Old Love, New Flame: Tennis Pro Razlan Rawi Develops a Passion for Pickleball While His Tennis Roots Still Burn Strong
Malaysia’s Razlan Rawi is a tennis lifer. In fact, he has been playing it since he was a kid, ultimately winning tournaments in his home country and abroad and carrying the Malaysian flag with him in his exploits. He has reached great heights playing the sport, representing Malaysia in the Southeast Asian Games, making it to the ATP Tour, and competing in the Davis Cup.
Lately, though, Razlan has found a new flame in pickleball.
And, perhaps unsurprisingly, this new love affair started the way most pickleball love affairs start: with friends asking him to play.
“I’m from Sarawak but living in KL [Kuala Lumpur], so a player from Sarawak already started to play pickleball way earlier than us from KL. So, I decided to get those friends, mostly tennis players, and say why not, let’s give it a go,” Razlan told Pickleball News Asia (PNA) in an exclusive interview.
Give it a go he did, and it didn’t take him long for before he had the world’s fastest-growing sport figured out. Not that Razlan is surprised. And he knows exactly why he was able to pick up pickleball so easily and so naturally.
“To be honest, I would say the transition has not been too difficult for me. Thanks to my tennis career and background, it took me one or two months to readjust and start to play pickleball the right way,” he pointed out, when PNA asked him about the challenges, if any, he encountered as he made the switch from tennis to pickleball.
Tennis to Pickleball: A Seamless Transition
That transition, so far, has been coming up roses for Razlan, who has found considerable success in pickleball just slightly over a year after he first tried it out with his friends. In fact, in his very first tournament—the Skechers Malaysia Pickleball Invitational 2023—Razlan teamed up with fellow tennis pro Assri Merzuki and finished runners-up to the powerhouse tandem of Jimmy Liong and Muhammad Hamdam.
Doubles, incidentally, is Razlan’s cup of tea in pickleball—and even in tennis.
“Doubles all day, it’s super fun. Because singles, you gotta run, you gotta do a lot of running, you know, back and forth, left and right,” he told PNA. “And also when I was playing tennis, I enjoyed playing doubles more than singles.”
However, don’t be fooled by Razlan’s preference for doubles’ play. He plays singles, too, and is just as good at it. He even has an Asian championship to show for after winning gold at the Men’s Single 35+ Open at the Asia Pickleball Games 2024 in Taichung, Taiwan held from 24 to 27 October 2024.
This Asian championship, according to Razlan, is his “sweetest achievement to date”—and for good reason. Not only did he beat some of the best picklers in Asia, but he did so even with his relative inexperience. Remember, he started playing only in November of 2023, and for him to win an Asian championship 11 months later is nothing short of stunning.
First Love Never Dies
With so much success in pickleball already in so little time, it seems inevitable that Razlan leaves tennis behind and focuses solely on pickleball. But the man himself dismissed this scenario.
“I can’t forget my roots. I come from a tennis background,” he insisted.
Razlan’s everyday schedule reflects his continuing love for the sport he has played practically his entire life. In between his pickleball training sessions with friends, Razlan fulfils his duties as a professional tennis coach, teaching others about the sport and helping them get better at it.
That doesn’t mean pickleball is relegated as Razlan’s no. 2 sport; on the contrary, it is more like 1B to tennis’ 1A. A year after getting introduced to pickleball, it is clear Malaysia’s sporting pride has developed a passion for this fast-rising sport—so much so that he would recommend to others that they try it out as “everyone can play pickleball for sure.”
He also called pickleball “the game to play now” and “the game for everyone”—highlighting yet again why the sport is booming at an exponential pace worldwide, including here in Asia.
Razlan is spot-on in that assessment. Only, not everyone would be as good as him in that short a span of time. Then again, not everyone is a tennis pro like Razlan.
But everyone can certainly have two flames—pickleball and any other hobby or sport—just like Razlan.
