“Time to give tennis the respect it deserves”, “Karma” – Fans ridicule Christian Alshon for tennis-pickleball comparison after he loses to Jack Sock

Tennis pro-turned-pickleballer Christian Alshon has become the subject of criticism from fans on the internet as he lost to Jack Sock in a pickleball match weeks after downgrading the athleticism in the racket sport.

Alshon played the racket sport as a collegiate but turned to pickleball in June 2021. On Thursday, April 25, he locked horns with former tennis player Jack Sock in the semifinals of the Selkirk Red Rock Open. Sock handed Alshon a humiliating 11-1, 13-11 defeat to advance.

The loss has put Alshon's in a difficult place as fans on X (formerly Twitter) picked up his tweet in which he claimed his former profession didn't make him as good of an athlete as pickleball has done.

"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," Alshon wrote.

Furthermore, he got into a debate with the likes of James Blake, Andy Roddick, and Nick Kyrgios after the three opposed his viewpoint, and challenged them for a pickleball showdown.

Hence, fans spared no effort in ridiculing Alshon after his loss to Sock on Thursday.

"I meannnnn. Cmon now. Karma maybe?? I would love to be a fly on the wall in Nick/jack/james’ group chat after this one lol," a fan wrote.

"Massive W for tennis. Time to give tennis the respect it deserves," wrote another.

Here are a few more reactions from X:

"Alshon’s tennis tweet didn’t age well," a fan stated.

"This kind of reinforces the point the tennis guys made a couple of weeks ago," a fan wrote.

"I posit that tennis made Sock a better athlete than pee-ball ever did," a fan commented.

"Don't talk about Pickleball on here much, but here is a Jack Sock update," a fan remarked.

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Andy Roddick professes confidence in Jack Sock's pickleball skills amid tennis controversy

Jack Sock retired from tennis in 2023

Former US Open champion Andy Roddick responded to Christian Alshon's claim by vowing to cover a pickleball match standing on his head if any pickleballer could switch to tennis and claim success similar to what Jack Sock is going to achieve in pickleball by the end of the 2024 calendar year.

"It’s pretty hard to say one of the most ridiculous things on Twitter in a given day. Tell you what. If anyone pickle person ever ranks higher in tennis than what Sock will be at end of this year in his new paid pickle hobby, I’ll commentate a pickle match standing on my head. This ain’t a real discussion. Fun game. Dumb conversation," Andy Roddick said.

It has only been a year since Jack Sock started competing on the smaller courts and he's already 14th in the world rankings. Notably, he's fifth in terms of rankings based on points accumulated after January 1, 2024.

To put that into perspective, Christian Alshon, who's in his third year as a professional pickleballer, is placed only one spot above Sock in this year's rankings.