Pro pickleball’s overseas expansion has been one of the best things to happen to this sport. Tournaments in Vietnam, England, Spain, China, wherever the invitations are landing, are proof that the game has legs well beyond the courts we grew up scrapping on in the US.
But there’s a trend creeping into these events that deserves calling out, and I’m not going to dress it up: pros are accepting player packages, taking the compensation and then pulling out of matches for reasons that don’t hold up.
Here’s how it works. A tournament overseas wants to elevate its field, so it extends a player package to a pro. Travel, accommodation, appearance fee, the lot. In exchange, that player commits to compete. Fans buy tickets specifically to watch them. Local competitors sign up for the rare chance to share a court with someone they’ve only seen on a screen.
That’s the deal. It’s not complicated.
Then, increasingly, the player doesn’t show.
Tiredness. A vague injury. Conditions that “aren’t up to standard”.
Fine, except the same player is out on that very court an hour later, warming up for doubles or mixed and looking remarkably spry for someone who was supposedly too injured or exhausted to compete a few hours before.
I’ve watched it happen. We’ve all watched it happen.
Two players pulled out of singles citing injury, then were laughing their way through a doubles preparation session on the same roll-out courts they had just declared unfit to play on.
That’s not an injury. That’s a preference.
Let’s talk about the “conditions” excuse specifically, because it’s the laziest one.
Roll-out courts. Temporary nets. Less-than-ideal lighting.
I get it. Nobody is saying these setups are typical of what players experience in the United States. But has everyone forgotten where this sport was eight years ago?
We were playing on gym floors, courts with taped lines and nets held up with sandbags. The rest of the world is racing to build the infrastructure we take for granted now, and they’re doing it because players like us showed up and made them believe it was worth building.
Pulling out because the courts aren’t US Tour standard isn’t protecting your brand. It’s insulting the exact growth you’re supposedly there to support.
Contrast that with Jack Munro in Vietnam.
If you're following how the global game is shifting week by week, the World Pickleball Report breaks this down every day in our morning briefing.
Jack became properly, seriously ill on that trip. He was sick enough that pulling out would have been the obviously correct call, and nobody would have said a word against him.
He played anyway.
When I asked him why, he didn’t hesitate. He had accepted a player package, and that came with an obligation. People had shown up specifically to watch him.
He saw himself as an ambassador for the sport in a market that was still deciding whether pickleball was worth its attention, and he wasn’t going to be the reason that impression soured. He pushed through because the commitment mattered more than his own comfort.
That’s the standard.
“When a tournament spends thousands to bring you across an ocean, they are buying your presence, your professionalism, and your respect for the community that invited you.”
Pro Tour Tournament Directorate
Nobody is asking players to compete through something dangerous. But there’s a real difference between “I am genuinely unable to play” and “I’d rather not, given the circumstances”, and pros know which one they’re in when it happens.
If you’re not prepared to honour that difference, don’t accept the package.
Simple as that.
We are guests when we travel to play these events. Guests who are being paid, fed, housed and given a platform specifically because organisers believe our presence will elevate the sport in their market.
That’s a privilege most of us didn’t have access to when we started.
Treating it as disposable, cashing the commitment and then opting out the moment the setup isn’t to your liking, does real damage. It hurts the fans who bought tickets, the local players who trained for the chance, the organisers who staked their event on your name and every pro who comes after you and now has to prove they’re not going to pull the same move.
Show up.
Or don’t take the package.
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Lee Whitwell
OpinionsLee Whitwell is the current world #1 ranked senior female professional pickleball player, a two-time MLP MVP, coach, author, and entrepreneur. A former professional tennis player, Lee has built a reputation as one of the sport's most respected educators and…
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