Ask a hundred pickleball players to name one tournament, and most will name this one.
The US Open Pickleball Championships has been held annually in Naples, Florida since 2016. In 2026 it marks its tenth anniversary — a decade in which it has more than tripled in size and reshaped what a premier pickleball tournament can be.
The numbers are striking: over 3,450 athletes from 40 countries, and roughly 55,000 spectators. The event bills itself as "the biggest pickleball party in the world," and unusually for sports marketing, that's not much of an exaggeration.
But the scale isn't what makes the US Open interesting. What makes it interesting is who it's for.
The thing that makes the US Open different
Most major sporting events draw a hard line between competitors and spectators. The US Open collapses that line almost entirely.
The event's reputation was built on a specific pairing: world-class professional competition happening simultaneously with an unmatched focus on the amateur player experience. A 4.0 player from Michigan and a top-ranked professional can be competing at the same venue on the same morning. You can lose a bracket match at 9 a.m. and be in the stands watching a world final by afternoon.
This is close to unique in sport. It would be as if the US Open in tennis let club players enter, then had them play on courts next to Wimbledon champions.
The result is an atmosphere that attendees describe as festival-like rather than gladiatorial — food vendors, gear expos, live music, and a general sense that the tournament is an excuse for a gathering rather than the other way around.
The scale of it
3,450+ athletes. Most professional tournaments in most sports have draws in the dozens or low hundreds.
40 countries. Pickleball is often characterized as an American sport, and its center of gravity remains in the United States. But the international contingent at the US Open is substantial and growing — one of the clearest indicators that the sport's next decade will be global.
55,000 spectators. Arena-scale attendance spread across a multi-day festival, reflecting something important: pickleball has crossed the threshold from "sport people play" to "sport people watch."
Who plays the US Open
Almost everyone, is the honest answer. The tournament runs brackets across skill levels and age groups alongside the professional draws, serving several distinct populations at once:
- Touring professionals competing for prize money and prestige
- Serious amateurs who train specifically for this event
- Recreational players treating it as a bucket-list experience
- Senior players competing in age-group brackets, often at a very high standard
- Juniors — an increasingly significant category
If you're a competitive recreational player, the US Open is probably the single most attainable "major" experience in your sporting life. There is no equivalent in golf, tennis, or basketball.
Planning a trip to Naples
Register early. Brackets fill. This is the most oversubscribed event in the sport, and popular skill/age combinations close well before the deadline.
Naples in the spring is warm. Florida heat and humidity are a genuine performance factor, not a footnote. Players who travel from cooler climates routinely underestimate this and pay for it in their third match.
Budget for a long day. Tournament schedules run behind. You may play early, wait four hours, and play again.
Tickets for the US Open are available through Pickleball Den.
Book accommodation early. Naples is not a large city, and 55,000 visitors is a lot of visitors.
What to wear: this matters more here than anywhere
Nowhere is the gap between recreational play and tournament play more punishing than at the US Open, and the reason is simple: Florida.
You may play four to six matches in a day. Outdoors. In heat and humidity. On hard courts that radiate warmth back at you. Whatever you wear stops being a style decision within about ninety minutes and becomes an equipment decision.
Cotton is a trap. It absorbs sweat, gets heavy, stops breathing, and chafes. In Naples humidity, a cotton shirt is soaked and useless by the second match. Moisture-wicking synthetic fabric is basic equipment here.
Bring at least three shirts. Changing between rounds is one of the highest-leverage things you can do for late-day performance.
A hat and sunglasses are tactical equipment. Defending a lob against a bright Florida sky without a brim is a losing proposition.
Sun protection is non-negotiable. Eight hours of Florida sun will find any skin you leave exposed.
Footwear is foundational. Court shoes built for lateral movement — not running shoes — are what keep you stable across a long day on hard courts. Browse our pickleball and tennis shoes collection for options designed for the sport's side-to-side demands.
Test your kit before you travel. The tournament is not the place to discover that a new shirt chafes.
Watching rather than playing
If you're going as a spectator, the US Open is arguably the best value in the sport. Unlike most major events, where a ticket buys you a distant seat, the US Open gives you a sprawling venue with dozens of simultaneous matches. Watch a world-class professional match on the championship court, wander to a 65+ mixed doubles bracket that is somehow more tactically sophisticated, then browse a gear expo where you can demo paddles you've only read about.
Watch the amateur brackets, not just the pros. Some of the most instructive pickleball you will ever see happens in senior doubles, where nobody can run and everybody can think.
Why the tenth anniversary matters
Ten years is a meaningful threshold. It's long enough to establish tradition and short enough that most of the people who built it are still there.
The US Open's decade coincides almost exactly with pickleball's transition from an obscure recreational activity into a genuine sport with professional tours, franchise leagues, and international reach. The tournament didn't just witness that growth — it was one of the engines of it.
Pickleball is no longer proving itself. The question now is what it becomes: a durable mainstream American sport, or a genuinely global one. The 40 countries represented at Naples suggest the answer is being written already.
Final thoughts
If you play pickleball seriously and you've never been to the US Open, put it on your list. Not necessarily to win — most people who go do not win anything.
Go because it's the one place where the recreational player and the world's best occupy the same ground, on the same day, playing the same sport.
Note: Dates, entry deadlines, and event details are set by organizers and subject to change. Always confirm on the official US Open Pickleball Championships site before booking travel or registering.