The United States Tennis Association (USTA) has a message for viewers enjoying coverage of the 2024 US Open on ESPN.

It's right there on your TV screen in bold white letters, so you definitely can't miss it.

The phrase "The World's Healthiest Sport" is prominently featured adjacent to the court during matches at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

TIME's Senior Sports Correspondent, Sean Gregory, thoroughly investigated the claim for a story that was published on Thursday, and it was only fitting that pickleball eventually entered into the conversation.

But first, some background.

Gregory explains that USTA Chairman of the Board and President, Dr. Brian Hainline, approved the marketing slogan after reviewing two separate studies in prominent medical journals.

A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2016 revealed that "in more than 80,000 British adults, participation in racquet sports of tennis, badminton, or squash was associated with a 47% reduced risk of dying during the study period for any reason and a 56% reduced risk of cardiovascular-related death" and "compared to all the other activities studied—cycling, swimming, running, soccer, aerobics—racquet sports were most strongly associated with a lower risk of death."

A study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings in 2018, meanwhile, showed that "among more than 8,500 adults from Copenhagen who were tracked for nearly 25 years, playing tennis was associated with a life-expectancy gain of nearly a decade compared to those who had a sedentary lifestyle" and "other sports examined—badminton (6.2 years), soccer (4.7), cycling (3.7), swimming (3.4), jogging (3.2), calisthenics (3.1), and health-club activities like the treadmill and elliptical machines (1.5)—fell short of tennis."

The findings are rather intriguing, of course.

Gregory then asks a key question.

"While both studies make a case for tennis, not every sport on the planet was evaluated. So how can tennis legitimately claim to be the healthiest sport on earth?"

Let's all say it together in unison, folks: What about pickleball?

It's growing popularity is forcing sports like tennis to market like never before, so this "World's Healthiest Sport" campaign isn't surprising at all, especially on the Grand Slam stage with people from all over the planet tuning in.

“Pickleball is a challenge to us,” Hainline, a prominent neurologist, told Gregory. “Where pickleball is really hurting tennis is infrastructure. It's probably been over a billion dollars’ worth of courts that have been taken away.”

It might also be "hurting tennis" from a health benefits standpoint, too, because it can do participants endless good both physically and mentally.

That was confirmed by Dr. James O’Keefe, director of preventive cardiology at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute and professor of medicine at University of Missouri-Kansas City, who actually indicated earlier in the piece that the USTA's slogan was "very defensible from a scientific perspective."

As Gregory writes:

"If the sport [pickleball], which wasn’t really a player when either study was published years ago, were included in a similar analysis today, "I have no doubt that pickleball would be like tennis," says O’Keefe. "It would be like badminton. It would be six to 10 years of added life expectancy, even adjusting for everything else." He bases this assessment on the social bonds among the "thwack thwack" set."

Talk about a ringing endorsement for current players and those considering picking up a paddle, too.

It doesn't get any better than that.

"Racket sports are fun to play for people who get into them," O’Keefe told Gregory. "You just can't do that and not come back happy and relaxed and ready to sleep well. It just makes you love life."

Ironically, O'Keefe is a pickleball enthusiast himself.