Official Ball Partner
Every match is played with a Franklin X-40
Franklin is the Official Ball Partner of the Mumbai Pickleball Cup. Every ball struck at the Cup, from the group stage to the final, is the X-40: the tournament ball used at the US Open Pickleball Championships and on the APP Tour.
Mumbai Pickleball Cup S2 · 27 September 2026 · Stratum Play, Malad West, Mumbai
- Outdoor tournament ball
- X-40
- Machine-drilled holes
- 40
- Diameter
- 74 mm
- Weight
- 26 g
What it means if you enter
You play on the real thing
The X-40 is USA Pickleball approved and the official ball of the US Open Pickleball Championships. Most club sessions in Mumbai are played on whatever ball is in the bag. At the Cup you get the ball the professional tours use, in every single match you play.
The ball behaves the same all day
40 machine-drilled holes and a one-piece build mean the flight and the bounce are the same on your third group match as they were on your first. Nothing goes soft, nothing goes oval, and nothing about the ball changes between the group stage and the knockouts.
You can see it under the lights
The Cup runs from 4pm into the evening, so a good part of the tournament is played under floodlights. Optic yellow is the colour that holds up when the daylight goes, which matters most in exactly the matches you care about most.
Fresh balls for the knockouts
Because Franklin is supplying them, we are not rationing. Group matches get good balls and the quarter-finals onward get fresh ones, so nobody's final is decided by a ball that has already been through six matches.
The X-40, in short
The X-40 is Franklin's outdoor tournament ball. It is made in one piece from polyethylene rather than moulded in two halves and welded, which is what stops it splitting along a seam when someone puts a full swing through it on a hot day.
The 40 holes are drilled rather than cast, and they are drilled to a pattern: that is what gives the ball a repeatable flight and lets spin actually do what you meant it to do. It is approved by USA Pickleball, it is the official ball of the US Open Pickleball Championships, and since 2024 it has been the official ball of the APP Tour.
Who Franklin are
Franklin Sports was founded in Brockton, Massachusetts in 1946 by two brothers, Sydney and Irving Franklin, on a single idea: sports make life better. Eighty years on it is one of the best-known names in American sport, and one of the biggest names in pickleball anywhere in the world.
Franklin came to India as the game did, and backing the Mumbai Pickleball Cup is part of that: putting proper tournament equipment into the hands of club players in Malad and Borivali rather than keeping it for professionals in Florida. We are glad to have them, and glad our players get to feel the difference.
Mumbai Pickleball Cup S2
Come and play with them on 27 September 2026
Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles at Stratum Play, Malad West, Mumbai. 16 entries a category, at least 3 matches guaranteed, ₹1,500 per entry, and a ₹30,000 prize pool. Entries close 25 September 2026.
The Franklin name, the X-40 and the product photography on this page are the property of Franklin Sports, shown here with their agreement as Official Ball Partner of the Mumbai Pickleball Cup.