BIBD and Baiduri Bank brought 32 participants to a pickleball friendly at PGGMB in Bandar Seri Begawan, with 16 representatives from each bank. The gathering gave staff from competing institutions a chance to build relationships away from work through friendly competition.
Organisers highlighted teamwork and sportsmanship, while the report cited pickleball’s accessibility and social appeal as reasons for choosing it. BIBD described the event as part of its commitment to employee well-being, stakeholder engagement and a positive workplace culture.
Coachino Insight
For clubs and workplace organisers, this gathering illustrates pickleball’s role as a setting for employee activity and relationship-building across competing businesses.
Support for pickleball courts far outweighs opposition among speakers taking a position at U.S. local government meetings, according to Hamlet. The public-meeting analysis firm counted 1,152 supporters and 89 opponents in meetings across 468 cities and towns since Oct. 19, 2024, with support leading in 436.
Fresno, Riverside and Maricopa were among places with many supportive speakers, while Port St. Lucie and Tampa had more opponents. The findings offer a wider view than coverage centered on noise complaints and neighborhood disputes.
Coachino Insight
For clubs pursuing courts, the findings document strong support among meeting speakers, not a survey of residents. Local differences remain important when discussing facilities with councils.
Hunter Johnson beat Tama Shimabukuro in the PPA Tour Asia Hong Kong Slam men’s singles final, after defeating Federico Staksrud in the semifinals. Crowds packed Kai Tak Arena for an event offering $1.1 million in prize money and 1,500 World Pickleball Ranking points.
Staksrud’s quarterfinal comeback against Hong Kit Wong drew controversy: an extended equipment timeout and a 1-point penalty for inappropriate language preceded his 12-10 deciding-game win. Anna Leigh Waters won women’s doubles with Anna Bright and mixed doubles with Ben Johns.
Coachino Insight
For athletes and coaches, the Staksrud-Wong match puts equipment readiness and on-court conduct in focus: both became central issues during a closely contested deciding game.
Our analysis of today's trends: opinion, not reporting, drawn only from the verified stories above.
The U.S. court findings show strong backing among public-meeting speakers, not residents overall. For clubs seeking facilities, that distinction and local differences matter alongside the headline support.
Hong Kong Slam paired packed crowds and major prize money with a contentious quarterfinal. Equipment readiness and on-court conduct became central issues alongside competitive performance.
The Brunei bank friendly and Vientiane community tournament show pickleball serving social purposes beyond competition, connecting workplace peers and Vietnamese expatriates through exercise and shared activity.
Tournament Radar
Upcoming and in-progress events, checked against each organiser's official page.
Hong Kong's five finals are set for October 25, starting at 13:00 local time. Bright and Patriquin edged the Johnson siblings 11-2, 9-11, 11-9 to face Johns and Waters in mixed doubles. Bright also partners Waters against Black and Jorja Johnson in women's doubles. Castillo meets Dikosavljevic in a repeat of Australia's singles final; Shimabukuro faces Hunter Johnson in men's singles. Johns and Tardio meet Staksrud and Patriquin for men's doubles gold at Kai Tak.
Coachino Insight
Bright will partner Waters in one final and oppose her in another, giving spectators a useful comparison of partnership chemistry and opponent adaptation.
Seeds tumbled in Friday's singles quarterfinals at the Hang Seng Bank Hong Kong Slam, PPA Tour Asia reports. Noe Khlif beat world No. 1 Christopher Haworth 13-11, 11-3 after losing their two earlier PPA matches, and Judit Castillo again stopped top seed Kaitlyn Christian, this time 12-10 in the third game. Second seed Chao Yi Wang also went out, to Andie Dikosavljevic.
Federico Staksrud edged home favourite Hong Kit Wong in three games, and Ben Johns beat his brother Collin in straight games. Khlif now meets 15-year-old Tama Shimabukuro in the semifinals.
Coachino Insight
Two of the biggest names lost to players who had faced them recently. Scouting a familiar opponent and changing the plan can turn a losing record around.
Jack Munro collected two golds at the first Humana APP Louisville Open, the APP reports. He and Richard Livornese Jr. beat Zack Marceau and Aidan Schenk 12-10, 11-2 for a seventh men's doubles title in a row, and he won the mixed with the Netherlands' Roos Van Reek.
Croatia's Domenika Turkovic came back to beat top seed Kat Stewart 9-11, 11-4, 11-7, winning singles gold for a second event running after taking silver in both doubles finals. Ronan Camron edged Dusty Boyer in three games, and Bobbi Oshiro and Stewart won the women's doubles.
Coachino Insight
Seven straight titles show what a settled partnership can achieve. Turkovic's three finals reward a player willing to enter every event and keep learning against top opponents.
Kate Fahey left the Virginia Beach Open with two titles, Pickleball.com reports. She and first-time partner Eric Oncins won mixed doubles from 2-8 down in the third game, and she then beat the 21st seed, Helena Jansen Fink, 11-1, 11-9 for the singles crown, her first double at a single event.
Sofia Sewing earned her first PPA Tour title in women's doubles with Catherine Parenteau, while Elliott Schupp and Jaume Martinez Vich both won for the first time in men's doubles. John Lucian Goins took the men's singles without losing a game all week.
Coachino Insight
Three first-time champions in a week without the sport's biggest stars show how close the next tier is. Players chasing a breakthrough should treat open draws as real chances.
Hunter Johnson is the men's singles champion of the WALKER Australia Pickleball Cup after beating Christian Alshon in three games, 11-8, 5-11, 11-8, in the last match at Pat Rafter Arena, Pickleball.com reports. He led the decider 7-0, watched Alshon move in front at 8-7, then finished the job on his first trip to Australia.
