A US Open champion weighs in on the pickleball boom — and why she's still sticking with tennis

• Pickleball — a hybrid of tennis, ping pong, and badminton — is the fastest-growing sport in America.
• Tennis star and 2017 US Open champ Sloane Stephens says she can "see the appeal" of pickleball.

Sloane Stephens can't recall exactly when she first learned about pickleball — the tennis, ping pong, and badminton hybrid sweeping the nation — but the US Open champion remembers starting to see it "all the time" on the Tennis Channel.

She was intrigued, especially once she noticed them "playing pickleball tournaments instead of the tennis tournaments" on her screen.

"I was like, what is going on here? What's happening?!" Stephens told Insider with a laugh. "That's when I first started really seeing it a lot more."

Seemingly overnight, pickleball has exploded across the United States. It's been dubbed the fastest-growing sport in America, and for good reason; in cities across the nation, basketball and tennis courts have been divided up and fitted with smaller nets to accommodate the nearly five million individuals playing.

Even though it's "pretty different from tennis" in several ways, Stephens says she can "see the appeal." She and Icy Hot PRO even hosted a clinic that helped her get her feet wet with the sport she can't stop seeing on TV.

"It's fast, it's fun, it's something new," Stephens said. "Everyone's always looking for something new. Obviously, with five million pickleballers now in the US — that's a huge number."

"A lot of people obviously picked up on it," she added.

That includes several former professional tennis players, like Gina Cilento and former junior Wimbledon player Noah Rubin. Stephens herself mentioned Sam Querrey, a fellow American star once ranked No. 11 in the world, as evidence that even prominent tennis players have switched to professional pickleball.

Despite knowing "it's a thing," the 29-year-old isn't necessarily convinced "that'll be a thing for me." But plenty of other high-profile athletes are buying into pickleball — literally. LeBron James, Tom Brady, Kim Clijsters, Kevin Durant, and Drew Brees are just some of the big names who have invested in Major League Pickleball teams.

ESPN has bet on pickleball, too. The sports TV giant struck a deal to exclusively carry the PPA Tour bubly Team Championships in Las Vegas this December.

Even still, Stephens isn't sure whether pickleball really has appeal as the kind of sport viewers watch on TV — despite the apparent faith from many others in the space.

"I mean, if you don't know what's going on, like no," Stephens said of pickleball's watchability. "But if you're into it? Then yes."

"It's new, it's exciting, but we'll see how many more people get into the game and how it transitions for the next five to 10 years," she added.