Former collegiate tennis player Christian Alshon claiming pickleball is a harder sport than tennis has sparked hilarious reactions from fans on social media.The rising popularity of pickleball has divided fans of racket sports into two factions: those who love the sport and those who absolutely loathe it. Though pickleball has been in existence for a long time, it has witnessed a dramatic surge in popularity in recent years. A lot of former professionals from other racket sports, or players aspiring to be professionals, have switched to pickleball full-time.Christian Alshon recently stated how pickleball improved him as an athlete and also claimed that point for point, pickleball is a harder sport as it requires more skill. Alshon wrote on X (formerly Twitter):"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."This statement from Alshon led to merciless trolling not only from current and former professionals such as Nick Kyrgios, James Blake, and Andy Roddick but also fans on X. One fan said that they wanted pickleball banned and the name eradicated forever:"I want pickleball banned and the name stricken from the lexicon"Another fan joked how 60-year-old grandmothers were able to play pickleball in response to Alshon claiming that it requires a high level of skill."Yea that’s why 60 year olds grandmas are playing pickleball"Here are some other reactions from the fans."Poor man's arena football" - When tennis legend John McEnroe expressed his honest views on pickleballJohn McEnroe.Ahead of his appearance alongside Andre Agassi, Micheal Chang, and Andy Roddick in a pickleball tournament with one million dollars on the line, John McEnroe was featured on the Pat McAfee show.McEnroe was candid throughout the interview, expressing that he wasn't really a fan of pickleball. He also used an NFL analogy to call pickleball a lesser version of the sport:"Compare it to the NFL it's like a poor man's arena football." (at 2:18)McEnroe also expressed that he wanted to bring traction to the sport he professionally played rather than pickleball through this tournament and was completely against the idea of acknowledging it as a sport. He rather considered it an activity.The team of Agassi and Roddick ended up defeating McEnroe and Chang 21-15, 21-23, 12-10 in the winner take all doubles match to win one million dollars.