BYD Generates Electric Atmosphere at Malaysia’s Grand Rally Open 2025
Anyone parking in the multi-storey car park by Giant hypermarket Shah Alam last weekend would have sensed something big was happening. Instead of shoppers getting out of their cars, it was athletes dressed and ready to play, with a buzz of excitement and banter between them as they converged onto an exit at the 4th floor, which led to one of the region’s premier pickleball facilities.
When Ken Kong and his team at Grand Rally Pickleball conceived the idea of their Grand Rally Tournament, they had a few clear aims in mind. Of course, they wanted to showcase their premium quality pickleball facility with 17 well-maintained indoor courts, but they wanted to do more than that.
They strive to attract top international talent to play and showcase their skills for the Malaysia pickleball ecosystem, entice intermediate players to participate in and experience a world-class tournament, and organise a team competition together that would allow intermediates to go head-to-head against elite players—and ultimately provide elite-level competition as the tournament progresses to the closing rounds.
The event was held from the 11th to the 13th of July 2025 at Grand Rally in Shah Alam, and the question is, did the three-day competition meet those aims? According to LinkedUp Director and tournament organiser Melina Hwang, it certainly did so from an operational point of view.
“We managed to run the whole tournament on time, with very few delays, and barring a very few small, isolated incidents, we gave the nearly 1,000 competitors an excellent few days of competition and, most importantly, an enjoyable experience,” said Melina.
In a month where the pickleball world seems to have convened in Malaysia (think PPA and WPC), Grand Rally Pickleball Open 2025 proved that a home-grown tournament can punch in the same weight class as these international organisers. Some of the highlights from the three days include the following:
Men’s Open Singles
This ended up being a battle of Malaysia versus India, with two of Malaysia’s top singles players (Syed Uzair Sufi and Muhammad Aiman) making it to the semifinals against two of India’s finest (Sonu Kumar Vishwakarma and Tejas Ravindra Mahajan). In the end, after closely fought matches, the Indian pair fought out the final, leaving the Malaysians to scrap for bronze. But a takeaway here is that the Malaysians are closing the gap!
Even 12 months ago, when the Malaysian pickleballers started meeting international players, it was a case of “deers caught in the headlights”; however, these semifinals were close, and they suggest it is only a matter of time before the gap disappears entirely.
In the final itself, despite being great friends off the court, Sonu and Tejas gunned for each other, with Sonu pulling a full stretch backhand cross-court passing shot to take match point and grab gold.
Men’s 50+ Open Doubles
The senior men put on an excellent show, producing a number of closely fought games between multiple teams. Special mention to Lim Kim Jim and John Wong who came just one point short of bronze after facing the incredible Indonesian Edy Kurniawan, who plays more like a 30-year-old than a 50+.
But the highlight was seeing Danny Tan (Tan Tian Yaik) and Liew Kim Tu storm through the field to take gold, with Danny showing that no matter who he partners with in the seniors’ category he seems to find podium positions. This victory with Kim Tu places Danny as one of Malaysia’s very top over-50 players.
Mixed Open Doubles
Well done to Grand Rally for managing to get some of Asia’s very top talent to compete at this tournament, and this was evident in the mixed doubles open with pairings such as Neilson Chen (Taiwan) and Isha Lakhani (India) gracing the courts. They’re world-class, too, in the eyes of Malaysian sensation Neem Shamsuddin.
Speaking with Neem, who has competed in the PPA Tour in US, she confirmed that some of these top players are already at a standard where they could vie well in the US tour.
Malaysia’s PPA Trailblazer Jimmy Liong and partner Mia bt Azizul Azhar did incredibly well in such an elite-level stacked field to get to the final but had to settle for silver after losing to Australia’s Mitchel William Donald Hargreaves and Yufei Long of China (another PPA Trailblazer). This pairing played at a level we rarely see live in Malaysia, impressing the large crowd that had gathered to watch. The accuracy, speed, and reactions of both players were inspirational, with many Malaysians who came to spectate leaving motivated to improve and learn from the standard of play these two exhibited.
Grand Support for a Grand Event
Speaking to Ken (Grand Rally Owner), he explained that running a tournament at this scale is simply not commercially viable without support from the corporate sector. This tournament was supported by local and international companies, including BYD Sime Motors, Franklin, Starbucks, Tuff, Canton Boy, KGB, The Fat Fish, and several others.
BYD Sime Motors took title partnership and provided generous commercial support to enable this tournament to evolve from idea to reality.
“BYD’s commitment to the sport demonstrates their ambition to push beyond societal benefit from an electronics or renewable energy standpoint,” said Ken.
BYD Sime Motors emphasised their importance in regard to social responsibility and encouraged a healthy nation in more ways than one. This fact was evidently on display here at the beginning of the Grand Rally Pickleball Open 2025, which BYD was proud to endorse.
BYD and Pickleball: Why the All-Out Support?
We managed to catch up with the BYD Sime Motors Team present for Malaysia as we were keen to understand why an EV car manufacturer would want to support a sport like pickleball.
We specifically asked what inspired BYD to support pickleball events like this, and this was their explanation: “As the distributor, BYD Sime Motors sees value in partnering with lifestyle events like this—especially with pickleball growing in popularity in Malaysia. It’s a great way for us to connect with a broader and more dynamic audience.”
We understood this, but we also wondered, why they chose pickleball in particular?
To this they replied: “Pickleball is fun, active, and inclusive—these are values that resonate with our brand. Our partnership with Grand Rally goes beyond this tournament. In two weeks, we’ll host a new car launch where pickleball is part of the lifestyle experience with our new launch car.”
One of those new cars was the BYD Atto 2, which BYD claim to be a car that matches that fun, fast-paced lifestyle.
Over three days, nearly 1,000 people graced Grand Rally’s courts, and the final day (Sunday) culminated in a competitive team event stacked with 5+ DUPR rated players from across Asia. These were mixed in the early stages with several teams made up of local players with DUPR ratings from 3.5 to early 4s. Local players got an opportunity to mix and play with Asia’s elite, then later settled in to watch some great games as the elite battled each other.
So, did the Grand Rally Team meet the lofty objectives they set for this tournament?
In PNA’s opinion, they did—and we certainly look forward to future tournaments at this venue and by this team in the future.
