{"id":4723,"date":"2026-09-17T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/?post_type=news&p=4723"},"modified":"2026-09-17T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T04:00:00","slug":"tardio-singapore-clinic","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/news\/tardio-singapore-clinic\/","title":{"rendered":"A practice session with Tardio as the prize, and the fans a Singapore newspaper is after"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pro pickleball player Gabriel Tardio will hold a fan clinic in Singapore on September 18. Behind it are paddle brand Facolos and SPH Media, publisher of the local Straits Times. Some of the places are not for sale but handed out as prizes in a social media contest. Building a promotion around a pro's practice session rather than a ticketed product speaks directly to Japanese facility operators and media who want taster sessions to grow their player base.<\/p>\n

What the Tardio clinic actually is<\/h2>\n

The starting point was an announcement piece published on September 9 by Pickleball News Asia, a Singapore-based pickleball outlet. The gist is simple: one place at the visiting Tardio's clinic is opened to a general fan through a contest on Instagram.<\/p>\n

Date, time and venue<\/h3>\n

The clinic runs from 17:00 to 20:00 on September 18 at The Sports Arena @ EXPO, a complex in eastern Singapore. It is hosted by Facolos and the Straits Times. Entries were accepted from September 8 to 13, and the winner receives one VIP clinic pass.<\/p>\n

How the entry works<\/h3>\n

To enter, follow the Instagram accounts of Facolos Singapore and Straits Times Sports and answer the posted question in a comment. The winner is not drawn at random but chosen for the most creative answer, and SPH Media states that entrants' names, comments and posted photos may be used for promotional purposes. The announcement presents the opportunity as a rare chance to learn from a top pro.<\/p>\n

Who Tardio is, and why the \u201cworld No. 2\u201d label needs care<\/h2>\n

This is the point to pin the names and numbers down against primary sources. Provisional headlines and some Asian outlets introduce Tardio as \u201cworld No. 2,\u201d but open his official profile (pickleball.com) and the picture is more specific.<\/p>\n

Rankings have to be read event by event<\/h3>\n

As of the 2025-26 season, Tardio is ranked No. 1 in doubles on the PPA Tour, sixth in mixed doubles and 103rd in singles. He is a top pro whose main event is doubles, and a single \u201cworld No. 2\u201d banner gets his real standing wrong. The pull of a promotional line and his precise competitive position are best taken separately.<\/p>\n

A 20-year-old from Bolivia<\/h3>\n

Tardio is 20, from Bolivia, and based in Jupiter, Florida. Influenced by his grandfather, he picked up a racket at 14, built two courts at his home in Bolivia and then moved to the US to turn pro. He went pro in 2022 and has won the PPA Masters and the Pickleball Central Indoor Nationals. He signed a three-year contract extension with the PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball (MLP), and in January 2026 he signed with Facolos' global team. That relationship is why Facolos appears on this Singapore clinic.<\/p>\n

Checking the player profile against primary sources<\/h2>\n

To avoid being carried along by promotional copy, here is the baseline data we could confirm, in a table. The figures all follow the official player database.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Item<\/th>\nDetails<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Age and origin<\/td>\n20 \/ Bolivia (based in Jupiter, Florida, US)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
PPA doubles<\/td>\nRanked No. 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mixed doubles<\/td>\n6th<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Singles<\/td>\n103rd<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Turned pro<\/td>\n2022<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Main titles<\/td>\nPPA Masters, Pickleball Central Indoor Nationals<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Affiliations and contracts<\/td>\nA three-year extension with the PPA Tour and MLP, and a move to the Facolos global team in January 2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Around the same dates, Tardio is reported to have entered the PPA Asia event in Kuala Lumpur on September 9-13 (Leapmotor KL Cup 2026, held at The Hood). Building a tournament trip and a fan event into one continuous itinerary is a pattern that will appear more often as pros tour Asia.<\/p>\n

Why a newspaper is turning practice with a pro into a prize<\/h2>\n

What matters here is not the clinic itself but who set it up. SPH Media, a newspaper group, is among the organizers, and the entry route runs entirely through following and commenting on Instagram. Fans get a chance to hit with a top pro for free; in exchange, the media side collects followers, user-generated content, and publishable photos and comments in one go. It is a design that converts a pro experience into promotional currency.<\/p>\n

