On a recent, muggy day in August, I donned my best approximation of racket-sport-chic attire and made my way over to McCrimmon Parkway Neighborhood Park in northwest Cary, where on Monday evenings, the six pickleball courts are reserved for open play. I was there to test my thesis that Cary is nuts for pickleball, and thus, the ideal location for a national pickleball tournament.
When I arrived, every court was full and there were a handful of people waiting in line for their turn. One set of mixed doubles players seemed pretty serious, moving quickly to the kitchen line after each serve to trade carefully-placed dinks. The match on the adjacent court was just ending, and I watched the players congenially tap paddles in lieu of shaking hands. Sharp whacking sounds and victorious shouts punctuated the drone of birds and insects from the surrounding woods.
Starting next Monday, two thousand players and several thousand spectators will converge on Cary for a week-long professional pickleball tournament kicking off at Cary Tennis Park. The Veolia Pickleball National Championships is the equivalent of a Grand Slam in the tennis world: a major tournament featuring most of the top-ranked players in the sport…