Rawal, Kotwal claim Sportify Dink Masters mixed-doubles title in Anand

Punji Rawal and Paras Kotwal won the mixed-doubles title at the Sportify Dink Masters 2026 PWR 100 in Anand, Gujarat, beating Bhavya Joshi and Mahika Rathod 11-3, 11-9 after controlling the opening game and surviving a far tighter finish.

The final was decided as much by chemistry as by scoreline. Rawal and Kotwal seized the net early, put pressure on serve returns, and forced Joshi and Rathod into reacting rather than dictating. That first-game 11-3 burst gave the champions room to settle into their roles, with Rawal driving the tempo and Kotwal covering the exchanges in transition.

The second game told a different story. Joshi and Rathod made the match competitive, finding better rhythm on the return and asking sharper questions in the middle of the court. Rawal and Kotwal still answered under pressure, a sign that their partnership had both structure and flexibility. In mixed doubles, that usually comes down to clear role balance, and this pairing looked comfortable deciding when to attack and when to absorb pressure.

The title was part of a strong weekend for Rawal, who also won the women’s singles crown by defeating Mahi Trivedi 11-1, 11-4. Kotwal, meanwhile, added the men’s doubles title alongside Nrug Patel, after the pair beat Kaif Memon and Aman Arora. Patel also claimed the men’s singles title with a 15-9 win over Lalitya Parihar. In a 64-player event spread across men’s singles, women’s singles, mixed doubles and men’s doubles, those repeated names underlined how the tournament’s key performers kept surfacing in more than one draw.

That matters for Indian pickleball’s pecking order. A mixed final that starts one-sided and ends tense suggests the depth is catching up to the top names, even as those top names continue to set the standard. Rawal and Kotwal did not just win a title in Anand; they strengthened their case as one of the pairs to track in the domestic mixed scene.

With a reported prize pool of Rs 85,000 and a two-day schedule on April 25 and 26, the PWR 100 stop added another marker to a circuit that is steadily widening. Anand has already hosted earlier Sportify Dink Master events, but this edition showed a more mature competitive field, and the mixed final delivered exactly that: early control, a real challenge, and a composed finish.