Hot Take or Impending Truth? Team Quang Duong Makes Bold Claim About Asian Pickleball Scene – Pickleball News Asia
Vietnam’s Quang Duong recently took to Facebook to share what is arguably one of 2025’s boldest take
To be clear, this claim wasn’t made by Duong exactly, but by his dad, who is technically just as much a part of Team QD as anyone. But the younger Duong did share that Asia will be a highly competitive market for the sport in 2026.
“Wooow I have received numerous updates in less than 12 hours landed in LAX,” Duong wrote. “It is official that Asia will be a highly competitive market for pickleball in 2026. Dad said within three years or sooner, 50% of the top male players will come from Asia. It will be an interesting year.”
The first claim, of course, is already happening. The Asian pickleball market is emerging, and it’s becoming highly competitive, with brands like Franklin Sports and Facolos battling it out with global names such as JOOLA and Selkirk Sport to capture the biggest chunk of what is arguably a large and still growing market of players in Asia.
The second claim is a bit of a hot take, though Duong certainly can qualify as among the world’s best—his free agency notwithstanding. Besides, recent victories by Hoang Nam Ly and Jack Wong Hong-kit against Federico Staksrud and Connor Garnett, respectively, might suggest that Asian players really are getting better and maybe on their way to even greater heights.
Additionally, Duong bared that he and his old man previously asked former paddle sponsors and the pro tour to come to Asia but were “looked down on.”
“FYI 2023 my Dad multiple times asked my former paddle sponsors and pro tour come to Asia but they looked down.. they didn’t care at all,” Duong further wrote. “We came to Vietnam in January 2024 and look at pickleball scene in Vietnam now. It’s funny everyone now rushing to Asia.”
Curiously, the Vietnamese pickleball sensation didn’t name names in his post. But if one were to hazard a guess, there’s a good chance the young man was referring to Selkirk Sport, his paddle sponsor from 2023 to early 2025, and the PPA Tour, where he played for a couple of years before his unceremonious exit. Both, incidentally, are now active in Asia to some degree.
It’s unclear what prompted Quang Duong, if any, to make these claims. But it might suggest that the young man has entered his outspoken era.
