Pickleball has become America’s most annoying “sport.”

At first it seemed like Alex Newberry was just another obnoxious whiner. There aren’t enough problems in Sarasota County, so we have to complain about pickleball noise? Has it come to this?

It appears that Newberry, who recently wrote a letter to the editor, lives four blocks from the Pompano Trail in Sarasota. There are 12 lighted pickleball courts there that stay open until 10 p.m., and Newberry says living in the neighborhood is like listening to an endless bag of microwave popcorn.

“When I open my windows in the morning, the first recognizable sound is not a bird. It’s not the breeze. It’s the splash and splash of pickleball. Fourteen hours a day,” Newberry wrote. “There are people at Novus Court who live 50 meters away. The value of their houses must have plummeted.”

As it turns out, Newberry has a valid point that others agree with.

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Sue-Ellen Welfonder is a successful romance novelist living on Longboat Key. She enjoyed daily walks that took her past the Bayfront Park Recreation Center. Last spring, five new pickleball courts were added, and with them came the sweet pop-pop-pop sounds from the Pickleheads’ rackets.

“Pickleball has replaced leaf blowers as my biggest pet peeve,” she told the New York Times.

Welfonder added that she is working on a new novel in which some of the characters love pickleball.

“I make them really bad people,” she said.

Pickleball is played with two paddles and a plastic ball that resembles a wiffle ball. The sport is similar to tennis, but the playing field is much smaller, meaning the ball’s hitting frequency is much higher.

The number of players in this country has increased 159% in the last three years, and an estimated 36 million people play Pickleball on over 11,000 courts, according to USA Pickleball. Sarasota County has 73 outdoor courts, while the GT Bray courts are ranked among the top 25 in the country by Pickleball Magazine.

That’s not to say every pickleball court in the area is near a cluster of homes, but some are within earshot.

The sound of a pickleball racket can be up to 70 decibels, twice as loud as that of tennis. In busy areas, that’s 70 decibels every four seconds for eight hours. Based on frequency, Sarasota Bradenton International Airport is quieter.

“It’s like having a pistol shooting range in your backyard,” John Mancini of Wellesley, Massachusetts, told the New York Times.

Rob Mastroianni of Falmouth, Massachusetts, moved out of his home after his city built courts 350 feet from his home. He and some neighbors then filed a lawsuit.

“The constant banging 12 hours a day, seven days a week is borderline torture,” a Virginia city resident wrote to a parks and recreation department.

Pickleball noise is apparently so concerning that there is a consulting firm called Pickleball Sound Mitigation that advises cities and towns on ways to reduce it.

No, it’s not just Alex Newberry in Sarasota who has these concerns.

“It’s not right,” Newberry wrote to the Herald-Tribune. “Close the courts or close the courts.”