Centre Court Pickleball League Season 2 to Begin in Hyderabad on October 18

The opening day will feature four matches, with defending champions Mavericks taking on Titans at 4 p.m. on Centre Court, while Dasos Dynamos face The Raptors on the second court.

At 8 p.m., hosts Chargers will meet Starry Smashers, alongside All Stars taking on Keerthi Warriors.

Eight teams will compete under the leadership of Sreekar Mothukuri (Mavericks), Sameer Varma (All Stars), Nikhil Tummalapalli (Titans), Nikit M. Reddy (Chargers), Karunesh Reddy (The Raptors), Vivek Reddy Priyadarshini (Dasos Dynamos), Abhaya Vemuri (Starry Smashers) and Gopinath Reddy (Keerthi Warriors).

The squads were reshaped at the player auction held in Phuket in September.

More than 200 players registered for the season, with 73 players bought at auction and seven signed before the auction, taking the total roster to 80 players, including 53 men and 27 women.

The opening day will also feature a live performance by drummer and percussionist Aamir Ismail, formerly associated with Mumbai-based progressive-fusion band Paradigm Shift. Hyderabad acts Roch, Melt, Alter Ego and The Project Patty are also scheduled to perform.

The league has doubled the franchise purse from Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh this season. Teams were also permitted to sign one player before the auction for Rs. 3 lakh.

“The larger purse gave franchises more room to build their squads, and the auction showed how differently each team approached that opportunity,” said Vikrant Rao, co-founder of Centre Court Sports and Entertainment, adding that the opening weekend would provide the first indication of how the teams’ strategies translated on court.

The league has also attracted prominent figures from Indian sport and Telugu cinema to its ownership groups. Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal has joined Keerthi Warriors as co-owner, while former badminton world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth has joined Nandi Chargers as an investor and partner.

Actor Sushanth Anumolu owns All Stars, while filmmaker and actor Tharun Bhascker Dhaassyam is a co-owner of The Raptors alongside Kaushik Manepalli and Divya Priyanka Reddy.

Mavericks enter the season seeking to defend their title after defeating All Stars 4–3 in a seventh-set tiebreaker in last season’s final, which drew nearly 2,000 spectators and featured a halftime performance by Lucky Ali.

“Hyderabad is where we began, and Season 1 gave us a lot to build on,” said Yashwanth Biyyala, co-founder of Centre Court Sports and Entertainment, noting that the organisers had expanded the match-day experience to include music and food alongside the competition.

Balaji Jewellers and Optimus Capital have joined Season 2 as co-sponsors. They join title sponsor Terminus, associate sponsors Vijaya Diagnostics, KLR Transformers and Loca Loka Hot Sauce, and co-sponsors Stupa Analytics and Johnnie Walker Non-Alcoholic Lemonade.

League match days are scheduled for October 24 and 31 and November 7, 14, 21 and 28, with sessions beginning at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

On December 5, the top two teams will meet in Qualifier 1, while the third- and fourth-placed teams will play the Eliminator, both at 4 p.m.

The loser of Qualifier 1 will face the Eliminator winner in Qualifier 2 at 8 p.m. The championship final is scheduled for 8 p.m. on December 12.

The opening matches will be held at Centre Court Pickleball Arena in the Financial District.

Passes are available at https://centrecourthyd.com/ccpl-passes.

The franchise-based league was launched in Hyderabad in 2025 as the Hyderabad Pickleball League before expanding to Bengaluru. It returns to Hyderabad for its second season in 2026.