A strong English contingent returned with a bagful of medals and treasured memories from the inaugural $100,000 Indian Open in Mumbai.
Billed as ‘Asia’s largest ever pickleball tournament’, event organisers Global Sports staged a spectacular debut event at the 5,000-capacity National Sports Club of India with the biggest prize money ever outside of North America.
The event featured seven players from England among a group of 15 specially invited Europeans, plus stars from USA, Dubai, Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines and a hugely impressive contingent of home-grown Indians who seem set to make a big impression on the pro pickleball scene very soon indeed.
English Nationals champion Pei-Chuan Kao was England’s sole gold medal winner in the women’s singles, whilst there were two doubles silvers and a singles bronze for Thaddea Lock and bronzes too for Julie McCauley in the 50+ Open mixed doubles, Tom Turney in the 35+ Open men’s doubles and Emma Wrixon in the advanced women’s singles.
Singles
Pei picked up a cool $3000 for winning the women’s singles gold medal. She beat Thaddea in the semi-finals in straight sets before dismissing Emilia Schmidt – Australia’s triple crown national champion and recent PPA Tour medallist – in a stunning display in the final. Thaddea went on to win the bronze medal play-off.
There were 16 groups in the men’s singles, in which Louis Laville progressed to the last 16 before going down to India’s Rohit Patil, while Freddie Powell won his group before losing narrowly to US pro Jayden Broderick.
Gender doubles
Pei and Thaddea blazed a trail until the final where they lost in rapid fashion to Megan Fudge and Susannah Barr, one of the APP Tour’s best female doubles pairs. After watching the game, Louis commented: “They were exhausted after a long week and potentially played the wrong tactics that played into their opponents’ hands – but to get silver was a great achievement in a very strong women’s doubles bracket.”
Earlier in the day, Thaddea had also won silver in the women’s 35+ Open doubles alongside India’s Isha Lakhani, again losing to Susannah and Megan in a very competitive final.
In the men’s, Freddie and Louis lost in the quarter-finals to India’s highly promising Harsh Mehta and Armaan Bhatia. “They were a very well drilled pair and they simply didn’t miss for two sets,” said Louis.
Playing with Spain’s Carlos Perez, Tom Turney from the Isle of Wight earned a bronze medal in the 35+ Open men’s doubles.
Mixed doubles
Louis and Pei breezed into the semi-finals after winning their group, last-16 match and quarter-final – even though Pei had to take a medical timeout due to heat exhaustion. In the semis, they went down to Emilia Schmidt and Jayden Broderick in three sets, then lost the bronze play-off to the Indian/Taiwanese combination of Vanshik Kapadia and Hsieh yu-Chieh (sister of current women’s double tennis world No.2 Hsieh Su-wei).
Thaddea partnered with France’s Theo Platel, while Freddie played alongside Spaniard Sabrina Mendez, but both pairs went out in the last 16. Julie McCauley won bronze alongside India’s Atul Edward in the 50+ Open.
Louis’ verdict
“What the tournament showed us is that the UK and Europe needs to get on with developing pickleball facilities and getting more people playing very quickly, because the rest of the world is starting to motor ahead in terms of numbers and level of players and investment into the sport. I am very excited to watch the top Indian players go over and beat some of the top pros at April’s US Open.
“Pickleball in India is absolutely exploding. They have a lot of good players who didn’t medal but made quarter-finals or more. They have coaching programmes, investment, sponsorships and financial backers. Global Sports and Pickleball United did a phenomenal job. Bollywood stars attended on one day with fans clamouring for pictures of the celebs.
“On behalf of the European players who were invited, a massive thank you to Global Sports. Their hospitality was second to none. The players were treated phenomenally well and we had an incredible experience. We look forward to going back to India for the next tournament as soon as possible.”
