When Patrick Chucri first introduced pickleball at his club, he estimated there were about 30 active players in the entire UAE. Today, he puts that number at around 15,000.

Now Picklers is taking its next step. Minor League Pickleball Dubai kicks off at the club on November 14th, and it’s the first MiLP event Picklers has hosted. Here’s how a six-court indoor club became the home of pickleball in the Middle East, what the MiLP format looks like, and where Patrick wants to take the sport next.

From touchtennis to the Middle East’s first pickleball club

Picklers didn’t start as a pickleball club. It started as a touchtennis club. In 2024, Patrick added pickleball on three courts, and the response was so strong that the club expanded to six dedicated indoor pickleball courts within a few months.

There was no playbook to follow. No other professional pickleball club existed in the region, so the Picklers team built everything from scratch: coaching structures, player levels, events, and programming.

“There really was no roadmap for us,” Patrick says. “We had to learn, adapt and create as we went along.”

Today, the club runs a full program:

• Structured coaching and a Junior Pickleball Academy
• Level-based open plays and DUPR sessions
• Tournaments and corporate events
• A referee certification course to raise the standard of local events

Off the court, players get changing rooms, lockers, showers, a pro shop, and a bistro. The goal was never just to rent courts. It was to give pickleball a professional home in the region.

What Minor League Pickleball Dubai looks like

MiLP is a team format, and that’s the part Patrick likes most.

“I really like the team element of MiLP,” he says. “The men’s, women’s and mixed doubles matches, together with the DreamBreaker, give everyone on the team an important role.”

Each team has two men and two women. They play men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. If the matchup is tied, it goes to a DreamBreaker, a rotating singles tiebreaker where every player on the team takes a turn on the court.

Picklers will run two divisions: DUPR 12 and DUPR 16. Patrick says those two levels reflect how much the competitive game in the UAE has grown over the past few years.

Ratings sit at the center of how Picklers runs play. “DUPR is a core part of our programming at Picklers,” Patrick says, “because I strongly believe players improve and enjoy the sport more when they consistently compete with people around their own level.”

That’s exactly what MiLP’s rating-based divisions are built to do. You show up, and the teams across the net are playing at your level.

Building a pickleball community in an international city

Dubai pulls people in from all over the world, and the Picklers community reflects that. Players come from different countries, cultures, age groups, and sporting backgrounds. Many of them are at the club several times a week.

Patrick sees that mix as the reason pickleball in Dubai has caught on so fast. The sport brings strangers together quickly, and a regular open play turns into a friend group before long.

But growth alone isn’t the goal. “For me, growing pickleball isn’t only about opening more courts,” he says. “It’s about creating the right culture around the sport.”

That includes welcoming new clubs. Patrick doesn’t see other operators as simple competition. “If they are doing things properly, they are contributing to the bigger goal of growing the sport.”

A former pro with big plans for pickleball in the UAE

Patrick’s path to pickleball runs through tennis. He played NCAA Division I tennis at Ole Miss, turned pro, and reached ATP No. 1,000 in singles and No. 500 in doubles. He also represented Lebanon in the Davis Cup for many years.

That background shapes how he runs Picklers. “I understand what athletes expect from a professional environment,” he says, “but I also understand that sport is ultimately about people, relationships and community.”

His goals for the next few years are ambitious:

• Scale Picklers across the Middle East
• Host some of the biggest pickleball tournaments in the world in Dubai
• Help establish a UAE pickleball federation
• See a UAE national team compete at the World Championships

Picklers already holds a distribution agreement with JOOLA and is finalizing another major brand partnership. Patrick also has advice for anyone eager to open a pickleball business: passion isn’t enough. “You really need to understand what you are doing, know your market, understand your customers and be prepared to work extremely hard.”

Two years ago, pickleball in the UAE was a few dozen players on three courts. Now it has a Minor League Pickleball event of its own.

“We’ve come a long way in a very short time,” Patrick says, “but I genuinely feel we are still only at the beginning.”

Find your next MiLP event

Minor League Pickleball Dubai shows what happens when a club builds its community around players competing at the right level. If you’re in the UAE, follow @picklers.ae for event updates. Wherever you play, check your DUPR rating and find a Minor League Pickleball event near you!

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