Philippine pickleball is getting a correct home-grown tour of its personal. The Maharlika Pilipinas Pickleball Tour formally launched its 12 founding groups at an occasion in Makati on Friday afternoon, setting the stage for a primary leg that kicks off in October.
The inaugural roster attracts from communities throughout the nation somewhat than a handful of main cities, with squads representing Basic Santos Metropolis, Tacloban, Batangas, Paranaque, Muntinlupa, Rizal, Alfonso Cavite, Camarines Norte, Pampanga, Bacoor, Bangued, and Abra.
Maharlika Pilipinas Pickleball Tour founder and chairman Manny Pacquiao framed the league as a platform constructed particularly for Filipino pickleball gamers to be seen, describing the day as an opportunity to welcome the groups that may make up the tour’s founding historical past. He mentioned the 12 squads characterize totally different communities united by one aim—rising the game nationwide—and pitched the league as one thing greater than a event, positioning it as a automobile for growing athletes and constructing an enduring legacy for pickleball within the nation.
League commissioner Mark Espinosa echoed that ambition, calling the launch the beginning of a brand new chapter for Philippine pickleball. He mentioned the tour’s purpose is to offer each workforce and athlete a professionally run competitors grounded in integrity, excellence, and truthful play, and that the league intends to ship one thing worthy of the dedication its founding members have already proven.
The tour’s first leg lands on 3-4 October in Angeles, Pampanga, kicking off a five-leg season that runs by means of the remainder of the yr. Two extra legs comply with in November earlier than the tour wraps with a remaining section in December, when the highest eight of the 12 founding groups will advance to compete for the inaugural title.
With a nationwide footprint constructed into its very roster, the Maharlika Pilipinas Pickleball Tour is betting that pickleball’s subsequent wave of progress within the Philippines received’t come from Manila alone, however from Abra to Basic Santos and in every single place in between.
