The New Jersey State Open this weekend will be the state’s largest-ever amateur pickleball tournament with more than 800 players from over seven states, ranging from ages 8 to 80.
Aaron Reznik, 25, and Matt Slowinski, 24, grew up in Montclair, met in middle school playing tennis, and started giving tennis lessons as a way to make some side money during high school. After their junior year of college and summer internships were canceled due to COVID, they started an outdoor, socially distanced camp in Montclair. The camp quickly gained popularity, and led to their full-time venture, First Serve Tennis, which they ran full-time after graduating.
Pickleball, America’s fastest-growing sport, is a combination of tennis and ping-pong using paddles and wiffle balls. After the two found and fell in love with the sport, they built Montclair Pickleball to help players of all levels grow their game with the same strategy they used to build First Serve Tennis.
The academy has now evolved into an organization with four locations statewide. They focused on building instructional programs with deeply planned outlines, building a team of coaches, and using technology to create efficient back-end operations. They also used their platform to run tournaments.
Over the past couple years, Reznik and Slowinski have run more than 20 tournaments under the Montclair Pickleball brand, with five of them having more than 450 players. Earlier this year, the pair claimed their big summer tournament, the New Jersey State Open, would be New Jersey’s biggest tournament of the year, and what they hoped to be the state’s biggest tournament of all time. It turns out that it will be.
The New Jersey State Open will be held from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, July 12, through Sunday, July 14, at Veterans Park in Hamilton, an outdoor facility with 24 dedicated pickleball courts and more than 10 tennis courts. Between the dedicated courts and the pickleball courts they will build from the tennis courts, they plan to use a total of 36 pickleball courts for the tournament.
The event will cater to players of literally all ages and levels. The tournament is also a National Qualifier event since the PPA, the Professional Pickleball Association, reached out to Montclair Pickleball and asked to make their tournament a feeder into their national competition at the end of the year.
Because of this, they had to create tight age brackets consisting of ages: 5 to 18, 19 to 34, 35 to 49, 50 to 59, 60 to 69, and 70+. Each age bracket will be included for Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles, Mixed Doubles, Men’s Singles, and Women’s Singles, for levels 2.5 (beginner) all the way to 5.0 (the level right under “pro”). The 5.0 “Open” brackets will also be awarding a total of $5,000 prize money split between each division. In the past, Montclair Pickleball has seen players as young as 8, and up to age 80 competing in their events.
“It’s been so incredible seeing the pickleball world absolutely blow up, locally, nationally, and internationally over the past few years. We’re just excited to be part of such a fast-moving industry that’s having such a positive effect on people’s life,” said Slowinski.
Locals, players from around the state, and any pickleball enthusiasts are all welcome to come watch the tournament for free.
Brad Wadlow is a staff writer for MyCentralJersey.com
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: New Jersey State Open pickleball tournament is July 12-14 in Hamilton
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