Sri Lanka's first women-only pickleball tournament debuts in Colombo
Sri Lanka’s first women-only pickleball draw lands in Colombo with four doubles divisions, including a 40-plus bracket built to pull newcomers into competition.
Sri Lanka’s first women-only pickleball tournament will put 20 and 21 June on the Colombo calendar with a four-bracket doubles draw designed to widen the sport’s pipeline, not just crown winners. Dinking Divas 2026 will be staged at Colombo Pickle Club on Torrington Avenue in Colombo 07, under The Pickle Assembly banner from Nayantara “Taru” Fonseka, Anusha Senadhira and Nilka Dabare.
The format goes straight at the barriers that often keep women on the sidelines: access to a welcoming competitive setting, age-appropriate entry points and the social ease to step into a new sport without feeling out of place. The tournament will be doubles-only and split into Playful Divas for beginners, Precision Divas for intermediate players, Power Divas for advanced players and Timeless Divas for women aged 40 and above, giving first-timers and seasoned players separate lanes to compete on equal footing.
That structure matters in a country where women have already been playing pickleball, but without a dedicated tournament built around their needs and visibility. Anusha Senadhira said the aim is to make women feel encouraged, supported and inspired to compete, and the organisers want Dinking Divas to become a bi-annual fixture on Sri Lanka’s sporting calendar. The 40-plus category is especially significant, because it signals that the growth plan is not limited to younger athletes or former racket-sport players, but also to women entering the game later.
The launch arrives alongside a wider surge in Sri Lankan pickleball. The Ceylon Pickle League, the country’s first franchise-based competition, is set for 16 to 18 October 2026 at the same venue, and all eight franchises were sold before launch. The teams, Colombo Aces, Trinco Titans, Weligama Sharks, Ella Archers, Kandy Knights, Yaal Dinkers, Bentota Nyners and Galle Kings, underline how quickly the sport is building a formal structure even as awareness remains relatively low, according to Colombo Pickle Club co-founder Subraja Subramaniam.
Across Asia, the scale is even clearer. UPA Asia and YouGov research found about 1.9 billion people across 12 Asian territories have heard of pickleball, around 812 million have tried it and roughly 282 million play at least monthly, with regional growth up 60% year on year. In that context, Dinking Divas is more than a debut draw. It is a test case for whether a women-only format can turn curiosity into repeat participation, and whether Sri Lanka can turn one milestone into a durable model for growth.
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