Bermuda’s Kim Burns Memorial pickleball tournament grows to 27 categories
Bermuda’s memorial pickleball week opened at WER Joell Tennis Stadium with 27 categories, 106 entries last year, and World Cup selection stakes on the line.
The third annual Kim Burns Memorial Pickleball Tournament opened Saturday at WER Joell Tennis Stadium, turning Bermuda’s tribute event into its biggest edition yet with 27 categories and 16-player draws across singles, doubles and mixed doubles. The Pickleball Association of Bermuda is running the tournament through May 21, and the field is limited to PAB members, with adult entries set at $50 per event and juniors playing free.
The six-day format is built for more than local bragging rights. Set-partner pool play feeds into a single-elimination bracket, and the tournament is being used as the first trial for World Cup team selection for both Open Elite and Senior teams. That gives every match extra weight, especially in the Open and 50-plus divisions, where results will help shape Bermuda’s national picture.
The memorial has grown into one of the island’s most important annual stops because it sits at the point where remembrance and competitive pathway meet. PAB’s ranking system places the Kim Burns Memorial as a Tier 5 specialty tournament and gives it a 25% points bonus, making it the second-most important event in Bermuda’s calendar behind the National Championships. Under the association’s Long-Term Athlete Development plan, established in 2024, the pathways structure now spans Open, 50+, 4.0+, 3.5, 3.0 and junior levels, so the memorial is not just a ceremony with paddles. It is part of the selection machine.
Kim Burns remains the reason the event carries such emotional pull. Born in Canada and later a Bermuda trailblazer, she played on one or two Canadian national teams before winning Bermuda’s first pickleball tournament. Burns moved to Bermuda in 1992 and later worked as an oncology nurse, a Bermuda PALS nurse, a bereavement counsellor and head of Bermuda’s Hospice, Agape House. She died on November 26, 2023, at age 61, after a battle with ovarian cancer.
The turnout has already shown how far the tournament has come. Last year’s memorial drew 106 entries, with the youngest player aged 11 and competitors older than 70 taking part. That spread says plenty about Bermuda pickleball right now: the sport has enough depth to fill 27 categories, enough structure to make rankings matter and enough memory attached to one player to keep the whole community coming back.
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