Where, When, and How to Watch Michael Phelps vs. Larry Fitzgerald in Pickleball

The marquee showdown of the PPA Desert Ridge Pickleball Open this weekend, a celebrity match between the most decorated swimmer ever Michael Phelps and future NFL Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald, will be live-streamed on the PPA’s YouTube Channel.

No direct link has been posted yet, but the stream should be available at this link when live.

While much of the tournament, including the actual professional pickleball players, will be aired on Fox Sports, the match that our readers will be most interested will be available, free, on YouTube and Facebook.

The match will be played Friday evening, January 28, at 7:00PM Arizona Time (9:00 PM Eastern Time).

Event Details:

Pickleball is a paddle-and-net sport that is similar to tennis on a basic level, though it has more similarities to the sports of padel or paddle tennis. Opponents stand on the opposite side of a net and hit a ball back and forth using a paddle that’s bigger than a table tennis or ping-pong racket but smaller than a tennis racquet.

The court is less than half of the size of a tennis court, and the ball is a hard plastic whiffle ball, which encourages more fast-paced at-the-net play. A game that relies as heavily on strategy and finesse as much as power and athleticism, the sport features a “non-volley zone” that keeps athletes away from the net. This means that hitting the ball soft can be as effective as hitting the ball hard.

The Boston Globe last year said that pickleball is growing at an “almost unprecedented rate” and is billed as the fastest-growing sport in America.

While there are no signs of Phelps’ pickleball prowess on his social media channels, there is plenty of evidence that he has remained active in his retirement. That includes lots of posts him golfing, horseback riding, frequent posts about his fitness work, and even the occasional shadow of a swim.

Fitzgerald is also an avid golfer, but he likewise has not posted any indication of his pickleball skills.

This newly-announced event is part of a rapidly-evolving professional pickleball scene. The PPA Tour was founded in 2018, but recently received a major investment from billionaire Tom Dundon. Along with purchases of Pickleball Central, the sport’s biggest retailer, and PickleballTournaments.com, the sport’s biggest tournament platform, Dundon is pushing a lot of new money into the game in an evolution that feels similar to the inroads by billionaire Konstantin Grigorishin and his International Swimming League into the sport of swimming in the last few years.

Dundon is also the majority owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes and of the TopGolf company, which is a chain of entertainment-focused golf driving ranges.

Besides winning a record 28 Olympic medals, 23 of which are gold, Phelps has achieved success in other sports as well. His 159-foot putt in 2012 is the longest putt ever made in a televised round of golf.

Now he’ll take to the pickleball courts where he’ll face off against future NFL Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald in a series of celebrity matches.

The 36-year old Phelps will face off against the 38-year old Fitzgerald, who played last season for the Arizona Cardinals but whose retirement from the NFL appears eminent. Fitzgerald ranks second all-time in NFL career receiving yards, second all-time in career receptions, and sixth all time in receiving touchdowns.