“That was seven years ago and I haven’t picked up my golf clubs or my tennis racket since that day,” Tollenaar said. “The culture is very inclusive. I was very fortunate to start in an area where we had a lot of high-level players. So I got introduced at the right time. It’s really for everybody — family, friends, couples and those who want to compete at a high level. You can easily find a spot to land in pickleball.”

Reynolds said that there are many father-son and mother-daughter doubles teams in pickleball, as well as families who share the sport across three generations. Doubles is more popular than singles, she noted, because singles requires players to cover more of the court and is therefore more difficult.

While pickleball is no doubt popular among retirees, the sport is also experiencing a youth movement, according to Tollenaar.

“It’s always been viewed as a sport for older players, but I can tell you that there’s a lot of youth coming up in this sport,” he said. “Your top players are your 18- to 35-year-olds.”

Bend’s Sara Curtis, 51, was waiting for her singles match Friday as she watched the dizzying action on the courts. Curtis is new to the area and new to pickleball — she moved to Bend from New Hampshire just two months ago, four months after picking up pickleball.

A tennis player in high school, Curtis this weekend is playing in her first pickleball tournament.

“I had heard about it (pickleball) for a long time,” she said. “I wanted to play for a long time, and when I found out I was moving to Bend and it was so popular here, I decided to take it up. It’s a little more accessible than tennis. You can easily find a group of people to play with, even if you’re just starting out. You can have a lot of fun, even with just basic skills.

“It’s fast-paced, social, and there’s a fair amount of smashing the ball, which is always fun.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0318,

mmorical@bendbulletin.com