On Sunday night, ESPN will be airing Pickleball Slam 2, the sequel to last year’s initial Pickleball Slam event.
Per a release, ESPN will air Pickleball Slam 2 live at 8:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 4.
The event will feature three matches. In the first, John McEnroe teams with James Blake to take on Andre Agassi and Jack Sock. The second features Maria Sharapova and Blake taking on Steffi Graf and Sock. Finally, the event closes with McEnroe teaming with Sharapova to take on Agassi and Graf for a $1 million prize.
Pickleball Slam 2 will be called by Chris Fowler, Andy Roddick, and Michele McMahon. Camryn Irwin reports from courtside.
The event is ESPN’s third and final live event of the day, following the Pro Bowl Games at 3 p.m. ET and a Clippers-Heat NBA game at 6 p.m. ET. ESPN2 has a bunch of college basketball throughout the day, including a top-ten women’s matchup between #7 UCLA and #4 Stanford.
Last year’s debut event took place in April, averaging 669,000 viewers.
Over the last year or so, pickleball has been growing as a televised sport. Both ESPN and CBS Sports have agreed to deals with pickleball leagues to air live events, though there is pessimism about the future of pickleball on television. In November, Tennis Channel launched a 24-hour pickleball network called PickleballTV (or PBTV), the second such network to debut in 2023.
[ESPN]
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.