Jones and Menon dominate Gurgaon to win 30+ women's doubles title

Danielle Jones and Monica Menon finished unbeaten at the Picklebay Zonals North, beating Sindoor Mittal and Priyanka Mehta 11-1, 11-8 for the 30+ Open women’s doubles title in Gurugram. Their final was the sharpest version of a run that never really wobbled, and it landed in a tournament that carried real selection weight for India’s next international test.

The North zonals were staged at The Horizon X Courtplay from June 24 to June 28 as an Indian Pickleball Association-sanctioned PWR 700 event, with 28 categories and a Rs 15 lakh prize pool. More importantly for the players in the senior draws, Picklebay and the Indian Pickleball Association had already designated the competition as the official selection event for Team India’s Open category at the Pickleball World Cup 2026 in Da Nang, Vietnam, from August 30 to September 6.

Jones and Menon’s route through the bracket was as convincing as the final scoreline suggests. They opened with an 11-2 win over Upsana Nath and Manaswinee Hazarika, then beat Richa Minda and Rhea Aggarwal before another 11-1 result over Gaurika Chopra and Vrushali Gupta. Against Mittal and Mehta, they had already survived a tighter group-stage meeting, edging the same pair 11-10 before closing the door more emphatically in the title match.

That repeat matchup is what gives the result its value in a selection-tournament setting. Jones and Menon did not simply catch a hot start or ride one favorable draw; they solved the same opponents twice, first under round-robin pressure and then again when the title was on the line. In a 30-plus field, that kind of repeatability is becoming one of the clearest markers of competitive depth in Indian women’s pickleball, where older age brackets are no longer a side note but a serious lane for players who keep improving while balancing sport, work and family.

Jones’s weekend was even stronger than the doubles trophy alone. She also won silver in the 30+ Women’s Singles and later teamed with Anay Patil to take the 30+ Open Mixed Doubles title. Menon reached another final with Rahul Belwal, though they fell 11-3, 3-11, 11-4 in the mixed championship match. With opening-day golds also going to Sharmada Balu, Nilesh Desai, Anmol Malik and Dhiren Patel, the North zonals looked less like a single tournament than a deep inventory of where Indian pickleball is finding its next layer of talent.