The first Uttar Pradesh Pickleball Championship, held at Noida Stadium, concluded on February 5 amidst much enthusiasm and fanfare that saw the state's top 84 players battling it out across 10 categories and across all age groups. The tournament, hosted by Pickleball Sports Association of Uttar Pradesh (UPSPA), was conducted with support from the government's Khelo India and Fit India initiatives and under aegis of India's G20 presidency.
The tournament, which was played across all disciplines - singles, doubles and mixed doubles, saw players participating from Lucknow, Jhansi, Agra, Mathura and Gautam Buddha Nagar. Notably, more than 15 women players participated in the tournament, which was live streamed on ABP LIVE.
Continuing their impressive form after winning silver in the Bainbridge Cup, Aman Grover and Sunil Garg secured gold in the 35+ mens' doubles after a nail-biting final match with Sukendra Singh and Sandeep Sinha, winning by a 2-1 margin.
"Organising a state tournament and getting gold is like dreaming with your eyes open. You can't pull something off this magnitude without the support of your families," Grover, who is also the UPSPA General Secretary, said. Grover also secured gold in the open mixed doubles format and bronze in 35+ Men's Singles. He was declared the Man of the Tournament.
Prabhat Mani Vats, who secured bronze in the nationals last year, bagged gold in the 35+ mens' singles. "It's like a dream start to this year...could not have asked anything better than this. I tried to keep my nerves in control at crucial moments. You win big matches because of the match temperament and how you are able to cope up the pressure," Vats, who also secured bronze in 35+ mens' doubles with Kalpit Sharma, said.
In other categroes, the 19+ mens' singles was won by Navpuneet, 19+ mens' doubles by Tarun and Vihaan Goswami, 50+ mens' doubles by Pradeep Kumar Saxena and Satyakam Goswami and women's doubles by Aarna Goswami and Priyanshi Mathuriya.
Sunil Garg, UPSPA assistant treasurer, said despite pickleball being a budding sport, the support received from participants and sponsors was overwhelming despite teething challenges.
"Without the support of my UPSPA teammates Rajarshi Sengupta, Ashish Gupta, Hemant Yadav and Jitendra and the players, this event could not have been pulled through. With the tournament held under the Fit India and Khelo India initiatives of the government, it would encourage more players to take up the raquet sport and grow consiousness among the masses," Garg told ABP LIVE.
Now UPSPA, plans to host about 400 players in April, this year, in an Open tournament.
The title sponsor of the inaugural Uttar Pradesh Pickleball Championship was Pickeball United. Other sponsors were Sports For Sure, The Approid Consulting, Prohealth Asia, Catch, Delta Wallace, SR College Of Law (Ghaziabad), The Heritage School and Mart n More.
For the uninitiated, pickleball, a combination of badminton, tennis and table tennis (TT), is a US sport that is gaining wide popularity in India.
The game is played with a paddle and a wiffle ball (perforated plastic ball with 30-40 holes). In India, pickleball is now played across 18 states and has over 15,000 registered players, according to the All India Pickleball Association (AIPA).
The aim in pickleball, like other racquet sports, is to win a point after rallying against your opponent. However, a team scores points only while serving.
The game has been taken up by celebrities like Bill Gates (who called it his "favourite game" in a blog post), George and Amal Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and the Kardashians.