Jason Peery played varsity tennis in high school. As an adult, he hit the court six days a week for decades. But in 2019, he discovered the strategy and fun of pickleball. “I was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t think I’m literally ever going to play tennis again.’”
Mr. Peery, 55, lives in American Fork, Utah, and was so taken with the sport that he eventually started playing and coaching professionally. In almost seven years, he’s picked up his tennis racket only once, to appease a friend who wanted to play.
“I don’t have room in my heart for two,” he said.
Forget Yankees versus Red Sox: Today’s fiercest sports feud may be between tennis and pickleball, since the latter’s popularity soared during the pandemic. Tennis players take umbrage as pickleballers gobble up their courts. Pickleballers, aware they’re the new kids, are “trying to fight for legitimacy,” Mr. Peery said.
Racket sports broadly are on the rise — padel courts are popping up across the United States, and the 2028 Olympics will include squash for the first time. But tennis and pickleball are clearly America’s favorites. Tennis participation reached a record 27 million players in 2025, according to the U.S. Tennis Association. Pickleballers are in hot pursuit, with a new report estimating that 24.3 million Americans played in 2025, 24 percent more than in 2024.
Tennis has long enjoyed its status as one of the world’s healthiest sports, combining both physical and mental rewards. But while pickleball has been around since 1965, research into its potential benefits has only surfaced in the last few years. Like tennis, it offers a full-body workout that combines cardiovascular exercise, strategy and social interaction, improving strength, balance and endurance. Paddle to racket, though, how do they stack up for your health?
Health Benefits
When it comes to cardiovascular benefits, tennis — with its larger court, long rallies and full-body swings — probably has the edge over pickleball, said Dr. James O’Keefe, director of preventive cardiology at St. Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute.
A 2023 study conducted by Apple, with the American Heart Association and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, compared more than 250,000 tennis and pickleball sessions and found that tennis provided a more intense workout, with players consistently maintaining higher heart rates than pickleballers.
But pickleball, because of its smaller court and its many fast volleys at the net, is “probably better for reaction time, and maybe even for balance,” Dr. O’Keefe said.
Injury Risk
As with any sport, pickleball and tennis come with a risk of injury, but it’s hard to say whether one is safer than the other, said Dr. Spencer Stein, an orthopedic surgeon at NYU Langone who specializes in sports medicine.
Tennis players, Dr. Stein said, tend to have upper extremity injuries related to overuse, like tennis elbow, or shoulder issues that stem from overhead serving. Pickleball players, on the other hand, often suffer tears or tendinitis in the knee, which can come from rapid pivoting and repetitive jumping. One of the most common pickleball injuries, particularly in older players, is a ruptured Achilles’ tendon, typically caused by constant pushing off and lunging. (Training your tendons, slowly and with weights, can help prevent this.)
Dr. Stein attributes the recent rise in pickleball injuries, including wrist fractures and eye injuries, to its popularity and to the fact that many players are new to racket sports.
Pickleball’s selling points — it’s easy to learn, accessible to all ages and played with a lightweight paddle and a plastic ball — may create a false sense of security.
“You have this misconception that it’s a super safe sport,” Dr. Stein said. But it still requires quick movements and takes place on a hard surface. It’s crucial to warm up and increase activity slowly, she added.
In 2025, in the first nationwide study to comprehensively look at pickleball injuries, almost 70 percent of players reported having injuries, though most were relatively minor.
The players most predisposed to injury were middle-aged and older men who were new to the game but played frequently, said Dr. Olu Owoeye, director of the Translational Injury Prevention Lab at St. Louis University and an author of the study.
Social and Mental Benefits
A wealth of research has demonstrated that strong social relationships are associated with longevity and well-being.
A Danish study that followed 8,577 people for more than two decades found that tennis players lived almost 10 years longer than sedentary people, and slightly longer than those who cycled, swam or played soccer. Dr. O’Keefe, who worked on the study, said he felt that was mainly because of the social aspect of racket sports.
Longevity studies to date don’t usually include pickleball, but there is data showing that it can keep up with tennis when it comes to happiness, life satisfaction and overall mental health.
“You cannot be playing pickleball or tennis or badminton with people on a regular basis without becoming good friends — it’s just so joyous,” said Dr. O’Keefe, who took up racket sports a few years ago.
All things being equal, “I would say that pickleball may be a little bit more social,” said Dr. Amy Chan Hyung Kim, an associate professor in the department of sport management at Florida State University.
That is certainly true for Mr. Peery, who likes that it’s commonly played as a doubles game and in “open play” sessions, in which players of all ages and backgrounds drop in.
The Bottom Line
Recently, tennis champions like Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf have embraced pickleball, a move that Mr. Peery said had helped bridge the gap between the sports’ fans. “I think there’s kind of like this détente right now,” he said. “Maybe both sports can coexist.”
Tennis and pickleball are among the best workouts you can do to live a longer, healthier life, Dr. O’Keefe said. While tennis often gets your heart rate up higher and pickleball may be easier on the joints, what matters is that you do something.
“Most people are not deciding between tennis and pickleball, they’re deciding between doing physical activity or not,” he added. In other words, whichever one gets you off the couch and onto the court is the one that’s better for you.
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