Bhavya Joshi doubles up as Veer Shah endures final heartbreak in Gujarat

Bhavya Joshi left Anand with the cleaner medal haul, but the Sportify Dink Master was defined by the strain Veer Shah had to absorb. At the IPA-sanctioned PWR 100 event in Gujarat, Bhavya won the Boys Under-19 singles title, then returned with Mahika to capture the U-19 mixed doubles crown, giving the weekend a clear junior standout.

Veer’s run was the opposite kind of headline. He reached four finals across categories and converted only one, a 19+ Men’s Doubles title with Suraj after a 15-5 win over Nrug and Samarth. Everything else came down to the sort of margins that leave a player replaying points for days: he lost the Boys U19 singles final to Bhavya 15-6, then dropped the U19 boys doubles final with Vivan Patel 17-15 against Panth Thakkar and Kiaan Contractor. The knockout blow came again in the 19+ Men’s Singles final, where Panth edged him 15-13.

That was the other side of the weekend in Anand, the side that showed composure under pressure. Panth Thakkar did more than just spoil Veer’s afternoon twice. He helped flip the U19 boys doubles final with Kiaan Contractor in a 17-15 finish, then followed it by taking the 19+ Men’s Singles title 15-13. In a tournament built on repeated matchups and thin margins, Panth looked like a player who knew exactly when to slow the point down and when to finish it.

There was no shortage of one-sided results either. Punji Rawal ripped through Ishika Kankaria 15-2 to win the 19+ singles final, while Bhavya and Mahika’s 15-6 mixed doubles victory underlined how quickly the best juniors are turning into multi-draw threats. Across two days, the Sportify Dink Masters 2026 stop in Anand carried a prize pool of Rs 85,000 and kept producing the same message: India’s pickleball ladder is getting denser, faster and harder to survive.

That matters because Anand is no longer just hosting a tournament. It is becoming a repeat stop on a circuit where the same names can show up in junior and open draws, in singles and doubles, and still be expected to recover for another final the next day. For Gujarat, that is evidence of a real youth pipeline. It is also a warning sign. The sport is producing versatile players, but weekends like this also test how much volume promising teenagers can take before the climb to the next level starts to cost more than it gives.