The Sport's Off the Wall: Platform Tennis Tourney Coming to Stone Harbor
Jose Salazar
Platform tennis has racquet fans and casual observers bouncing off the walls.
For most outdoor racquet sports like tennis and pickleball, the field of play ends with the walls surrounding the court. For platform tennis players, playing off the wall is just the beginning.
The electrifying sport of platform tennis, or “paddle” as it’s more commonly known, is returning to Stone Harbor on Friday, Aug. 1 and Saturday, Aug. 2 for the 5th Annual ProFlight Platform Tennis Tournament.
Hosted at the paddle courts in Stone Harbor’s recreational complex, this event is free to attend for all ages, and serves up some fun for dedicated paddle fans and curious newcomers alike.
Though the three small courts located between 96th and 97th streets could be mistaken as mere pickleball courts to the naked eye, keener observers will soon learn, if they don’t know already, that paddle has arrived in Stone Harbor, and it’s here to stay.
Tennis players are already adept at the rules and scoring of paddle, as paddle is almost exactly the same as tennis, but with one key difference: The walls of the court are in play.
“You add this dimension of being able to play it off the walls, and now the tennis game becomes a lot more interesting,” says paddle enthusiast Tom King, the event organizer. “It becomes a game of finesse. They have to use placement, strategy, spin, and finesse in order to win points.”
While many paddle tournaments can span multiple long, grueling days, with upwards of 128 teams competing, this summer’s Stone Harbor tournament is an invitational. That means this competition skips the preliminary qualifier rounds and bounces right onto the championship-caliber rounds, featuring only world-class paddle players.
“They’re watching top players right out of the chute,” King says. “It’s guns out. Everybody is there to win. They’re all top-notch players, and they’re out for blood.”
Though spectators likely won’t see any real bloodshed or Roman gladiators, this event does feature some bona-fide killers of professional platform tennis.
The Field
The American Platform Tennis Association (APTA) is a highly competitive league, but the ProFlight Tour features only the best of the best competing this year in Stone Harbor. This year’s contenders are a mix of accomplished veterans like Drew Broderick and Macie Elliott, as well as rising stars like Guillermo Nunez and Jose Salazar.
The new kids on the platform are ones to watch according to Tom King. “These younger guys, like Nunez and Salazar, came from very illustrious college tennis careers.”
“He is a top player,” King remarks about Nunez. “He’s young, he’s very disruptive.”
“(Salazar) is a national champion as well,” King says. “He and his partner (Alvaro Regalado) are always in the top five or top three in the country. You can’t believe his winning streak.”
Though Nunez and Salazar are riding hot streaks, Broderick and Elliott likely won’t go down easy. Both vets are four-time national champions in paddle who also come from accomplished collegiate tennis backgrounds.
Whichever way the paddle ball bounces for this year’s contenders, they’ll use Stone Harbor as a critical jumping off point for the start of their professional paddle seasons.
The Sport
Paddle dates back to 1928, from a neighborhood in suburban New York that was searching for an outdoor winter sport closer to home, according to the Platform Tennis Hall of Fame. Season after season, hit after hit, paddle has grown from a humble winter hobby into a nationwide sport, with recreational and professional tournaments being played year-round.
With the rules of tennis combined with play off the wall, paddle has attracted tennis, racquetball, and squash players alike to partake in a dynamic sport that combines elements of all three.
“Paddle is a sport that takes tennis, shrinks the court down to one-third or one-quarter the size of an actual tennis court, and then we put these four walls around it, made with a slightly thicker version of chicken wire,” King explains. “It’s a very intriguing game, it’s a little bit like chess. It’s a lot of strategy, positioning, finesse, and a lot of spins.”
The long chess-like game of paddle is truly what differentiates it from tennis. While tennis players typically go for quick points by hitting the ball as hard and as fast as possible, paddle players have to consider the long game with each hit.
