Changing of the Guard

“My baby’s leaving me,” said US Open Pickleball Championship co-founder Terri Graham immediately following the conclusion of the tournament on Saturday, April 20, at East Naples Community Park.

Graham was only half-kidding when referring to the tournament as her baby. She and co-founder Chris Evon took the US Open from its inception in 2016 to the pickleball mecca it’s become. The tournament draws over 3,000 participants and 41,000 spectators. It takes over 500 volunteers to pull off a US Open. Graham can hardly believe that she and Evon will be leaving the US Open behind.

“It's kind of surreal,” Graham said. "I think it hit me more yesterday than today. Today’s just so filled with energy that it's hard to get scared about what the future is. But it's going to be great. We're leaving it in good hands, and they'll take it to the next level for America. They will end up working with the county and trying to make this even bigger than it already is."

It won’t be easy for Graham and Evon to leave their “baby” behind.

“It's bittersweet, you know,” Graham said, "it's definitely been bittersweet this week. If it was as easy as just doing tournament week, we would have kept doing it. But it's not. It's a 51-week job and it's a lot of work. If we could just drop in here and do all the stuff that we do this week with the sponsors and with the players, then I would continue to do it. It's just too much work for just the two of us, plus all the volunteers."

The new owners of the US Open Pickleball Championships are Pickleball4America, or Pickle4, a newly formed company focused on developing businesses around pickleball.

"I'm happy with what's going on here, for sure,” Graham said. “We're hoping Collier County extends the contract another five years. That's on the table. We really hope the commissioners will extend it and the US Open can stay in Naples for at least five more years.”

East Naples Community Park is the largest pickleball facility in the world, with 65 permanent courts spread across its 47 acres.

Graham and Evon honored two-time US Open Triple Crown winner Simone Jardim with the US Open Impact Award at this year’s US Open. Evon recalled their first meeting with Jardim.

"We introduced ourselves and told her we were going to put on this huge pickleball tournament with $25,000 in prize money in Naples, Florida,” Evon said. “We told her it will be broadcast on national TV. That we're going to build a championship court and we anticipate having maybe 500 athletes. She looked at us like we had four heads. She really didn't seem too excited about this new venture of ours. But when the 2016 US Open took place, Simone was coaching her Michigan State tennis team that same weekend. She made the decision to jump on a plane Saturday night and play singles in the first US Open on Sunday morning. She won the first of her 14 US Open titles that day."

Evon can recite Jardim’s impressive US Open legacy. But she finds one statistic particularly impressive.

“Winning the Mixed Doubles division five straight years with three different partners,” Evon said, "two records that may never be broken. Simone is recognized as not only one of the greatest players of all time but the greatest coach of all time. Simone changed the game with her aggressive Brazilian style of pickleball. She has promoted the sport as a player and instructor around the country and around the world. She has been instrumental in the growth of pickleball right here in Collier County, and she's been instrumental in the growth of the US Open. Simone is the Billie Jean King of pickleball. She paved the way for all these young people to come and really make pickleball a career. Their lives have been changed because of Simone.”

Jardim was moved to tears when she announced to the crowd, with whom she’s developed an emotional bond, that she and her family will be moving to Nashville.

“This life on the road,” Jardim said, "it takes a toll on everything, but we conquered. We survived. We are moving forward. We are moving, but we are not forgetting what’s here. We will always come back and visit.”

After the tournament, the affable Jardim, 44, reflected on her eight years in Naples, her emotional wins at the US Open, and her future in pickleball.

"I'm not done,” Jardim said. "If this event continues, I'll be back next year. I just think this is the end of an era with Chris and Terri. I'm very thankful for everything that they've done for the sport - for this town in general, with this facility and the US Open. This represents everything for my professional career and my personal career because we moved here in part because of the US Open and the possibilities of our business partnering with them. We became the US Open Pickleball Academy. I'm very thankful for everything that this has brought to my life and my family's life."

Jardim feels confident that she can still compete with the game’s younger players.

"I actually feel pretty good,” Jardim said. "I got hurt a few years back and I was ready to quit, I was going to be done. I've slowly been coming back and recovering from injuries. I feel like I've turned a corner and I am starting to feel good again. I think that my body is going through changes as I'm aging. But I feel that I'm in a good place and I plan on continuing playing for as long as my body allows."

As for Graham and Evon, they’re not sure what’s next for them.

“We don't know,” Graham said. “We're going to close this up in the next couple of weeks, and then we're going to take some time off and keep our options open and see what kind of moves us."