Andie Dikosavljevic, the seventh seed, beat Judit Castillo for the women's singles title. Gabe Tardio won twice, in men's doubles with Hayden Patriquin and in mixed with Tyra Hurricane Black, who also took the women's doubles alongside Jorja Johnson.
Coachino Insight
Johnson nearly let a seven-point lead slip in the deciding game. Coaches can use the final as a case study in staying aggressive when an opponent starts a run.
Championship Sunday at the WALKER Australia Pickleball Cup will feature a men's singles final between Hunter Johnson and Christian Alshon at Pat Rafter Arena, Pickleball.com reports. Johnson was the second seed and Alshon the third in a draw whose top seed, Federico Staksrud, could not make the trip.
In women's singles, PPA Tour Asia notes that Judit Castillo beat top seed Kaitlyn Christian in the semifinals. The PPA1500 event, worth more than US$500,000, streams from 8pm ET on Saturday on the PPA Tour and PPA Australia YouTube channels.
Coachino Insight
A final between two tour regulars in Brisbane shows how deep pro singles has become. Australian players can treat the stream as a free lesson in shot selection under pressure.
The Hang Seng Bank Hong Kong Slam draws are out, and PPA Tour Asia says the brackets bite early. Top seeds Ben Johns and Gabriel Tardio could meet eighth seeds Collin Johns and Len Yang in the men's doubles quarterfinals, putting the Johns brothers on opposite sides of the net.
Home favourite Hong Kit Wong is projected to face Federico Staksrud again in the singles quarterfinals after losing to him 7-11, 11-6, 12-10 in Hanoi in April, and Kaitlyn Christian may meet Judit Castillo, who beat her in Brisbane. Play runs October 19 to 25 at Kai Tak Arena.
Coachino Insight
Early meetings between top teams reward squads that start sharp. Players heading to big events should prepare for strong opponents from the first round rather than easing in.
With several big names absent, Semifinal Saturday at the PPA Tour's Virginia Beach Open is full of fresh chances, Pickleball.com reports. In women's singles, No. 19 Sofia Sewing, who upset No. 2 seed Brooke Buckner in three games on Thursday, and No. 21 Helena Jansen Fink are each a win away from a first PPA Tour final.
No. 2 Noe Khlif and No. 7 Adam Harvey are chasing their first singles finals on U.S. soil, while Will Howells, Elliott Schupp and Max Freeman could make a first final in men's doubles.
Coachino Insight
Draws without the usual favourites reward players who prepare for every opponent. Sewing shows that a deep run can start from a double-digit seed when the chance appears.
Tyra Hurricane Black partnered Jorja Johnson to secure a place among the last eight in women’s doubles at the Australia Pickleball Cup in Brisbane on October 15. The official match record shows an 11–5, 11–2 victory over Bernadette Massih and Talia Saunders.
The result gives the leading pair a place in the quarterfinals, rather than a championship medal. It also supplies a concrete women’s doubles update alongside the event’s men’s doubles coverage. The source is the completed official scorecard. Its displayed match-end time supplies the date here; it is not a news article’s publication time.
Coachino Insight
Following each division separately gives coaches and fans a clearer picture of tournament progress than relying on a single event preview or headline partnership.
Source: Pickleball.com official results·Published:
The PPA Tour and PPA Tour Australia have assembled a strong international field for the 2026 Australia Pickleball Cup, played at Pat Rafter Arena's home, the Queensland Tennis Centre, with matches running through Sunday.
Gabe Tardio, Christian Alshon, Hunter Johnson, Hayden Patriquin, JW Johnson and Tyson McGuffin lead the men, while Kaitlyn Christian, Hurricane Tyra Black, Parris Todd, Jorja Johnson and Danni-Elle Townsend head the women's list. Matches stream live on the PPA and PPA Tour Australia YouTube channels from 8pm to 4am ET.
Coachino Insight
For coaches in the region, a home event with this many tour regulars is a rare chance to study top-level doubles patterns live, while the overnight ET stream lets North American players follow along too.
The Humana APP Louisville Open brings four days of pro, AARP 50+ and 60+, Humana Cup and amateur play to the Kentucky International Convention Center, with the PickleY'all festival outside on October 16 and 17.
Jack Munro and Richard Livornese Jr. arrive on a run of six straight men's pro doubles titles, and Munro's 8 golds are the most of any APP pro this year. Megan Fudge, who won in Overland Park with Kat Stewart, now shares the women's pro gold record of 33 with Simone Jardim. Coverage runs Friday to Sunday on APPTV's YouTube channel and ESPN+.
Coachino Insight
Club doubles players can take a lesson from Munro and Livornese: six titles in a row come from a settled partnership with clear roles, which often matters more than raw shot-making.
PPA Tour Asia has named the seeds for the Hang Seng Bank Hong Kong Slam, its first 1500-level event and the 2026 finale, played at Kai Tak Arena from October 19 to 25. Champions earn 1,500 ranking points from a purse of up to US$1.1 million.
World No. 1 Christopher Haworth leads the men's singles on his Asia debut, ahead of Federico Staksrud, and home favourite Hong Kit Wong is seeded seventh. Kaitlyn Christian heads the women's singles, while Ben Johns and Gabriel Tardio, Anna Leigh Waters and Anna Bright, and Waters with Johns top the doubles.
Coachino Insight
A Hong Kong crowd will see Hong Kit Wong seeded among the world's best, a useful signal for Asian juniors that a local champion can earn a place at this level.
