
Three champions emerged at the Gorilla Smash Trophy Tour, a PWR 200 pickleball event sanctioned by the Indian Pickleball Association, held in Chennai on August 15-16. In the 50+ Men's Doubles final,…
Three champions emerged at the Gorilla Smash Trophy Tour, a PWR 200 pickleball event sanctioned by the Indian Pickleball Association, held in Chennai on August 15-16. In the 50+ Men's Doubles final, Rocky Raghavan and Suneel Shankar defeated Himanshu Shankar and Thomas Joy 11-5. Gowtham and Stephen Raj won the Intermediate Men's Doubles title, edging out Sandeep and Chinmay 15-13 in a close contest. Kandhavel clinched the Intermediate Singles crown by beating Rakshak Tarun 15-10.

Pickleball is often dismissed as a passing fad, but this tournament showed real depth: five-point final margins, close scores, and players across age groups and skill divisions. The hype around growth is real, but the real test is whether the sport can build a grassroots pipeline beyond the current metro-centric events. Watch how many new players register for the next IPA Nationals compared to last year.
Sources (3): timesnownews.com, timesnownews.com (2), timesnownews.com (3)
This story was synthesised by AI from the 3 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 3 sources.