"It helped me lose 40 pounds" - Andre Agassi speaks on the benefits of playing pickleball

Retired tennis legend Andre Agassi has taken up pickleball over the past few years, with the American becoming so involved in the sport that he has highlighted ESPN's Pickleball Slam exhibition event.

With pickleball becoming a more prominent sport over the past year, it comes as no surprise that the sport is being recognized on a global stage. Agassi was on hand to help launch pickleball's PWR DUPR India League in Mumbai on Friday, alongside former doubles No.1 Rohan Bopanna.

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Pickleball is more mentally taxing than tennis, according to Agassi

In an interview during the event, the former World No.1 spoke on the benefits of pickleball. In addition to losing weight while playing the sport, Agassi spoke on the level of exhaustion he experienced after playing pickleball versus playing tennis.

"If I go play tennis now with my wife or friends, I spend a lot of energy and I can do it for a period of time until I am exhausted," began the eight-time Grand Slam champion. "And then I come home and I take a shower and I’m ready to do anything – okay, I’ve got a meeting, a business meeting, I’ve got this, I’ve got that.
"When I play pickleball, the same exhaustion happens but when I get home – I’ve just realized this over the past few months, I can’t go from a pickleball court to a meeting. Because I’m so tired mentally, too. Tennis, physically, no question, and you’re concentrating, but you get these breaks. Pickleball, you don’t get it.
"So I get home and I just lay on the couch. In the beginning when, Stef, my wife wasn’t playing… she looked at me like, ‘You just played pickleball, what’s the matter with you?’ But I promise I am honestly as tired mentally as I am physically. And it was like I just came out of the swimming pool. That’s how much I sweated.
"It helped me lose 40 pounds! I mean, I shouldn’t ever have had the 40 pounds in the first place."

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