Melissa McCurley on building modern pickleball

Melissa McCurley helped build the modern pickleball world long before most people realised what the sport could become.

In this episode of the World Pickleball Podcast, Chris Beaumont sits down with the 2025 Pickleball Hall of Fame inductee, former PickleballTournaments.com CEO, US Open architect, national TV commentator, and current APP executive to talk about the work that turned pickleball from a driveway game into a professional sport with real structure.

Melissa explains how the US Open became the sport’s Super Bowl, why early TV exposure changed everything, what it was like to become the first woman to commentate pickleball on national television, and how tournament operations, player ratings, and professional standards evolved during the sport’s most important growth phase.

This is also a conversation about what still needs fixing. Melissa talks about the sport getting in its own way, the need for stronger global alignment, why history still matters, and what pickleball must do next if it wants to become something that lasts.

If you want to understand how modern pickleball was built, and what comes next, this is the episode.

In this episode:

• Melissa McCurley on building the US Open into a bucket-list event
• How PickleballTournaments.com changed the sport
• The first years of pickleball on CBS Sports
• Why player trust matters in commentary
• The origins of UTPR and rating systems in pickleball
• Melissa’s role at the APP
• Why pickleball still needs more structure
• The tension between the sport’s history and its future

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