Shot in the arm for Hong Kong pickleball as city player Ryan Lam tops global rankings
Bottom of the top 100 two years ago, Hongkonger makes it to No 1 in World Pickleball Championship men’s 19-plus combined rankings
Hong Kong pickleball has started the year on a high, with the city’s top player Ryan Lam Chun-hei becoming No 1 in the World Pickleball Championship’s first combined rankings for 2026.
Second in the men’s singles category behind Hungary’s Bako Balint Gergo, the 29-year-old is third in the men’s doubles and second in the mixed men’s categories.
Lam, who topped the combined list in the men’s 19-plus category in January with 51,100 points, called his achievement “just the beginning”.
“Pickleball has completely changed my life in many different ways and I am super grateful to be at the forefront of this ongoing pickleball craze in Hong Kong,” he said.
Pickleball has developed rapidly in Hong Kong over the past six months, which Lam attributed to a boom in the number of courts and “new players joining the sport, or even local leagues”.
Hong Kong’s appearance in the finals of the 2025 Pickleball World Cup in Florida, playing against the US and competing with 68 countries, showed that the city “definitely has a place on the global stage despite the size of our city”.