APL aims to bring top Indian pickleball players together with local talent: Sujay Krishna Ranga Rao

He added that the league is designed to maximise benefits for players and help Andhra Pradesh develop some of India's best pickleball talent. Notably, the APL was launched on July 22 and is being run from August 15 to September 20.

Speaking to ANI, Sujay Krishna Ranga Rao said the franchise-based Andhra Pickleball League will be held over four weekends in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, featuring some of India's top players and giving athletes from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana an opportunity to compete at the highest level.

"The Andhra Pickleball League is just kicking off in Vijayawada. This league is franchise-based and it's spread over four weekends. Two weekends in Vijayawada and two weekends in Visakhapatnam it's going to be held. And this is one of the top leagues in the country we can say because player-wise we are getting the best in the country. And the players of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana also get an opportunity to play with the top Indian players. So the standard is going to be at the highest level," he said.

Ranga Rao said the league is designed to maximise benefits for players while promoting pickleball and giving local talent the chance to compete alongside India's top players. He hopes this will help Andhra Pradesh produce some of the country's best pickleball players.

"And this league we are completely favorable towards the players. We want to get the players to get the maximum benefit in every way. So this is being organized in such a way. And we want to support pickleball in a big way and get the local talent also to get to rub shoulders with the top Indian players and go forward from this. So hopefully in the coming days, Andhra Pradesh will produce the best players of pickleball from India," he said. (ANI)