Agassi, Graf showcase pickleball boom in Beijing exhibition match

The bigger news in Beijing was not simply that Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf picked up paddles again. It was that the National Tennis Center and Peking University put their names behind a two-day pickleball program, a clear sign that China’s fastest-rising racket sport is moving from novelty toward institution.

At Beijing’s National Tennis Center, the 2026 Joola Pickleball Titans Tour brought Agassi, Graf and world No. 1 Ben Johns into a setting that looked more like a sports-policy demonstration than a standard event. A few hundred Chinese officials and dignitaries watched exhibition matches, interactive segments and a campus component that underlined where the sport is heading: into national venues, university spaces and a more formal development pipeline.

The format itself told the story. Players were handed task cards that changed the rules in real time, forcing them to adjust tactics on the fly. Agassi was limited to lobs in one sequence, while Graf’s team was barred from using smashes. That kind of constraint turned the showcase into more than a nostalgia act; it became a live lesson in how pickleball rewards touch, positioning and adaptability rather than pure power.

The accessibility factor was on display as well. Chinese tennis player Wang Qiang called pickleball “very fun, very enjoyable and easy to pick up,” a neat summary of why the sport has spread so quickly across China’s racket-sport ecosystem. In one one-point challenge, an amateur spectator traded rallies with Agassi, a small moment that said plenty about how the game invites first-timers into the action faster than tennis ever could.

Agassi said he and Graf were drawn into pickleball through family play and had to unlearn some tennis habits along the way. That crossover matters in China, where tennis pedigree and pickleball growth are now starting to overlap in public view. When two of the most recognizable names in tennis appear under the banners of the National Tennis Center and Peking University, the message is bigger than exhibition sport: the establishment is no longer watching from the sidelines.

The scale behind that message is striking. The China Pickleball Circuit has reportedly grown from 80 tournament stops in 2024 to more than 600 in 2026, while earlier projections said officials had been told the sport could reach 10,000 courts and 100 million players within five years. Agassi said China has “all the ingredients” for pickleball’s next boom, pointing to its sporting ecosystem, population and racket-sport culture.

That is why Beijing mattered. After a 2025 JOOLA Legends Tour that already took pickleball pros and tennis legends through Vietnam and China, the sport’s next Asian growth engine may not just be emerging in China. It is already being built in public.