By Angelina Tan & Bryan Boo
Pickleball has been serving up a storm globally, and Malaysia is no exception to its rapid growth. As more pickleball tournaments are organised, the sport evolves to become more professional. With such growth, expectations of proper tournament organisation, rules and regulations and execution rises in tandem. It is, therefore, inevitable that pickleball will experience teething problems.
One such issue arose during the Grand Pickleball Masters Malaysia 2025 (“Grand Pickleball Masters“).
Background
The Mixed Doubles Finals of the Grand Pickleball Masters unfortunately ended with a walkover. The reason: one of the finalist was allegedly using an unapproved paddle.
Finalist Colin Wong took to his Instagram account to explain that one of the players on his opposing team was using an unapproved paddle, which he had pointed out before the match began. Despite an attempt to replace it, the player came back with another unapproved paddle. The tournament director then gave the opposing team a choice to continue with an approved paddle or to forfeit. They chose to latter.
This may sound like a simple equipment issue but moments like this have the potential to snowball into appeals or even tribunal hearings.
How Did the Organisers Handle the Matter?
It appears that, when the complaint was brought up, the tournament director had acknowledged that the concern was raised before the start of the match and tried to ensure fair play by allowing the offending player time to replace his or her paddle.
Hence, it does appear, at the face of it, that the tournament director had done his or her best to uphold the principle of fair play. But the question is whether such actions were sufficient?
Rule Book
In any sport, the governing document of a tournament is the rule book or technical handbook. These essentially form the contract between the tournament organisers and the participants and must be followed to the letter.
In the case of any dispute, arbitrators will fall back to the governing documents, whether its the rule book, regulations or technical handbook.
According to Colin, the tournament organisers had specified that the tournament will follow the International Pickleball Federation (“IPF“) and USA Pickleball 2025 Official Rulebook. This would mean that, as far as use of paddle is concerned, the paddles must be approved under the IPF or USA Pickleball 2025 Official Rulebook.
Once the tournament has issued a rule book or indicated an applicable rule set, the burden then falls on the player to ensure compliance with the rules.
As such, it appears that the tournament organisers were correct in enforcing the rules in disallowing the use of the unapproved paddle. Although the tournament organisers had shown grace in allowing the offending player to purchase a new paddle (which allegedly took more than an hour), we must add that this is highly irregular in sports as this would potentially contravene other rules and regulations, particularly in relation to delay of matches.
Potential Impact
While it is unclear when the offence occurred, hypothetically, things could become muddy if the offence had occurred from the offending player’s earlier matches. As the complaint was only raised during the finals, it then calls into question the legitimacy of the other matches. Even if it can be deemed legal by the allowance of the matches to continue, this would reflect poorly on the tournament organisers. Hence, there is a burden on the tournament organisers to ensure that their own rules and regulations are enforced and complied with in order to ensure a smooth running tournament.
Some Best Practices
With that in mind, we recommend that the following best practices (amongst others):
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Ensure that the rules and regulations or technical handbook are clear and unambiguous;
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Ensure that the rules and regulations are availed to the players well in advance, and to allow for any clarification or amendments, if required;
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Implement mechanisms to ensure that the rules and regulations are complied with, such as some form of verification or approval of equipment; and
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Implement some method to ensure that the approved equipment remains approved and that the equipment that is brought and used in the field of play is the approved or verified equipment.
Read and understand every rule of the rule book;
In the event of uncertainty, clarify with the tournament organisers well before the tournament day;
Raise any complaint at the earliest possible opportunity; and
Ensure that you comply with every rule.
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