Once the general manager of Asset Management at LINK REIT, Jenny Wan left her 22-year corporate life to invest in her lifelong passion of wellness and sports. Not just any sport, but one that even Taylor Swift plays: pickleball.   

By her university years, the tennis-obsessed Jenny Wan had already torn her ACL and had rods pounded into her knee to treat the multiple fractures she’s endured. Under the doctor’s strict orders, she gave up the sport and turned to golf – which she still plays now at 48 years old – but missed the adrenaline and thrill of high-intensity games. So, every three years, she vowed to take on something new – table tennis, Muay Thai, squash and badminton: these were always taught by a coach for up to three times a week after her then daytime role as general manager of asset management at LINK Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), which heads 130 properties in Hong Kong alone.

“I’d go all out: I trained to compete, to win,” said Jenny.

For decades, she kept to her rigorous routine. 

This was, until the summer of 2023 when she found a pickleball paddle tucked away in the storeroom of the Ladies Recreation Club, where she is a member. Since the sport was still at its nascency in Hong Kong at the time, online videos and forums became her coach. Soon, Jenny formed a group of women who’d play two nights a week: aside from the thrill of the sport, some joined for the post-game banter and others saw it as a chance to show off their mini dresses, pleated skirts and pastel-coloured polos from the likes of Norma Kamali, Tory Burch, J. Crew and more.  

"Sure, pickleball isn’t as high-octane as other racket sports or the sports I’d previously enjoy, but it’s truly a bridge that connects sports enthusiasts, weekend players and people who like to social or wear cute clothes."

Pickle What?  
An amalgamation of tennis, ping pong and badminton, pickleball was born in 1965, when Washington state congressman Joel Prichard and his friends Bill Bell and Barney McCallum had wanted to play badminton on an old court but couldn’t find any racquets and shuttlecocks. What took their place were ping-pong paddles – which have grown in size today – and a perforated ball. The name “pickleball” is attributed to Joel’s wife, Joan Prichard, who allegedly named the sport after the “pickle boat” in crew races, where rowers who fell short of competitive teams would face each other.  

Unlike most racket sports, aggressive smashes are replaced with close-up nudges over the net – also called “dinking” – making pickleball the perfect sport not only for the elderly looking for an adrenaline hit, but it also offers players of different statures a levelled playing field.

“A lot of the action in pickleball is up close: it’s a game of patience and waiting for your opponent to make a mistake, it’s the only sport where I can win a 6ft-tall guy without the need to run twice as hard,” Jenny jokes.

Though pickleball saw its first tournament in 1976 in Washington, it remained a seniors’ game. What sprung it into global stardom was the COVID-19 pandemic, when people – including A-listers like Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and Serena Williams – sought safe outdoor activities with an easy learning curve.  

The Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s 2024 participation report found pickleball to be the fastest-growing sport in the United States, with 13.6 million players. Such momentum has trickled to Southeast Asia, with clubs and competitions spanning from local to national levels. Hong Kong’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department, too, is playing catch up, having increased public facilities for pickleball from just one in 2022 to more than 15 as of last December. This exponential growth by the HKSAR was partly driven by the likes of Jenny, who with three other partners, founded the city’s first private, indoor pickleball court in Tin Hau – Bay Pickle – last summer. Since then, Bay Pickle has expanded to Tsuen Wan’s D‧PARK, a private member’s club in Central and Pok Oi Hospital 80th Anniversary Tang Ying Hei College in Tseung Kwan O.  

“I’ve been in countless business negotiations in my 22-year corporate life; but when I was offered the opportunity of investing in a pickleball court, I said yes in a heartbeat,” Jenny said.  

Weaving Wellness into the Dink
Bay Pickle was Jenny's first taste of entrepreneurship with a team of men, who all appreciate her eye for detail.  

“When we first opened the Tin Hau flagship, the boys were only obsessed with the technicalities of the flooring. Without me, they probably won’t even have towel racks in the bathroom,” Jenny quips.  

Aside from the love of the sport and its potential in the Greater Bay Area, her investment in Bay Pickle aligns with her wellness pursuit, one that was founded in wanting “to make better and more nutritious soups” for her long-term partner, Gigi Chao – daughter of billionaire Cecil Chao, vice-chairman of investment holdings company Cheuk Nang Holdings Limited and outspoken gay-rights advocate.  

Like her dedication to sports, Jenny also poured her unabashed devotion to wellness by enrolling into The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s School of Chinese Medicine in 2021 and quitting her job at LINK REIT two years later to focus on her new pursuit.  

“I don’t want to become a Chinese medicine practitioner; instead, I want to instill small wellness habits in people before illnesses even arise. Brew yourself a cup of herbal tea here; add a few healthy ingredients to your lunch there; and play a bit of low-impact, highly social pickleball once or twice a week and voila, you’re on your way to a healthy life,” said Jenny.  

Though Hong Kong is quickly picking up the pickleball momentum, Jenny hopes to attract more female players, who she says are less likely to join drop-in sessions with “intense, sweaty men”. Solutions include Ladies Night – which will kick off on February 6 in Bay Pickle’s Tin Hau location – as well as wellness-helmed programs that will hopefully incorporate the fruits of her Chinese medicine studies in the future.  

“What we’ve seen is that most of ladies who come through our door want a fun, engaging sporting environment, and we want to be a place for all those things. After all, any effort to get moving is a great beginning to a better life, right?” 

_{Text by Joyce Yip}