eam Kuala Lumpur came to the PCL Asia Rising Stars Grand Finals as one of nine contenders. They left as champions. What’s more, four of their players left with scholarships to one of Asia’s most ambitious pickleball academies.
The Pickleball Champions League’s official U-19 youth championship held its five-day Grand Finals from 1 April to 5 April 2026 at the Beijing Haidian Foreign Language School’s Hainan Campus, drawing junior players from the Philippines, Malaysia, China, India, and five other countries. The event was designed to identify the region’s most promising young talent and give them a taste of what elite pickleball looks like up close. By the end of the week, it had delivered far more than that.
The competition began on 3 April with a Round Robin to establish seeding before transitioning into knockout rounds officiated to international professional standards. When it mattered most, Team Kuala Lumpur was the most complete side on the court—defeating Team Surabaya in straight games to claim the title, 21-16, 21-8, 21-17. It was a dominant performance from start to finish.
The victory came with implications that stretch well beyond a trophy. Lynn Lim, Irfan Kamil, Chan Yu Chi, and Farreez Isqandar—the four players of Team Kuala Lumpur—earned automatic scholarships to the Asia Elite Pickleball Academy, which is set to call the tournament venue its permanent home. Seven additional standout players recognised by sponsors and coaches also received AEPA scholarships, bringing the total to eleven young athletes whose development will now be tracked and supported at the highest level available in the region. All matches were tracked on DUPR to establish official ratings for the emerging competitors.
The week didn’t start with competition. The first two days were devoted to pro training, with the U-19 athletes working directly alongside top touring professionals James Ignatowich and Dionne Lim—a rare opportunity for junior players to learn from the best in the sport before the brackets were drawn. When training ended each evening, players wound down in the natural hot springs at the Holiday Inn Resort Qionghai Guantang, where the conversation flowed as freely as the competition would three days later. The week opened officially with a welcome beach dinner that brought together players, coaches, and staff from every country—strangers, briefly, before the pickleball started doing its work.
That’s the part that defies a box score. Nine countries, nine languages, a bracket that spent five days pitting them against one another—and yet the players who boarded their flights home were not the same ones who arrived on March 31. They are still in touch. Still cheering each other on across borders and time zones. Still carrying what they built in Hainan into whatever comes next.
They came as competitors. They left as each other’s people.
