Registration for OCBC-Great Eastern Pickleball Open starts Jul 27 with S$100,000 in prizes
OCBC has a two-year partnership with Care Corner Services to give 100 seniors the chance to experience the sport.
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[SINGAPORE] The inaugural OCBC-Great Eastern Pickleball Open will take place in October with more than S$100,000 worth of prizes, said OCBC in a news release on Sunday (Jul 26).
The three-day event – to be played at the air-conditioned OCBC Arena at The Kallang from Oct 23 to 25 – is expected to attract close to 1,600 participants in four categories: Novice, Open, the Bank of Singapore Corporate Challenge, and the invite-only Bank of Singapore Invitational Championship.
Registration begins on Monday at noon at the official website, with an early-bird entry fee of S$132 per team available for all categories until Aug 31. The rate goes up to S$148 per team from Sep 1 and will apply until the close of registration on Oct 5, or whenever all the slots are filled.
The novice category is meant for players with fewer than 24 months of playing experience and who have not medalled in any local or overseas tournaments. The Open category, meanwhile, is for players of all skills and experience.
The top two teams from each group in the first round will advance to the knockout stages. Matches before the third-place play-off and final will be played to 21 points in a single set.
The third-place play-off and championship final will be contested in a best-of-three sets format, with each set played to 15 points. All matches will be played in a rally scoring format and in doubles of any gender combination.
Ahead of this October’s tournament, OCBC also launched the OCBC-Great Eastern Pickleball Series, comprising four weekends of “learn to play” sessions to introduce players to the fundamentals of pickleball.
The adult workshops are fully subscribed, while the youth and multi-generation workshops have also seen healthy participation, said OCBC’s head of group brand and communications Koh Ching Ching.
Separately, OCBC said it has embarked on a two-year partnership with Care Corner Seniors Services, a social service agency that reaches out to vulnerable seniors.
The initiative aims to extend the benefits of pickleball to seniors in the community to promote active ageing and foster social connections.
About a hundred seniors from Care Corner will receive free pickleball training over two years. Each year, 50 seniors will participate in a four-month programme comprising 10 training sessions on the dual-use courts at the National Stadium’s Great Eastern Promenade.
This year’s programme started on Jul 7 and will culminate in a sports day event organised by Care Corner on Nov 11. Up to 10 seniors will be selected by their coaches to participate in the novice category of the OCBC-Great Eastern Pickleball Open.
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