Malaysia and Vietnam lead APAC pickleball push as RPO launches tour

Malaysia and Vietnam have become the sharpest engines of pickleball growth in South-East Asia, and the RacketPro APAC Pickleball Tour 2026 is built on that reality. RPO is not treating the launch as a one-off showcase. It is positioning the tour as a long-term development platform across Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and other APAC markets, with coaching standards, competitive quality and community depth at the center of the plan. That matters because pickleball’s scale in Asia is already huge: UPA Asia and YouGov said about 1.9 billion people across 12 Asian territories had heard of the sport, 812 million had played at least once and 282 million were playing at least monthly.

Malaysia looks like the clearer infrastructure leader. Connor Nguyen, RPO’s APAC managing director, has pointed to first-class facilities and exceptional commitment there, and the numbers back up that confidence. The Alliance Bank KL Open Pickleball Championship drew 648 players from 13 countries across 12 categories, a sign that Kuala Lumpur can already handle large, multi-division competition. Selangor has gone even further, allocating RM1 million to expand facilities and planning to introduce pickleball as a medal sport at Sukma 2026. Kuala Lumpur City Hall has also made courts available in public halls, widening access beyond the elite club scene.

Vietnam brings the other essential ingredient: mass uptake. UPA Asia said awareness there reached 88 percent, the highest in the survey, while more than 37 percent of respondents had already played. That is a rare combination of visibility and participation, and it helps explain why Da Nang has become such a useful showcase. In October 2025, Championship Saturday at the MB Vietnam Cup drew a Guinness World Record crowd of 7,906 fans, proof that the sport can pull not just players but spectators. RPO’s plan to run a four-week COEBRA program in Vietnam for coaches from multiple countries underlines the country’s growing role as a training base, not just a tournament stop.

The commercial side is moving just as fast. PPA Tour Asia has already scheduled back-to-back Cups in Malaysia and Vietnam, each with a US$150,000 pro prize pool. The Malaysia Cup is set for September 24-28 at 9Pickle Setia Alam and Setia City Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, before the Vietnam Cup runs from September 30 to October 4 in Da Nang. Penang is also lined up to host the World Pickleball Championship 2026, expected to draw 700 to 800 players, while the AmBank Malaysia Pickleball Championship has raised its prize pool from RM50,000 to RM66,000 and is targeting 600 participants.

What the tour changes for the rest of Asia is the standard. The sport is moving from scattered local enthusiasm to a structured circuit where venues, coaching pipelines, prize money and governance all have to work together. That shift is reinforced by the Asia Federation of Pickleball’s support for the merger of the International Pickleball Federation and World Pickleball Federation, a push toward cleaner global governance. Malaysia and Vietnam are setting the pace now, and the rest of the region will have to build toward that model if it wants a real place on the APAC map.