By Matt Wright
For the American professional pickleball player Erik Lange, the motto “bigger is better” proved true at the Skechers English Open: In front of a considerable audience, he won gold in the men’s doubles alongside Max Manthou.
Lange and Manthous exciting 11-9 7-11 11-9 The victory in the final over his compatriots Richard Livornese and Jack Munro attracted more and more spectators to the show court of the Telford International Centre.
The 2024 English Open was the largest pickleball event outside North America, with a record-breaking participation of nearly 2,000 players from 42 countries.
There are now over 30,000 people playing the sport in the UK and over 700 venues to play. Pickleball has experienced exponential growth in recent years.
Lange said: “We enjoy performing in front of an audience.
“Yes, this sport is about pickleball, but it’s also about entertainment. So the more people we can get into the stadium, the more we make ourselves feel special and the more fun we have playing pickleball.”
“This is my first English Open and hopefully not my last.
“It’s a great place and I really enjoyed interacting with the locals here, the different accents they have and the friendliness they all have.
“In addition to pickleball, exploring the Telford community was a pleasure I will never forget and I hope to return next year.”
Lange’s triumph alongside Manthou, who had previously won the men’s singles title at the event, was part of seven days of high-level competition in Telford that highlighted the rise of pickleball.
An inclusive event for people aged seven to over 70 and of varying ability levels, the English Open was a resounding success for Pickleball England, which has seen a 41 per cent increase in member registrations since the end of 2023.
When asked how hard it was to win the gold medal in Telford, Lange replied: “There were so many ups and downs in that particular match.
“Max and I have been playing together for about six months, we play in all the regular tournaments, we play on an MLP (Major League Pickleball) team all over the states and we have very good chemistry.
“We go into each of our games with great confidence.
“The young guys we played against today are part of the APP (Association of Pickleball Players) NextGen team and they honestly played great.
“This is the best game I’ve ever seen from Richard. Jack is a bit of a more accomplished player, but Jack is on the rise and he played really well.
“It was close the whole time, the three games were close and we happened to get a few points right at the end that were the most important for the win.”
Pickleball England has announced a record number of players who will compete in this year’s English OPEN from August 8-14 at the Telford International Centre, the largest pickleball event ever held outside the USA – visit pickleballengland.org
