CAMDEN, S.C. — The Tennis Center of Camden will be home to the 2022 South Carolina Cup, a pickleball tournament sanctioned by the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP), which selected Camden as the host city.
What is pickleball, you ask? It's a paddleball sport that combines elements of badminton, table tennis, and tennis.
The event will run from April 14 through April 17 and is expected to help bring some economic benefits to the region.
Rick Martin, Director of Pickleball and Tennis at the Tennis Center of Camden, said he had planned to apply for the event in 2023 but was surprised to find out they wanted to come here this year.
Martin said in speaking with APP, they realized there were some dates they could both work on together to make the event possible.
Martin said he has a good idea of how many people will be headed to their center, "player-wise, I think around four hundred to six hundred players and then add in their support staff so that's around another hundred, but they do not include people coming to watch from within the community,". He also added, volunteers, are not included in the number of people anticipated.
With a large number of people coming to the fairly new courts, there is some work that needs to be done.
Martin says they have to bring in bleachers, two courts have to be repainted to be stadium courts, and they are turning eight tennis courts into sixteen pickleball courts.
Martin is hopeful this is the first of many events being hosted in Camden.
"It means a lot, It's our first professional event. I am hoping in the future we will have tennis events this size here as well."
Learn more about pickleball HERE.