Inside Chennai’s Pickleball boom: From midnight games to thriving WhatsApp communities

Inside Chennai’s Pickleball boom: From midnight games to thriving WhatsApp communities

The game brought them close. Pickleball WhatsApp groups brought them closer.

Vikram Chandrasekar, co-owner, Baseline, Chennai’s latest pickleball facility, says that when he was going through a rough patch, his pickleball community was his support system. Little acts of kindness like bringing him food, or just confiding in them made a difference. “At 50, it’s hard to make friends, but I made some really great ones through pickleball,” says Vikram.

“The sport is very social, so the idea was to see if we could build something that could fit into people’s lives. Not just a court rental space, but somewhere families could come and hang. That’s why we decided to have the Gobbelin cafe and a co-working space,” Vikram says, adding that hospitality and community can co-exist around sport as an anchor. “People come here, set up their laptops to work. They take a break in between, play a game or two and get back to work.”

The courts at Baseline, Gandhi Nagar | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Baseline, in Gandhi Nagar, follows a membership model, different from the pay as you play concept that most courts offer. It comprises three tournament grade courts, a store for equipment, and a viewing deck/ fitness area on the first floor. A group of women are at play, the oldest of whom is 73 years. There is a little lawn on the outside where the court’s guard dog, Bouncer, lazes in the afternoon sun. “I want to use this space to host community events like Sunday markets, pickleball mixers, brunch,” says Vikram.

At Serv, T Nagar, three 28-year-olds are at the helm of things. Best friends and now business partners — Varun Prashant, Siddharth Sekhar, and Manav Subramanian — initially planned to start a cloud kitchen.