The pop star Jason Derulo came to the Quinta on Monday and quickly demonstrated that he could do more than sing and dance. It turns out that the singer “Whatcha Say” is also quite good with a picky paddle.
“Pickleball is very different from tennis and you can already see it on the net,” said Nick Kyrgios, the Australian professional tennis star who played with Derulo in a double -relaxed pickleball game which closed the charity event of the Smash desert organized at the Quinta Resort & Club.
“He has the reflexes, he knows the game, he just needs to work a little on his service,” continued a Kyrgios laughing, which won seven Tournis Tournnis singles.
This feeling was taken up by Derulo himself, who explained that he had practiced the type of inverted service that is used in tennis only to learn during the match that pickleball competitors are generally suffering after trying to serve.
“You laughed at my service,” he said in an interview that followed the double match. “It was crazy. But the best part was that I said to myself “I don’t understand why they laugh”. »»
More: Djokovic against Kyrgios? Nick Kyrgios aligned himself to face Novak Djokovic at BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells
This light approach was typical of the Monday event, which served as a fundraising for the WTA Foundation and its various efforts to promote equality, leadership, health and well-being and education for girls and women around the world.
The event coincides with the start of the open tennis tournament BNP Paribas in the neighboring Indian wells which take place until March 16.
The desert event has been held for two decades, but presented a new wrinkle this year: the additional day of events on the theme of pickleball and the competition featuring a mixture of celebrities, tennis stars and pro pickleball players held on Monday before the event focused on the event tennis, which will take place on Tuesday.
Of course, even with the presence of the current professional pickleball player N ° 1, Federico Staksrud, no one came on Monday while waiting for a lot of serious competition.
Instead, a heavy crowd on the type of large caps that could afford to bid several thousand dollars on a pickleball racket signed by Kyrgios and his other big name of Tennis Naomi Osaka ($ 6,500 was the winning offer) were treated with the unique view of Kyrgios and Osaka faced against each other in a double star.
At one point, Capon joked that Osaka beat Kyrgios and his partner, Pickleball Pro Callie Jo Smith, “with a sweatshirt around its size”, seeming to encapsulate both the occasional nature of the event and the degree to which the apparently effortless domination of Osaka translated to the pickleball.
But Kyrgios and Smith rallied to win the match, with an Osaka laughing later declaring that Kyrgios had spoken “a lot of waste”.
Although it was unlikely that anyone who made its maximum effort, the event also provided an answer to the question of what would happen if the best Pickleball player in the world is accompanied by a former Wimbledon finalist.
Kyrgios came out victorious in a tight match, but not before breaking a paddle in the process. Subsequently, he jokes how Staksrud compared to some of the great tennis that he faced over the years.
“It is so composed, I can’t find any weakness,” he said. “I had more scary opponents, IE (Novak) Djokovic, Rafa (El Nadal) and (Roger) Federer, but he was damn scary on the pickleball field so all the accessories for him. I will come back however.”
After playing in the previous double match with Kyrgios and Osaka, Staksrud complimented the game of his tennis game competitors, but joked on the noisy approach of Kyrgios for the game.
“Too much grunts there on this side,” he said, bringing the interviewer to ask Staksrud “so there is no growl in pickleball?”
“Not so much,” he replied, smiling. “Not so much.”
Paul Albani-Burgio covers growth, development and business in the Coachella valley. Follow him on Twitter at @albaniburgiop and send him an email to [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: How Jason Derulo, Nick Kyrgios made the crowd of Desert Smash laugh
