Quick question: how are you liking Global Pickleball Report? Next issue will be our 20th, and while we’ve seen our list grow, we want to hear directly from you. What do you like, what do you think we could improve on…anything you want to tell us, we’d love to hear from you! Reply directly to this email with any comments or questions.
And…keep reading to learn why big changes are coming to pickleball across Europe.
→ This Week: Europe’s grand-stage moment | Cuba’s scrappy growth story | The rally from your nightmares
Europe gets serious
FROM GRASSROOTS TO GRAND STAGE IN EUROPE
Europe’s pickleball story is starting to look a lot less like scattered club growth and a lot more like real sports infrastructure.
The clearest sign is England, where the 2026 English Open is moving to the NEC Birmingham, with Pickleball England taking over three halls to create a 60-court venue.
The event is scheduled for August 11–16, and organizers say they are hoping to attract more than 3,000 players from more than 45 countries, while calling it the largest indoor tournament in the world and the largest tournament outside the United States.
Just as important, Pickleball England says its NEC contract allows the event to grow further in future years.
That is not the profile of a hobbyist scene anymore: pickleball across EMEA now expects scale, international travel, spectators, and repeatable event business. Even the NEC’s own event page pitches the tournament as a single, unified arena with nonstop action across 60 courts, which is exactly how a mature event wants to present itself to both players and fans.
Then there is the wider continental shift: the European Pickleball Federation is staging its inaugural European Open from November 3–8, 2026 in Manavgat, Türkiye, at the Ali Bey Club. The federation says the venue already includes 18 dedicated competition-standard pickleball courts, and the EPF now lists 19 full member countries across Europe.
That matters because Europe is no longer just producing pockets of play; it is building the kind of federation-backed, destination-event structure that turns a fast-growing pastime into a real regional sports ecosystem.
One other telling data point underneath all of this: Pickleball England just announced it has reached 18,000 members. Put that together with a 60-court English Open, a first-ever European Open, and a continent-wide federation footprint, and the takeaway is pretty clear: Europe is no longer merely “trying pickleball.”
Your worst nightmare
This singles point demonstrates why we — whether in singles or doubles — all fear that person who can just return anything.
Honestly, we just feel bad for the player closest to the camera. Nothing they could do!
RPM Q2: Built for Trouble
Some paddles ask you to be careful. The RPM Q2 does not. Co-developed with John Kew, this full-foam build is tuned for players who want the ball to come off hot, spin hard, and still feel stable when contact gets messy.
The CarbonBite surface helps your rolls and drives bite, while the paddle’s tuned foam and perimeter support keep off-center shots from turning into regrets. It’s aggressive, but not reckless, which is more than we can say for some of your speedups.
Use code CLINIC15 for 15% off your order.
Number You Should Know
800
That’s the upper-end player total expected for the World Pickleball Championship stop in Penang from April 16–19, another reminder that the international event calendar is getting bigger, more ambitious, and more global.
Source: The Star.
CUBA PICKLEBALL’S UNIQUE PATH TO GROWTH
Pickleball in Cuba still looks less like a finished sports system and more like a grassroots movement finding its shape. Carlos López of Pickleball Cuba estimates there are now roughly 150–200 active players nationwide, with Havana serving as the sport’s birthplace and western Cuba still its main center of development.
But the really interesting part is how the game is spreading: not through polished club infrastructure, but through church patios, schoolyards, parks, tourist centers, and other improvised community spaces.
That scrappy growth model is now starting to broaden. López says pickleball has reached eastern Cuba, youth and school programs are becoming a major pillar, and a pilot program at Nguyen Van Troi School is meant to help expand the sport into primary schools, then eventually secondary schools and universities.
The biggest barriers are still basic ones: equipment, dedicated courts, and international access for Cuban players.
The Bulletin Board
Interesting tidbits from within the pickleball community:
NEXT WEEK…
Can you guess where we’re headed? Respond to this email with your guess. First one to get it right will receive something nice!
Here’s a hint:
Letter from the Editor
WHERE SHOULD WE GO NEXT?
Next issue will be our 20th, which feels like a good moment to say thank you and to ask for your help.
When we started Global Pickleball Report, the idea was simple: treat pickleball like the global sports story it is becoming. This week’s Europe story is a great example: England’s 2026 English Open is set for a 60-court buildout at the NEC Birmingham, while the inaugural European Open is scheduled for November in Türkiye. Those are the kind of markers that suggest Europe is starting to think bigger, more structurally, and more seriously about pickleball’s future.
That is exactly the kind of shift we want to keep tracking for you: where the sport is growing, how it is changing, and what those changes might mean next.
So as we head toward issue No. 20, we’d love to hear from you. What are you liking most? What should we do more of? What should we improve? If there’s a country, trend, business angle, or weird corner of the pickleball world you think we should be paying attention to, tell us.
Do not hesitate to email Adam or connect with him on LinkedIn with questions, concerns, or story ideas!
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