“The most difficult part for tennis players who switch to paddle is that hitting hard doesn’t reward you,” King says. “In paddle, when you hit hard, the ball hits off the wire and you’re a sitting duck for the next shot. Somebody who knows how to play that ball will just wait for it to come off the wire, and they’ll put it right back at you, and you’ll have no time to react.”
Being able to carefully calculate each move while also having the quick reflexes to serve, hit, and return the ball off the court and off the wall are skills that every paddle player strives to achieve. Once players have mastered those cornerstone abilities, that’s when the real fun begins – putting spin on the ball, and no one spins it better than this year’s contenders.
“You can use these shots to make the ball do all kinds of things,” King says. “In fact, the top players, and even some better recreational players can hit what’s called a slash shot. The ball will go over the net with so much spin that it comes back over to the other side.”
The backspin of these slash shots are so powerful that one bounce is all it takes to win the point. The ball bounces back over the net, making it nearly impossible for opponents to counter, and the skillful shots don’t end there.
“It’s incredible what these players can do with the ball,” King says. “They’re hitting balls between their legs. They’re hitting balls with so much spin that it hits the wire and ricochets off to the side wire.” All of these are fair game, resulting in a quick-paced, unpredictable game that is not only fun to watch, but fun to learn, and even more fun to play.
The History
The presence of platform tennis in Stone Harbor is thanks to Tom King and Drew Broderick.
King, a lifelong tennis player, started playing paddle nearly 20 years ago. Whenever he was home in Malvern, Pa., a paddle court was always around the corner, but that wasn’t the case when he stayed at his second home in Avalon.
“My problem was, I came to the shore all summer long, but I had no place to play paddle. So I would end up driving home just to play paddle, and driving all the way back.”
With the help of his friend and accomplished paddle player Drew Broderick, King’s paddle pickle was resolved five years ago, when they persuaded the Borough of Stone Harbor to convert two of its existing tennis courts into three state-of-the-art platform tennis courts.
These courts were the perfect addition for established paddle players like King and Broderick, but also an ideal fit for a community that already had an affinity for racquet sports. “The Stone Harbor and Seven Mile area is pretty racquet-based,” says King, who goes on to mention how paddle is truly a sport for everyone.
“It’s an incredibly social sport, and it is very inclusive of women, of men, of children. People of all ages play it. You can play if you’re very old, and you can play it when you’re really young.”
Because of King and Broderick’s dedication to bringing paddle to Stone Harbor, today the courts are available for public use. “Anybody who’s down at the shore can simply go online, make a reservation, pay a small fee, and they’re playing paddle!”
The Event
Thanks to a group of dedicated sponsors, including RJ Soens COMPASS Real Estate, Mack’s Pizza of Stone Harbor, 23K Studios, Silver Linings, ICONA, and many more, the 5th Annual ProFlight Platform Tennis Tournament is free for all ages to attend. Food and beverage will also be available on tournament days.
Play begins with semifinal matches Friday at 6pm, and continues with a championship match on Saturday at noon. All rounds will be played at Stone Harbor’s recreational complex at 120 97th St.
Spectators are asked to come to the Stone Harbor 96th Street Recreation Center, entering at the corner of 97th Street and 1st Avenue.
So whether you’re young or old, familiar with the game or have never heard of it, the ProFlight Platform Tennis Tournament is an event you won’t want to miss.
For more information regarding paddle and the Stone Harbor tournament, reach out to event organizer Tom King at 610-587-1153.
TOP PLAYERS TO WATCH
Drew Broderick
4-time APTA national champion (2017, 2016, 2015, 2012)
No. 13-ranked APTA men’s player
Former University of Connecticut tennis player
Macie Elliott
4-time APTA national champion (2025, 2024, 2023, 2020)
No. 1-ranked APTA women’s player
Former Southern Methodist University tennis player
Guillermo Nunez
2024 APTA national champion
No. 5-ranked APTA men’s player
Former Texas Christian University tennis player
Jose Salazar
No. 1-ranked APTA men’s player
2023 APTA national runner-up
Former University of Arkansas tennis player