Agra, Solon-Ybanez win bronze in Hanoi, Philippines add another medal

A bronze medal in Hanoi did more than put Jessica Agra on the podium. It showed the Philippines can bring crossover talent into the PPA Asia mix and leave with hardware, with Agra and Macy Solon-Ybanez taking bronze in women’s 35-plus 3.5-and-above doubles at the MB Hanoi Cup 2026.

The Filipina pair opened with a 15-2 win over South Korea’s Yeji Shin and Heesok Kim, a scoreline that suggested control from the first serve. Their run ended in the semifinals against Vietnam’s Truc Nguyen and Thao Nguyen, who edged them 15-12 before moving into the title picture. Vietnam’s Trang Tran and Phan Quynh ultimately won gold, but Agra and Solon-Ybanez still emerged from a deep bracket with a podium finish.

That bronze carries extra weight because it came in Agra’s first international pickleball tournament, only about four months after she switched from padel. Before that jump, Agra had already been known as Asia’s top-ranked female padel player, and that background showed in how quickly she adjusted to pickleball’s pace and spacing. She added another early marker in the sport when she won her first pickleball title at the Philippine Pickleball League’s Luzon Open, making Hanoi look less like a surprise and more like the next step in a rapid rise.

Solon-Ybanez did not stop at doubles. She also delivered another medal for the Philippines with bronze in women’s singles, beating Vietnam’s Phung Vo 15-7. That two-medal haul is the bigger story for Philippine pickleball: a country still carving out its identity is already producing repeated podium finishes in Asia, and not just from one star. Agra and Solon-Ybanez showed the Philippines can travel into the region’s toughest draws and come home with results.

The setting mattered, too. The MB Hanoi Cup was PPA Tour Asia’s first stop of the 2026 calendar, a PPA Asia 1000 event staged from April 1 to April 5 at My Dinh Indoor Athletics Arena in Hanoi, inside Vietnam’s National Sporting Complex. With more than 3,000 seats, 110 pro players, 123 matches and nearly 800 total registrants across pro and amateur brackets, the event was built to reward depth. The Philippines answered with more of it. Agra later thanked her partner publicly: “Thank you, partner, for playing with me. Great fight today!”