According to unofficial estimates, about 30,000 people are playing pickleball , nearly double the number in 2024. In addition to the mushrooming number of playgrounds, tournaments are flourishing.

Positive development signals

In early March 2025, the National Pickleball Championship was held for the first time after the Department of Physical Training and Sports (STST) saw good signs from the 2024 Club Pickleball Tournament. The tournament gathered many talented athletes representing clubs to compete in many events and brought exciting matches between players such as Ly Hoang Nam and Si Boi Ngoc.

The tournament is also a step forward even though pickleball does not have its own federation. The strong development of pickleball creates a strong impetus for management agencies, investors, and sponsors to join hands to organize more and better playgrounds.

Mr. Mac Xuan Tung - specialist in charge of pickleball (High Performance Sports Department 2 - Department of Sports and Physical Training) commented: "We have established a campaign committee and will try to submit to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in April to establish a pickleball federation. This will help pickleball have a basis for systematic development".

According to experts, there are dozens of large and small pickleball tournaments held every week. Some tournaments invite top Vietnamese players to promote their brands, while others are set up for fun. This shows the excitement of pickleball in Vietnam's sports life.

It also helped the Vietnamese pickleball market become more vibrant with a variety of costumes and competition equipment. Seizing that opportunity, many brands began to bring pickleball stars to Vietnam to compete.

After Vietnamese-American tennis player Quang Duong (currently ranked 6th in the world), there will be other names such as Ben Johns and former tennis star Andre Agassi who will come to Vietnam to interact with fans.

There are still some flaws.

However, right from the early days of development in Vietnam, pickleball has created many controversies from the rather revealing costumes of a few women to the rather confusing technique of combining many sports. Along with the flourishing movement, there have been many conflicts and arguments between athletes and organizers about prize money and refereeing in pickleball tournaments.

Right at the recent 2025 National Pickleball Championship, athlete Son Tung reacted strongly to the referees and organizers' conduct. Son Tung's behavior was not up to standard and the organizers also objectively looked at the conduct of the national tournament.

Even Mr. Mac Xuan Tung admitted: "The tournament still has some limitations, the referee is new, many situations of the ball being in or out are difficult to determine because it is still judged by the naked eye. The field and stands still lack space for spectators."

Professional tournaments still have many limitations, other large and small grassroots tournaments are even more "messy". Just go to pickleball groups on social networks, it is easy to see posts "exposing" or criticizing as well as pointing out tournaments that "dodge" players. From these unsatisfactory realities, sports management agencies are also actively completing projects to soon bring pickleball into the rules.

Accordingly, in addition to the early launch of the Vietnam Pickleball Federation, there will be referee training and technical guidance for players... Pickleball lovers in Vietnam are waiting to immerse themselves in a fair play and civilized environment in training and competition.