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On a blue court behind Wazir Farms in Rani Bagh, over a wet weekend in late August, fifty-odd people in Jammu played a sport most of the city still has to look up — and earned ranking points doing it.
The Monsoon Masters Jammu ran on 22 and 23 August 2026 at Isle of Ball, Wazir Farms, Rani Bagh, Jammu Cantt, organised by the J&K Pickleball Association, with more than 50 players across several age groups and Open categories.
What separates it from a weekend knockabout is the suffix in its official name: JKSPR 500. This was a state-ranking event, carrying points towards the J&K State Pickleball Rankings — the ladder the Association uses to pick players who go on to represent J&K nationally. There is now a documented, points-based route from a court in Rani Bagh to a national draw.
Who won what
Open Men's Singles: Ramanuj Mahajan, from Deepanshu Arora, with Rohit Choudhary third.
Open Women's Singles: Sidhani Singh, from Ridhi Kawatra.
Open Men's Doubles: Raksham Gupta & Deepanshu Arora, from Ramanuj Mahajan & Taresh Baru, with Ajay Vaid & Rohit Choudhary third.
Open Mixed Doubles: Ridhi Kawatra & Sumit Sharma, from Sidhani Singh & Indu Bushan.
Men's Singles (30+): Aman Sharma, from Pankaj Singh, with Nabeel Shah third.
Men's Doubles (30+): Aman Sharma & Pankaj Singh, from Anurag Singh & Taresh Baru, with Gul Yazdan & Nabeel Shah third.
Men's Singles (40+): Sumit Sharma, from Upender Singh, with Indu Bushan third.
Read those lists sideways and you can see how small the scene still is — Ridhi Kawatra loses a singles final and wins the mixed doubles; Deepanshu Arora is runner-up in singles and champion in doubles. The same forty or fifty people are playing each other across every category. That is what an early scene looks like, and it is also why it is unusually easy to walk into.
Why pickleball, and why now
The appeal is mostly about barriers. The court is roughly a quarter the size of a tennis court, the paddle is short and solid, the ball is plastic and slow, and the serve is underarm. A beginner can rally within a session rather than within a season — the opposite of most racquet sports, and the main reason the game has spread fast across Indian cities.
For a student or a first-job professional here, the practical draw is that this is one of the few competitive sports where you can enter a ranked tournament in your first year of playing without embarrassing yourself. The 30+ and 40+ brackets also mean it does not close on you at twenty-five.
Getting on court
The event ran under the Association's Jammu setup — Farid Singh as President, Viraj Singh as General Secretary and Ajay Vaid as Director for Jammu, who also played the men's doubles. The JKPA sanctions ranking events and maintains the JKSPR ladder, so it is the right first contact about upcoming tournaments and where organised play happens in the city.
No date for the next Jammu ranking event was announced at the close of this one. If you want to be on the ladder when it lands, start playing now — points only accrue to people already holding a paddle.
Sources: Greater Kashmir — Monsoon Masters Jammu Pickleball Tournament concludes; Gadyal Kashmir — Monsoon Masters Jammu – JKSPR 500 concludes.
