Pickleball madness: Veolia Milwaukee Open wraps up final day at Baird Center

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The Veolia Milwaukee Open wrapped up Sunday, Nov. 17th at the Baird Center. It's the first time the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) has come to Milwaukee.

"Oddly enough, there's a lot of sneaky good pickleball players coming out of Milwaukee and out of Wisconsin, so we've always had our eye on that," said Brian Clark, VP of Tour, Professional Pickleball Association.

It's the fastest growing sport in the country.

"It's grown increasingly in health clubs, city parks, gyms it's everywhere now right and the Professional Pickleball Association has ridden that wave to bring tremendous athletes to this unbelievable sport.

Now, professional pickleball tournaments have made their way to Milwaukee.

"The fans have been great, there's been a lot of interaction with the fans lot of people watching center court so that's been awesome, and this is our first time in Milwaukee, so it's just been a great event overall," said Lauren Stratman, professional pickleball player.

The Vice President of Tour for the Professional Pickleball Association, Brain Clark, says more than 3,000 fans have come to the Baird Center to watch the more than 900 players have compete.

"When PPA started they ran a dozen or so tournaments and now we are up to over 30 stops in a year," said Clark.

The nation's obsession with pickleball is movement to many. Austin based Pro Pickleball Player Lauren Stratman went pro four years ago.

"It's changed dramatically on a lot of levels especially on the pro level there's a lot of prize money, it's very locative and sustainable now, the paddles are changing, the balls are changing, venues are changing," Stratman explained.

Stratman says while most people associate pickleball with older athletes she says quite a few young people have fallen in love with the sport, like Marlon Muniz who's a senior at Watertown High School.

"This is a hard sport, I decided to learn it, and now I'm picking it up and I plan on playing in college," said Muniz.

Muniz hopes to go to UW-Whitewater and says the dream is to be a professional pickleball player.

"It's an experience, it's like going to the Major League game but it's pickleball," said Muniz.

Clark says the PPA plans on returning to Milwaukee for more tournaments next year.