As the first person in Finland to play pickleball, Tuomo Antikainen knows what it takes to spread the word, and he has praised Pickleball England for the way they have managed to rapidly grow the sport in this country.

Antikainen first took up pickleball just over a decade ago – a time when the sport was unknown in his nation - when a friend moved back home from the United States, bringing a set of balls and paddles with him.

The 58-year-old from Helsinki has been ‘in love ever since’ with the sport, and plenty in his country have since followed suit, with an estimated 1,000 playing in a country that does not yet have a pickleball governing body.

The growth there, aided by Antikainen organising tournaments himself, has been part of a massive surge in popularity for the sport around the world in recent years, with the United Kingdom at the forefront.

Speaking at the English Open at the Telford International Centre, Antikainen said: “Everything has become bigger by the year.

“This is twice the size as last year, which is insane because last year was huge and in 2022 [at Southampton] they had 750 pickleball players and that was on tennis courts, and then they ran out of courts.

“They had 28 courts there and they now have 40 courts here, so everything has got bigger.

“In my opinion England is light years ahead of any other country in Europe in pickleball, in terms of how to grow the sport, how to multiply the number of everything, including clubs, the coaching systems.

“Clubs are run by dedicated people who love the sport and you can see it here; you have 800 people competing at the Nationals.”

To emphasise Antikainen’s point, the 2024 English Open was the largest pickleball event to take place outside of North America, with a record number of almost 2,000 players from 42 countries set to participate.

Over 30,000 people around the United Kingdom now play the sport and there are over 700 places in which to play, with pickleball displaying an exponential growth in recent years.

Antikainen is impressed with the depth starting to emerge in England, saying: “What really strikes me, compared to Finland for example, is the people even at the lower levels want to compete in tournaments.

“They come because they love the sport and they don’t get frustrated or annoyed while playing in a tournament where they might lose because they want to learn, they want to have fun, they want to meet different people and they want to have the experience.

“Whereas in Finland we have lots of players, but when I ask them to come and play in tournaments, they worry they aren’t good enough and are intimidated.

“It’s sad because these are not so serious events, especially at the lower levels.”

Pickleball England has announced a record number of players competing at this year’s English OPEN from the 8th-14th August at the Telford International Centre in the largest pickleball event taking place outside of the USA EVER – visit pickleballengland.org