History of Pop Tennis(Paddle Tennis)
Paddle tennis is a game adapted from tennis and played for over a century. Compared to tennis, the court is smaller and has no doubles lanes, and the net is lower. Paddle tennis is played with a solid paddle as opposed to a strung racquet, and a depressurized tennis ball is used along with an underhand serve. The same court is used for both singles and doubles, with doubles being the dominant form of play. The smaller court size adds a strong emphasis and advantage to net play and creates a fast and reaction-based game. The game is gaining reputation and has spread out in many countries in Europe, Dubai and even Egypt, where local leagues and tournaments are organized frequently.
What is over one hundred years old — but is now NEW, HOT, and POPPIN’? The answer is: POP Tennis!
According to the Carolina Paddle Tennis Association, Reverend Frank Peter Beal created the sport of Paddle Tennis in 1898. He saw Paddle Tennis as an activity for children and as a means for them to learn to play Tennis. His initial Paddle Tennis court was 18’ x 39’, exactly one-half the size of a regulation Tennis court. Players used a sponge-rubber ball and a wooden paddle. The much smaller court and the short-handled paddle allowed children to pick-up the game quickly; as a result, they enjoyed playing while attaining mastery of a racquet sport that prepared them to play Tennis.
Reverend Beal then moved to New York City in 1921, and the following year, the first Paddle Tennis tournament was held. During this time, adults began playing the sport and enjoyed how easy and exhilarating it was to play.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Paddle Tennis grew in popularity and spread to other cities, such as Los Angeles. In time, many adult players believed that a larger court would produce a better game; however, Reverend Beal wanted the court size to remain as it was. At one point, Murray Geller, who lived in Brooklyn, New York, became Chairman of the United States Paddle Tennis Association Rules Committee and held the position for the next forty or so years. Geller was passionate about Paddle Tennis and was largely responsible for growing it in New York City.
Early on, Geller began advocating that Paddle Tennis be played on a larger court—especially for adults. As a result, an “adult” court size of 20’ x 44’ was adopted (the same size as a Badminton, Pickleball, and Platform-Tennis court). Reverend Beal, the founding President of the United States Paddle Tennis Association for over 40 years, kept the smaller court for children.
By the late 1950s, the game’s popularity had grown—especially on the West Coast. Popular Tennis players, such as Althea Gibson and Bobby Riggs were playing Paddle Tennis and competing in its tournaments.
In 1959, Reverend Beal had a stroke, and thereafter, Geller began exerting more control over the game. Also during this time, the Brighton Beach Baths, in Brooklyn, New York, converted hand-tennis courts into 20 smaller-sized Paddle Tennis courts; and “BBB” soon became a hub for Paddle Tennis and remained so for decades to come. BBB spawned such national Paddle Tennis star players as Sol Hauptman, Jeff Fleitman, Jeff Lerner, Harold Kempler, Eddie Feldman, Mike Gansell, Dorothy Wasser, Nancy Bluttman, Sol Schwartz, Russ Garber, Kenny Lindner, and many others. Prestigious Paddle Tennis exhibitions were held at BBB, when Tennis luminaries such as Bobby Riggs, Tony Vincent, and Paul Cranis played matches against Lerner, Gansell, and Lindner. Both Lerner and Lindner defeated Riggs in singles, when Riggs was the reigning National Paddle Tennis Champion, and both dominated the singles tournaments for a number of years thereafter.
During this time of growth, Geller was convinced that the court was still too shallow for the powerful players of the game. As a result, in 1961, the official Paddle Tennis court was lengthened by three feet on each end in order to make it 20’ x 50’. Additional changes were also implemented. The sponge-rubber ball was replaced with a deadened tennis ball (one punctured with a hypodermic needle). The net was lowered from 33” at the posts and 30” in the center, to 31”, pulled taut across the entire width of the court. The overhand serve was also eliminated, and only one underhand serve was allowed. These changes were accepted by both the East and West Coast Paddle Tennis Associations and are still in effect today.
Throughout most of the 1980s, West Coast Paddle Tennis enjoyed great growth and popularity under the sage leadership of Greg Lawrence, who, like Geller, was passionate about and committed to the sport. Venice Beach became a main Paddle Tennis hub, boasting a plethora of enthusiastic players and a slew of exciting tournaments for all levels of enthusiasts. Additionally, private clubs, such as the Sand and Sea Club, the Jonathan Club, the Bel Air Bay Club, and the Beach Club, had Paddle Tennis courts and held tournaments of their own.
During this golden era of Paddle Tennis in Los Angeles, certain rules regarding the lob were eliminated, so that the full court could be used for any form of shot—be it a drive or a lob. It was during this time that teams such as Sol Hauptman and Jeff Fleitman; Sol Hauptman and Rick Beckendorf; Greg Lawrence and Brian Lee; and Mark Rifenbark and Steve Magid were excelling.
Thereafter, Scott Freedman and Sol Hauptman, along with the teams of Daryl Lemon and Ken Lindner, Doug Kolker and Ken Lindner, Russ Garber and Marcus Kramer, Ross Garber and Aldo Burga, and thereafter, Daryl Lemon and Kent Seton, established themselves as the top open POP Tennis doubles teams. It was during this time that Hauptman and Freedman established themselves as the all-time best doubles team. Around 2009, Freedman and Kent Seton won many of the National Open Doubles Championships. Additionally, after years of playing against all-time great open singles players, such as Vinnie Van Patten, Javier Santos, and Mark Rifenbark, Freedman also established himself as the best and most awarded singles player, ever.
