Different court, familiar game
For Jenny Marcos, the court has been more than just a place to play—it has been a lifelong classroom.
With over 33 years of professional experience in tennis and nine years in pickleball, Marcos has built a decadeslong career in the court, guiding both competitive and young players through the peaks and valleys of the game.
Having played tennis since the age of four, Marcos is no stranger to the world of racket sports.
Now one of the driving forces behind pickleball’s explosive growth in the Philippines, Marcos is spending her career not only doing and teaching what she loves but also giving back to the country that shaped her as a young athlete.
Born and bred in the Philippines, Marcos had humble beginnings before earning a tennis scholarship to the University of Central Oklahoma, where she became an inductee into the university’s Hall of Fame.
“It changed my life. That [scholarship] was a gift given to me. That changed the whole perspective on my career.”
Since then, Marcos has been recognized at the top levels of competition.
She was drafted into the National Pickleball League for four consecutive years, representing the OKC Punishers, Indy Drivers, and Denver Iconics.
Marcos also received competitive accomplishments including earning medals and championships at the US National Championships, US Open, World Pickleball Championships, and the Champions Pickleball Series—to name a few.
An International Professional Tennis & Pickleball Association (IPTPA) Certified Coach, Marcos is a 4-time All-American in tennis and served as the Head Coach of the Men’s and Women’s Tennis Teams at Southwestern Christian University for eight years, mentoring and developing student-athletes.
More than half of Marcos’ life revolved around tennis. Then, she found her way to pickleball.
From one court to another
Marcos’ own pickleball journey began almost by accident.
After persistent refusals to “dink” with her pickleball-playing friends, Marcos finally gave in.
Frustrated at being outplayed and watching friends excel on the pickleball court reignited a familiar competitive spark in Marcos: if they could master the game, she reasoned, so could she.
That determination, paired with what Marcos describes as a distinctly Filipino unwillingness to lose, pushed her to train seriously and eventually compete at the sport’s highest levels—a transition she credits to the athletic foundation and discipline she built over decades of playing tennis.
Where it all started
During her frequent trips to the Philippines in 2016 and 2017 to promote tennis, Marcos observed a persistent barrier: the cost.
Tennis rackets, strings, and balls were simply too expensive for many aspiring young players to sustain the sport long-term.
“I saw the need for more young people to play tennis. But when I came back to the US, I realized the cost of strings and rackets, it was too much and tennis balls, it was a struggle to get those equipment.”
Marcos also pointed out that competing in tennis can be costly, with expenses adding up from court fees, tournament entry fees, insurance fees, referee fees, equipment, and other requirements. And that is before factoring in the cost of food and transportation, making competitive tennis a significant financial commitment for players.
“I think that’s one thing that’s preventing a lot of people from playing in competitions because of that amount of money they’re charging. But if we take away that, I don’t see anything hard about it. People play everywhere. They can go anywhere. I don’t foresee any difficulty for anyone to play.”
“So I went ahead and I said maybe pickleball would be a good thing for [the] Philippines. It will be cheaper.”
Pickleball, by contrast, offered a far more accessible alternative—cheaper equipment, and courts that could be improvised from as simple as an empty street to a repurposed basketball court or existing badminton facilities.
By 2018, Marcos had already begun quietly collecting paddles in the United States, where pickleball was gaining serious traction, with a vision toward eventually introducing the sport back home.
Marcos’ target audience was strategic: school-aged children who were already active in badminton, table tennis, or tennis, making the transition to pickleball a natural one.
With the support of her team in the Philippines, Marcos laid the groundwork for what became a rapidly growing movement.
As Marcos described it, pickleball “spread like wildfire” from that point on.
Soon, the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) of the Philippines was born.
Creating space for everyone
Marcos credits pickleball’s rapid growth to its simplicity and appeal to a more diverse crowd.
Players of nearly any age, from grade schoolers to those in their nineties, can pick up a paddle and begin playing as soon as they step onto the court.
Its family-friendly nature, Marcos notes, allows couples, children, and grandparents to compete together, fostering a sense of community that few other sports replicate so easily.
Pickleball’s inclusivity and accessibility have also opened the door to adaptive pickleball, giving people with disabilities an opportunity to participate and compete in the sport.
“Some have poor eyesight, some cannot hear, some have poor balance. Some don’t have the mental ability to move around too much or they can be in different kinds of wheelchairs,” shares Marcos.
In adaptive pickleball, Marcos modifies some of the game’s elements to ensure athletes with disabilities can play comfortably and without unnecessary barriers.
“Adaptive [pickleball] takes a little bit longer to organize compared to the [traditional] because of the wheelchairs, the preparation of whatever [the athletes] need on the court. So, the court becomes even smaller for them due to their equipment.”
“They’re still using the same paddle. The only difference is that they can have the ball bounce twice. But other than that, it’s the same concept [as] a normal player.”
Looking ahead, Marcos sees no signs of pickleball’s momentum slowing—not in Oklahoma, where she continues to welcome new players, and certainly not in the Philippines, where the sport has grown from a handful of borrowed paddles into a nationwide movement.
“I always thought about how I can give back, how I can promote sports,” Marcos reflects. “It was never personal—I think the Philippines gave me something when I was growing up to be a better tennis player.”
Nearly a decade into her pickleball journey, Marcos is still finding new ways to return the favor, one court at a time.
