Beyond Gold Medals: How Hong Kong Slam Turned Passion Into Momentum for Local Pickleball

Loud cheers, thumping bass lines, flashing court lights and the crisp pop of paddles: finals day at the Hang Seng Bank Hong Kong Slam 2026 felt less like a championship and more like a block party. More than 2,000 spectators packed Kai Tak Arena on Sunday, according to a report on the event, and what they showed was less a one-off spectacle than a city that has fallen hard for pickleball.

A City That Showed Up

The scale alone was impressive. The HKD $8.58 million (USD $1.1 million) event gathered 895 players from 22 countries and regions, aged nine to 71, across professional and amateur divisions, with the world’s top six players among them.

For Feng Huanhuan, CEO of organiser F-Sports Promotions Limited, bringing the tournament to Hong Kong for the first time was a real honour. He pointed to the world-class play, the determined showings from Hong Kong athletes, and “countless fans” filling the venue with relentless energy as proof of “the rapid growth and overwhelming appeal of pickleball.”

The fans themselves say much the same. Vince Chan, 29, turned up to the finals with 10 friends, having also attended Thursday’s preliminary rounds. Pickleball, he said, helps you meet a lot of friends and is much easier for beginners than tennis. “You can feel that more and more people in Hong Kong are playing pickleball every year,” he added.

A Sport for Every Age

That appeal clearly runs across generations. Dick Cheung, a former tennis player, brought his five-year-old daughter after a sports injury forced him to step back from high-intensity play. Pickleball, he said, lets people of different ages and skill levels share the court. His daughter, inspired by world No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters, now hopes to follow in the star’s footsteps.

Bryan Rennie, a former professional rugby player from South Africa who has lived in Hong Kong for 12 years, was caught off guard by the turnout. His six-year-old daughter, after watching the action up close, is eager to try the sport herself. The venue’s design had a lot to do with it, with Cheung noting that spectators could hear the distinctive sound of paddles meeting ball.

The Economic Ripple

Then there’s the money side. Hong Kong’s pickleball scene is already spawning a local industry. Among Chan’s group were indoor venue founder Alex Fung and paddle brand founder Doug Choy, who also won silver in the amateur mixed doubles.

Fung was candid about the challenge. Running large indoor courts in Hong Kong remains commercially difficult because of high venue costs. But he said major international tournaments are crucial for expanding the sport’s footprint. “Some of us run venues, others manufacture paddles and many compete,” he said. “Events like these definitely give the whole ecosystem in Hong Kong a major push.”

The spending also flows in from outside the city. Liu Wei, 49, who runs a pickleball club in Xi’an, flew to Hong Kong just to watch the semifinals and finals. Between flights and hotels, he spent an estimated HK$4,000 to HK$5,000, well above his HK$1,800 ticket, and still called it worth every cent.

Liu also noticed something that struck him about the crowd. Unlike in northern mainland China, where pickleball audiences often skew middle-aged or consist of existing club members, Hong Kong’s stands were full of young couples, teenagers and families. To him, that suggests pickleball has achieved genuine mainstream popularity here. He sees Hong Kong and the wider Greater Bay Area as emerging regional hubs, second only to established markets like Vietnam, and believes the city could fill two-thirds or more of a full-scale stadium in future.

What Comes Next

On court, the biggest names delivered. Waters and Anna Bright took Women’s Doubles gold, Andie Dikosavljevic won Women’s Singles, Hunter Johnson won Men’s Singles, Federico Staksrud and Hayden Patriquin upset Ben Johns and Gabriel Tardio in Men’s Doubles, and Waters and Johns closed the show with the Mixed Doubles crown.

But the lasting story may be off the court. When a tournament can bring in fans, players, venue owners and paddle makers, and send young families home eager to try the sport, it does more than crown champions.