I was casually doomscrolling through Instagram recently when a new pickleball account called @baddiespkb appeared on my feed. 

The account currently has seven posts of several female pros sporting bikinis.

Well, I guess we can celebrate that pro pickleball is popular enough that fans are creating spam accounts with thirst traps.

The @baddiespkb page basically just takes photos from player accounts, calls them baddies, and urges people to follow them. Ashley Griffith, Layne Sleeth, Genie Bouchard, Alex and Angie Walker, Ava Ignatowich, and Camila Zilveti are featured right now, while several other pros are posted regularly on their Instagram story. 

As a woman, I find the account to be incredibly strange and slightly off-putting, especially considering that the account holder clearly has a type: blonde in bikinis. 

It made me wonder: Is pickleball officially getting sexy?

Just think about it. The pros, men and women, are mostly under 30 and at their physical peak. And these classic #thirsttrap pics have undeniable sex appeal. 

Bouchard is the best pro to examine when discussing this topic. She built her tennis career on her skill, but simultaneously utilized her physical appearance to develop her following - and it even led her to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swim. 

She’s had her fair share of “controversial” posts that would make my grandmother clutch her pearls. 

Bouchard discussed this on the Building Pickleball podcast.

“At the end of the day, sex sells, and that’s just a fact of life. If girls look cute in their outfits and want to explore that path and be in fashion magazines or swimsuit magazines, I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with that,” she said. “I think it can help your brand, help your exposure, and help the sport. It brings eyeballs and fans of people who maybe don’t watch tennis, but they read Vogue, and now they’re tuning into a tennis match because they saw you in there. I think it’s helpful for the individual and the sport as a whole. There’s nothing wrong with using what you’ve got to achieve your goals.”

And this isn’t just for the bikini-clad pro women. The pro men can – and should – use their assets, too. Who doesn’t love to see action shots from Jay Devilliers, Tyson McGuffin, or Christian Alshon that showcase their physique in the most visually appealing way? 

Per Bouchard’s argument, doesn’t the sport benefit from having beautiful people on the court? The top players in the game aren't only playing their best, they’re looking their best as well.

There’s also been a significant uptick of newly published sports romance novels that feature pickleball, including spicy romance novels that make readers blush while talking about dinks and drives. 

Do we even need to talk about Tyson McGuffin's bedroom cardio comment from the Australian Open? 

Over the summer, a list ranking the hottest male pickleball pros in the game went viral.

And across the country, love connections are sparking on courts because the pickleball court is a better place to find a genuine match than Tinder. There’s even dating apps for pickleball players.   

Sex sells, even in pro pickleball. And if you still think pickleball is for old people, you’re sorely mistaken. 

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