Arjun Singh, Dhiren Patel win golds as India adds third US Open title

Arjun Singh and Dhiren Patel gave India the kind of day that changes how a country is seen in a sport. With two more golds at the US Open Pickleball Championships in Naples, Florida, India’s medal tally climbed to three and its case as a serious international force got much harder to dismiss.

Arjun handled Ashton Patterson 13-11, 11-6 in the men’s singles 5.0 final, a straight-sets win that still had to be earned point by point. Dhiren then went three games with Juan Arraya in the 40+ Pro men’s singles final and came through 11-9, 3-11, 11-9, a result that showed how thin the margin can be when pressure spikes and legs start to go. Together, those wins gave India breadth, not just one-off brilliance: one title in a younger elite division, another in a pro age bracket.

That matters because India’s story in pickleball is no longer only about participation numbers at home. It is starting to show up in the medal column abroad, at one of the sport’s biggest stages. The 2026 US Open is the tournament’s 10th anniversary edition, running April 11-18 at the USOP National Pickleball Center. The event said last year’s edition drew more than 55,000 fans and 3,450 players from all 50 states and 40 countries, and organizers had been expecting close to 4,000 players this time. In that field, golds are not handed out as souvenirs.

India’s push in Naples began earlier when Arjun Singh and Aditya Singh won the country’s first US Open Pickleball gold, beating top seeds Ryder Brown and Soli Messiri 11-1, 11-5 in the U-18 boys’ doubles final. Naga Moksha added a bronze in women’s singles, and the Indian contingent also included Jeet Sood, Yuvraj Singh, Panth Thakkar and Atharva Sheth in U-18 boys’ doubles. It was India’s first US Open appearance under the affiliation of the Indian Pickleball Association, the government-recognized national governing body.

That institutional backdrop helps explain why these results travel beyond one tournament. UPA Asia and YouGov data released in June 2025 said 1.9 billion people across 12 Asian territories had heard of pickleball, 812 million had played at least once, and India had more than 178 million frequent players, the most in Asia. When a country with that kind of base starts winning in Naples, it is not just collecting medals. It is starting to look like a pipeline, one that can feed higher-profile pro-tour success if these players keep turning pressure into trophies.