Panas Cup 2025 – A Defining Event Underlining an Inflexion Point in Malaysian Pickleball
Sometimes, one man with passion and a vision can make a difference, and that sums up Vincent Siow and the Panas Cup 2025 Pickleball Tournament.
A man with a passion for pickleball had a vision to bring the best in pickleball to Malaysia, and most importantly, he had the drive to make it happen.
He transformed his ideas into action, building a pickleball court arena (9 Pickle) with 10 courts, including the country’s largest covered pickleball stadium, with close to 500 seats, he then set about organising a tournament to underpin the launch of the courts with around 1,000 picklers taking part, then the cherry on the cake, he managed to bring over the world number 6 and Asian number 1 Quang Duong to run a series of clinics and exhibition matches to coincide with the tournament.
The result felt like a six-day festival of pickleball, with great competition but even better cohesion across the pickleball community.
Listening to Duc Duong (Quang’s father), he was shocked at just how much love for the sport there is in Malaysia. In fact, he feels the buzz for pickleball is now bigger in Malaysia than Vietnam, and judging by the warmth of reception the whole Duong family got every time they stepped on court, we think he is right.
He also stated how he has seen the standard of play in Malaysia develop hugely over the last year, and he can see the top players are catching up with the elites of countries like Vietnam, Thailand and India.
However, based on the results when QD played exhibition singles matches with a series of Malaysia’s top players, there is still some way to go, with none of them managing to get more than 2 points from the Avatar Ball Bender
We saw great play from the ESM elite squad, with ESM owner Faizal Othman leading the way with crowd favourite Razlan Rawi to win the men’s 35+ open (A category that afore mentioned Vincent Siow, managed to bag bronze with his partner Jason Tee)
This was a defining moment for Pickleball in Malaysia
At PNA what we liked about the event was how it seemed to be a defining moment for the state of pickleball in Malaysia. The sport is at an inflexion point, elite players are starting to step closer to true international level, and the community is growing large but still very much connected. This can be seen by how it “feels” like everyone knows someone, and many people know everyone.
Pickleball in the country is fiercely competitive, yet at the same time brings people together at a level of friendship that no other sport seems to do.
Vincent and his team at Panas Express, tapped into that and provided a platform with this tournament to bring the community together in a way that will help forge the bonds stronger even as what was a small community turns into a much larger ecosystem. The Panas Cup is a stake in the ground that will be remembered for underlining where Malaysia Pickleball has reached in such a short time.
PNA’s three big highlights from the five days
Watching Bao Doung switch effortlessly from playing with his left hand to his right hand, with people not even noticing he does it. When you watch him play, it’s hard to believe he is only 14 years old.
Witnessing Malaysia’s young talent on display, with the two brothers Ithan and Irfan Kamil (12 and 15 years old) taking on and beating strong teams in the men’s doubles open making it through to the last 16 – look out for these boys in coming years.
Seeing a wide a varied Malaysia pickleball community come together to support this initiative. It’s what makes the sport special.
