On the face of it, the Excellent Match Pickleball Event was a day of doubles matches and superstar exhibitions. Look somewhat nearer and it was one thing extra significant than that.
Held on 12 April 2026, from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., the one-day fundraising occasion introduced collectively round 100 gamers at Pickleball Hub for a full day of competitors throughout three divisions—The Masters, The Prime, and The Subsequent Gen—catering to totally different age teams and ability ranges. The proceeds go on to the ABS-CBN Basis, supporting programmes in little one safety, catastrophe response, environmental conservation, training, and sustainable livelihood.
Sport as a automobile for advocacy. Within the Philippines’ rising pickleball neighborhood, it seems to be a pure match.
Why Pickleball, Why Now
The pairing of pickleball and the ABS-CBN Basis was not unintentional. The game’s speedy rise within the Philippines—one of many fastest-growing markets for pickleball in Southeast Asia — provides it a attain that few different actions can match proper now, and the Basis’s management was deliberate about utilizing that momentum.
“On the Basis, we’re actually making an effort to unfold consciousness about our advocacies, and pickleball is such a well-liked sport these days,” mentioned ABS-CBN Basis Managing Director Roberta Lopez Feliciano. “It’s only a approach to get folks and to find out about what we do. We wish to do actions that can pull folks in.”
Pickleball Hub Co-Founder Rob Henares framed the collaboration in equally direct phrases. “Isa sa mga aims namin dito sa Pickleball Hub is makatulong sa mga Pilipino. And that is our small little approach of doing that. And since this can be a rising sport, we will invite the gamers to affix whereas the proceeds go on to the Basis.”
What Was on the Line on the Excellent Match Pickleball Event
The match’s proceeds will profit 5 of the Basis’s key programmes:
- Bantay Bata 163 for little one safety and growth
- Sagip Kapamilya for catastrophe response
- Bantay Kalikasan for environmental conservation
- Programa Genio for training initiatives
- GaLing Pamayanan for sustainable livelihood efforts.
The day’s spotlight was the Kapamilya Superstar Exhibition—unique to Kapamilya artists and occasion sponsors—which drew gamers together with Marc Solis, Tirso Cruz III, director Andoy Ranay, Cherry Pie Picache, Maika Rivera, Nikki Valdez, and Jervis Manahan. Event Director Pardner Azarcon oversaw the aggressive aspect of the day’s proceedings.
The Larger Image
What the Excellent Match Event demonstrated is one thing the Philippine pickleball neighborhood has quietly been proving for some time now: the game’s social infrastructure—its accessibility, its built-in neighborhood character, its cross-generational attraction—makes it an unusually efficient platform for causes that want folks to indicate up and care.
100 gamers on the courtroom. Proceeds going on to programmes that defend youngsters, assist catastrophe victims, and construct sustainable communities. That’s not a small factor to tug off in a single day.
The game is rising. The Basis discovered a approach to develop with it—and to make use of that progress for one thing that issues.
