Andy Roddick, Nick Kyrgios & James Blake dared with $100,000 crazy challenge and offered 2/1 odds by pro-pickleballer days after heated tennis debate

Young pickleball pro Christian Alshon has escalated his rift with Andy Roddick, Nick Kyrgios, and James Blake days after tweeting a controversial comparison of tennis and pickleball.

Alshon is among the top professionals on the Professional Pickleball Association tour and is currently ranked 12th. He used to play tennis but picked up the smaller racket and lighter ball in June 2021 to compete in pickleball.

He recently caused a stir by claiming that his previous job failed to upscale his athleticism in the same capacity as pickleball has done in less time.

"Pickleball has made me a much better athlete than tennis ever did. Faster reaction time and speed are needed since the ball is only coming from 10 feet away. Point for point, pickleball requires more skill than tennis," he wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Blake was among the first responders to rebuke Alshon. Blake took a swipe at the youngster, writing:

"That might be because you were playing a pretty low level of tennis. Maybe if you were familiar with the athleticism it takes to excel at the sport you would realize how ridiculous this statement is."

Kyrgios challenged Alshon to name a player with pickleball prowess equivalent to Roger Federer's tennis mastery. He said:

"Yeah. Let's hide under the bed after this statement hahahaha bro get me the best pickleball player and compare his talent to Roger Federer. Wild tweet, wild thought. Delete right now I love pickle. But you had too many tequilas."

Roddick followed suit and wrote:

"Tell you what. If anyone pickle person ever ranks higher in tennis than what [Jack] Sock will be at end of this year in his new paid pickle hobby, I’ll commentate a pickle match standing on my head."

Alshon hit back at Blake, Kyrgios, and Roddick and invited the trio for pickleball duels with $100,000 on the line per match.

"@NickKyrgios @JRBlake @andyroddick how about this. I challenge you three to back to back singles matches for 100K each. I’ll give you 2/1 odds which in your minds should be crazy good odds. You have 6 months to train. Don’t worry, I’ll donate my winnings to charity," Alshon wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

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"Fairer wager would be you train at tennis for 6 months and we train at pickle and see who is more successful" - James Blake responds to Christian Alshon's summon

James Blake

James Blake wasted little time in answering to Christian Alshon's wager as he listed out the reasons why the latter's suggestion was 'absurd' in a series of tweets. He said:

"So many problems/absurdities about this proposal that it will take me a few tweets to respond. 1. Andy and I both in our 40s and I'm on a surgically repaired knee. 2. Nick playing for lots more money and prestige on ATP tour."

Blake continued:

"3. None of us would train for 6 months at anything for that amount of money (we all had successful careers). 4. None of us said we had any ambition of training at that."

Blake pointed out that a fairer bet would be to compare his, Kyrgios, and Roddick's efforts with a paddle to Alshon's grind with the larger racket.

"5. Your initial comment was comparing tennis and pickle, so the fairer wager would be you train at tennis for 6 months and we train at pickle for 6 months and see who is more successful. Let’s do that one. I won’t even train once and I like my odds," Blake wrote.

Blake competed on the ATP singles tour between 1999 and 2013. He won 10 titles and reached his career-high ranking of World No. 4 in his active days.

Roddick also enjoyed a solid career as a professional as he won a US Open title and sat atop the men's singles world rankings for 13 weeks.

Lastly, Kyrgios has enjoyed a successful career since turning professional in 2013. He has won seven tour titles thus far and was once ranked as high as World No. 13. His best finish at a Grand Slam saw him end up second-best at Wimbledon 2022.