What changes when a media company owns the experience<\/h3>\n

In Japan, too, media outlets are increasingly leading the taster sessions themselves. A session run by the women's magazine Oggi was reported to havedrawn more than 1,000 applicants for 60 places<\/a>, making visible how far demand outstrips supply. SPH's plan takes that scarcity one step further, narrowing it to a single slot in contest form and turning the act of applying into content in its own right. The thinking is not to hold an event in order to draw a crowd, but to harvest exposure from the application process.<\/p>\n

How to spend star power<\/h3>\n

The other axis is how star players are used. Abroad, reshuffled partnerships among top players drive the conversation, and among Japanese playersShimabukuro pairing with JW Johnson<\/a>shows how who lines up with whom translates straight into drawing power. Tying up a player of Tardio's level for a whole day to hit with one fan looks extravagant, but measured in social reach it can buy cheaper and denser contact than an ad buy.<\/p>\n

What Japanese venues and companies can take from this<\/h2>\n

Translated to the Japanese scene, this case yields three lessons.<\/p>\n

Turn free slots from a lottery into a participation step<\/h3>\n

In Shibuya, for example,a free pickleball taster session on September 21<\/a>was set up in two parts, one for elementary school children and one for ages 16 and up. Free trials are the standard way to grow the player base, but SPH goes further: by asking applicants for a creative answer, it gets both the enthusiasm of the people who show up and their comments as raw material. Japanese organizers could merge recruitment and content production simply by replacing some first-come or lottery slots with post-based entries.<\/p>\n

Put usage rights in writing up front<\/h3>\n

SPH spelling out in its entry terms that names, comments, and photos may be published is unglamorous but important. Footage shot at taster sessions and contests that cannot later be used in advertising, because nobody secured the subjects' consent, sits idle in Japan too. Write the scope of use into the entry stage and the post-event reuse becomes a promotional asset as it stands.<\/p>\n

Bundle fan touchpoints with tournament trips<\/h3>\n

What Tardio's routing into Singapore around the KL trip shows is a refusal to recoup the cost of bringing in a player from a single match. Domestically, slotting a clinic or a venue unveiling into an invited player's downtime raises the exposure gained per yen of travel and per hour of their time. For the venue it also builds a track record of court usage.<\/p>\n

Practical details and the ripple through the Asian market<\/h2>\n

Here are the practical details of the clinic and the contest, for anyone weighing an entry or a trip to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Item<\/th>\nDetails<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Event<\/td>\nGabriel Tardio fan clinic<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Date and time<\/td>\nSeptember 18, 17:00-20:00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Venues<\/td>\nThe Sports Arena @ EXPO (Singapore)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Host<\/td>\nFacolos \/ The Straits Times (SPH Media)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Entry period<\/td>\nSeptember 8-13<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
How to enter<\/td>\nFollow Facolos Singapore and Straits Times Sports on Instagram and answer the question in the post in a comment<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Prize<\/td>\nOne VIP clinic pass<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Across Asia, paddle makers, media outlets, and local promoters are increasingly joining forces to bring pros in. The brand gets its contracted player seen, the media outlet gets followers and material, and the venue gets bookings. Three parties taking different returns out of the same event is a structure Japan could build too, not only Singapore. What separates operators is how much fan contact, rights clearance, and venue exposure they stack around a pro's day instead of letting the match be the end of it.<\/p>\n

Summary and the next move<\/h2>\n

Tardio's Singapore clinic is not merely a visit; it is an experiment in which a newspaper-owned media company puts a pro experience at the core of its promotion. Rather than being pulled along by the world No. 2 label, keep the real picture in view, a top pro whose main event is doubles, and try transplanting three things to your own operation: the entry route, the rights wording, and the bundling with a tournament trip. As a first step, switch one of the first-come slots at your next taster session or event to a post-based entry, and state the scope of photo and comment use in a single line in the entry terms. That wins attendance and promotional material at the same time.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/h2>\n