Pune hosts Ultimate Pickleball League, 180 players compete across 12 teams

Pune’s latest pickleball showcase was less a standalone event than a sign that India’s competitive base is getting wider and harder to ignore. The Ultimate Pickleball League Pune Edition 2026 opened at MuscleBar Sports Club with more than 180 players spread across 12 teams, and the format covered men’s and women’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles, giving the league a deeper competitive footprint than a one-division exhibition.

The backing around the tournament made the statement even stronger. Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Patil inaugurated the event in the presence of CA Abhay Bhutada, founder and chairman of TAB Global Ventures and the Abhay Bhutada Foundation, which presented the league. Bhutada said the structure creates an opportunity to see some of the best players compete in a controlled environment and can encourage more people to stay active, a point that matters in a sport still building its formal ladder in India.

The field itself underlined that ambition. A May 7 release from the foundation named several of the players set to feature, including Raaquib Merchant, Vrushali Thakare, Rohit Patil, Avinash Kumar, Anuja Maheshwari, Snehal Patil, Arjun Singh, Anay Patil, Aditya Singh and Maitreya Bhagat. The league also carried prize money across categories, with INR 1,50,000 for the winner, INR 1,00,000 for the first runner-up and INR 51,000 for the second runner-up, a structure that gives match results real consequence beyond bragging rights.

That matters because India’s pickleball ecosystem is now large enough to require more than casual participation. The Indian Pickleball Association says it is recognized by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports as the national sports federation for the game in India, and it cites more than 500 professional players, 100-plus ranking tournaments, 50,000-plus players and coverage across 27 states. DUPR has also said that from 2026 all IPA events will run as DUPR Verified Events, which adds a standardized rating layer that helps results travel more easily from one tournament to the next.

Maharashtra’s momentum adds another layer to Pune’s importance. The Maharashtra Pickleball Association launched the Maharashtra Open 2026 at Andheri Sports Complex with more than 1,000 participants across 30-plus categories, and its winners are eligible to represent the state at the National Championship later in 2026. Rahool Kanal said the association crossed 750 members in its debut month, a sign of how quickly the state’s player base is organizing. In that context, Pune’s Ultimate Pickleball League felt like a clear marker of the sport’s middle tier maturing, where more players, more teams and more structured matches are starting to define the next phase of Indian pickleball.