Pickleball Kingdom opens India’s first Master Club in Gurugram

Pickleball Kingdom India opened its first Master Club in Gurugram on June 29, putting eight premium indoor courts at the center of a launch designed to be more than a ribbon-cutting. The flagship site is built around coaching, tournaments, leagues, community events and corporate play, a sign that the brand wants to sell a full pickleball ecosystem in India rather than a single venue.

The opening drew senior Pickleball Kingdom USA leadership, including founder and chief executive Ace Rodrigues and vice president of business development Jeff Dunlap. Dalton Robinson, a DUPR 5.03-rated player, also came to support the launch, onboard players and coaches, run skill-development sessions and share practices from more mature pickleball markets. That mix of executives and a high-level player gave the Gurugram club the feel of a performance hub as much as a commercial one.

The India rollout is being led by Team BAQ Wizards India, founded by Bhanu Gulati, Anuj Duggal and Qudrath Ali. Pickleball Kingdom first announced its India expansion on Nov. 12, 2025, saying India was its top choice for international growth and that it already had more than 400 locations awarded across the United States. The company’s push into Gurugram now gives that expansion a physical base in Delhi NCR, one of the country’s most visible sports and consumer markets.

The timing fits a market that is already building structure around the sport. The Indian Pickleball Association says it is recognized by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and oversees rankings, tournaments and player development across India. The Indian Pickleball League, launched by The Times Group, calls itself the country’s first and only national franchise-based pickleball league and says it is sanctioned by the IPA. In other words, the Gurugram club landed in a country where pickleball is no longer just a recreational trend.

India’s competitive results underline that shift. At the 2025 Pickleball World Cup, India finished seventh with 25 medals and stood as the only Asian nation in the top 10. Across Asia, a UPA Asia and YouGov study said 1.9 billion people have heard of pickleball and 282 million play monthly, while recent India market reports have pointed to more than 1,200 operational courts by early 2026 and a market that could reach 7,500 crore by 2030. Against that backdrop, Gurugram looks less like an isolated club opening and more like an early test of whether premium, coached, indoor infrastructure can become the model for the next phase of pickleball in India.