UPA Asia Names Class of 2026 Trailblazers for Six-Week California Training

Sixteen athletes from nine Asian nations earned UPA Asia pro contracts on Monday as the United Pickleball Association confirmed its Trailblazers Programme Class of 2026, sending eight players to train in California while eight more enter a structured development track closer to home.

The eight Trailblazers are Tya Karina Aditya (Indonesia), Julian Chow (Hong Kong), Mihae Kwon (Korea), Dang Ngo (Vietnam), Tang Nok Yiu (Hong Kong), Syed Uzair (Malaysia), Colin Wong (Malaysia), and Anni Xie (China). Each secured a two-year UPA Asia Pro Contract and a spot in a six-week high-performance residency at Calabasas Pickleball Club in California, where they will train under top coaches, receive comprehensive media training, and compete on the Carvana PPA Tour. After that U.S. block concludes, they return to Asia to compete on the PPA Tour Asia circuit.

Calabasas Pickleball Club is not a random venue choice. The facility has become one of North America's more credible development hubs, with PPA Tour champion Roscoe Bellamy among the prominent players connected to it. Parking eight emerging Asian players there for six weeks alongside that level of environment is a meaningful step up from anything the region has produced at the programme level before.

The selections came out of an intensive December pre-selection camp at Infinity Academy, making this a genuine tiered funnel rather than a single announcement. Season 2 of the programme is deliberately framed as a structured pathway rather than a one-off selection, combining high-performance training, media development, and tour opportunities aimed at helping players sharpen their games, grow their profiles, and step more confidently into professional pickleball.

The eight Rising Stars round out a class that spans Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, Chinese Taipei, and three Chinese players across both tiers. Timothy Foo (Malaysia), Yunqi He (China), Paranya Jareonvongrayab (Thailand), Pei-Yu Lai (Chinese Taipei), Longsheng Liu (China), Christian Josua Luna (Philippines), Anh Hoang Nguyen (Vietnam), and Seina Shima (Japan) each received one-year UPA Asia Pro Contracts along with athlete pathway support, development guidance, and media training as they establish themselves on PPA Tour Asia.

The geographic spread matters as much as the contracts do. Malaysia places three athletes across both tiers, China contributes three, Hong Kong and Vietnam two each, with Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Chinese Taipei, and Japan each represented by one. That breadth reflects how quickly the sport has grown across the continent and how much competitive depth UPA Asia now has to work with entering its second Trailblazers season. The Class of 2026 is scheduled to compete across Asia and the United States in the coming months, with the California residency beginning this month.