Team Agassi Wins World Record Pickleball Match Atop Merdeka 118

Andre Agassi stepped onto Level 118 of Merdeka 118 on April 8 and walked off with both a Guinness World Record and a team victory, capping a two-day JOOLA Titans Tour stop in Kuala Lumpur that reframed what a pickleball event can look like in Southeast Asia.

The rooftop showcase pitted Team Agassi against Team Ben Johns in a format built for drama: four rotating matches followed by a Dreambreaker-style race-to-18 finale. Agassi partnered with Brooke Buckner against world No. 1 Ben Johns and Anna Bright in the headline pairing, with the four main matches ending level at 2-2. The Dreambreaker's rapid rotations and short-run intensity rewarded clutch play and shot versatility, and Team Agassi seized the finish to claim the overall showcase. "It's great to see how fast pickleball is growing, and I'm just pleased and grateful to be part of it," Agassi said after the event.

Guinness World Records officially certified the Level 118 match as the highest pickleball match ever played inside a building, the central credential organisers had been building toward since announcing the stop in March. The recognition landed inside a production framework designed to amplify it: drone displays, pyrotechnics, and a sweeping light show over the Kuala Lumpur skyline accompanied the rooftop action and drove the kind of visual reach that no box score alone can generate.

The broader two-day programme ran through Stadium Juara in Mont Kiara, drawing an estimated 2,000 spectators for the in-arena segment. The full rotation extended well beyond the headline pairing: Federico Staksrud, Kate Fahey, Colin Johns, Tyson McGuffin, and a regional contingent including Kenta Miyoshi, Ken Tam, Andie Dikosavljevic, and Aiko Yoshitomi all cycled through the format. Tickets had started at RM169 via Ticket2U from late March.

Tom Nguyen, JOOLA's APAC CEO, positioned the Kuala Lumpur stop as proof that Malaysia can deliver high-production pickleball capable of attracting both fan-facing audiences and serious future event investment. Organisers tied the stop to Tourism Malaysia's Visit Malaysia 2026 campaign, framing the Merdeka 118 moment as a tourism activation as much as a sporting milestone.

For regional promoters and venue bidders, the combination of a certifiable world record, a 2,000-seat arena draw, broadcast-ready production values, and a government tourism hook is now a template on the table. Kuala Lumpur has put a specific number on what premium pickleball looks like in Asia: 118 floors up, Guinness-certified, and tied directly to a country's biggest annual marketing push.