Also during this time, Bill Brothers—lovingly nicknamed, “Mr. Paddle Tennis”—expended a great deal of time and effort to enable West Coast Paddle Tennis to grow and flourish. He, along with Scott Freedman, founded and maintain the Paddle Tennis Hall of Fame. The Paddle Tennis Hall of Fame has inducted the game’s very top and accomplished Open players, as well as those individuals who have played integral roles in growing Paddle Tennis. In addition to Brothers, Mike Cohen worked incredibly effectively to galvanize Culver City Paddle Tennis. Due to the great amount of respect and trust that players have for Cohen and what he has done for the game, he is known as ‘the Voice of Paddle Tennis.’
As the 1980s and 90s passed, two major events transpired. Murray Geller passed away, and Greg Lawrence left his position as the leader of West Coast Paddle Tennis. As a direct result, much of the growth of Paddle Tennis came to a halt. However, during the 1990s until today, Steve Farhood, Mitch Kutner, and Jackie Heller in New York City, and Mark Kempler in St. Augustine, Florida, have done wonderful work in keeping Paddle Tennis alive in their respective cities (For his exceptional work regarding Paddle Tennis, Jackie Heller was inducted into the Paddle Tennis Hall of Fame). Additionally, Mark Guion has done a marvelous job establishing and growing the Carolina Paddle Tennis Association.
Starting around 2010, John Coray became President of the USPTA and, along with Donald Land and Mark Groves, this trio has done yeoman’s work. Then, Steve Gumplo, followed Coray as the USPTA President. Thereafter, Daryl Lemon left the USPTA and, together with Dora Corral and Matt Denoff, formed the American Paddle Tennis Association, or APTA. Lemon has worked tirelessly as an ambassador for Paddle Tennis, the sport he loves and excels at. However, notwithstanding the excellent work of Coray, Gumplo, and Lemon, and their stellar colleagues, having two, well-meaning, but autonomous governing bodies of Paddle Tennis has allegedly caused some problems and conflicts.
One of these problems, has been that the USPTA and APTA have run separate tournaments, with each allegedly mounting its own “U.S. Open.” As a result, there has been no, one, West Coast governing body of Paddle Tennis, with the unfortunate result being that there is ambiguity for those who play and follow the game.
Additionally, there have been and still are major differences between the East Coast and West Coast games of Paddle Tennis. The West Coast version—which Murray Geller was adamantly against — in many instances, uses a restraining or “bucket” line, 12 feet from the net on each side. When this bucket line (which is for doubles play only) is in use, neither team may cross it until the receiver’s paddle has struck the ball. This is in direct contrast to the East Coast’s no-bucket style of doubles play, which resembles Tennis, in that it features no restraining line whatsoever.
The West Coast advocates of the bucket line believe that this rule allows for more rallies and shot variations, and its usage, therefore provides more fun and produces more skill development. The individuals who are against using the bucket line convincingly argue that it is almost impossible to effectively police it recreationally or during tournaments, unless you have excellent referees on hand—and they are very hard to find! Additionally, stopping at some arbitrary bucket line, as you are about to hit your volley, is counter-intuitive to individuals who play or have played Tennis.
So, for a myriad of reasons, Paddle Tennis is a fun, exciting, and thoroughly enjoyable sport that has been severely hampered by internal conflict, geographical rule differences, and by almost insurmountable brand confusion. For example, when individuals hear the name “Paddle Tennis,” many of them think it is Ping Pong, Platform Paddle Tennis (played on a wooden platform, surrounded by wire mesh), Paddle Ball, or, more recently, Padel (the Spanish version of Paddle Tennis, played with walls surrounding the court), Pickleball, or Beach Tennis—all of which, with the exception of Paddle Ball, are played with a racquet of sorts, a net, and a ball.
However, in 2014, two exceedingly beneficial things occurred. First, the new, young, charismatic, and exceedingly popular brother-team of Austin and Scott Doerner—who individually have achieved great heights in major college tennis—won their fourth straight U.S. Open Paddle Tennis Doubles Championship. As a result, two, fresh, highly-skilled perennial champions emerged. Additionally, a strong cast of top open Paddle Tennis players decided to take action in order to build and re-brand the sport that they love.
This core group of top open Paddle Tennis players (please see “POP Tennis Trailblazers”) set out to find a new, unique name for their great sport, and thereby eliminate much of the brand confusion that has enveloped it and had held its growth back for so long. It was Leo Recagni who came up with the name “POP”—or Popular Tennis—as in pop art, pop entertainment, and pop culture. It sounded fresh, open, inclusive, fun—and a sport of the people. All attributes of the sport we love.
So with new, state-of-the art racquets that POP, colorful clothes that catch the eye and POP, and fast exchanges and poaches that POP, Paddle Tennis was re-branded at the beginning of 2015, as POP Tennis — because “everything about our sport, POPS!”™
(A big thank you, is extended to Mark Guion and the Carolina Paddle Tennis Association for their excellent article from which much of the early Paddle Tennis history in this article is based.)