Korea Pickleball: Bidding for Asia Open & International Events

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Dong-kyung = The Korea Pickleball Association (KPA, Chairman Cho Hyeon-jae) is starting to attract international competitions such as the Asia Open Pickleball Championship.

KPA announced on the 3rd that it plans to meet the expectations of the rapidly expanding domestic pickleball enthusiasts while actively making efforts to internationalize the sport.

In particular, KPA decided to accelerate its efforts to attract international competitions by officially joining the Korean Sports Association member organization in March and incorporating it into the system.

Currently, the Professional Pickleball Association of America (PPA) Asia Tour Tournament is held every year in Vietnam, where pickleball is the hottest, as well as Malaysia, Singapore, and Hangzhou, China.

World top-ranked players, such as Ben Jones, who plays in the PPA Tour, the premier league of pickleball, appear at the Asian tournament.

KPA plans to hold 7 major domestic competitions in each city, including Seoul, this year, while also organizing 2nd and 3rd level leader training, certification, and professional seminars about 7 times.

In the future, we plan to introduce elementary, middle, and high school weekend leagues so that pickleball can officially become established as a school sport, while also promoting the establishment of a federation system such as the elementary and middle school federation, university federation, and senior federation.

In addition, we plan to introduce a point system to the hosted competitions to develop players and structure the game system.

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Pickleball, which combines elements of tennis, badminton, and table tennis, originated in the United States in the 1960s and was introduced to Korea in 2017.

A net is set up on a court the size of a badminton court, and a paddle, twice the size of a table tennis racket, is used to hit a hollow, perforated plastic ball to pass the net.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates enjoyed it and became widely known in the United States, and tennis legend Andre Agassi debuted as a pickleball professional player.

The pickleball population in the United States has surpassed 30 million, making it the fastest-growing sport in recent years.

KPA estimates that there are about 100 pickleball clubs in Korea, including in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Daegu, and Pohang, and that the number of members is over 10,000.

Domestic hobbyists usually enjoy pickleball by renting local government sports facilities or school gyms.

The number of tourists traveling to Da Nang, a famous tourist destination in Vietnam, with paddles (racquets) to play pickleball with locals is increasing.

Kim Tae-won (47), an office worker who is the president of a pickleball club called ‘Hanpaedeul’ in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, said, “Pickleball is a sport that is attractive enough to be addictive,” and added, “There are many people around me who are interested, so I gave a lot of paddles as gifts.”

In keeping with the spread of pickleball enthusiasts, the city of Seoul plans to build a 14-sided outdoor court at Gwangnaru Hangang Park and open it in April.

There are also private courts coated with acrylic, similar to tennis hard court flooring, in places such as Seoul’s Banpo, Yongin, and Incheon.

A KPA official said, “Pickleball is attracting attention as a sport that connects generations because it is easily accessible to people of all ages and genders. As the number of players increases explosively every year, we need support to meet the demand.”

hopema@yna.co.kr

Report via KakaoTalk okjebo


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2026/02/03 14:31 Sent
Sent on February 3, 2026 at 14:31