Mackonner Dy moves across a pickleball court with the posture of a kid who knows something you don’t. At sixteen, the Richmond native has become a phenomenon in the Canadian circuit. While plenty of people fixate on his age, Dy seems to view it as a license to push the boundaries of creativity. “Number one, people always come up to me and go, ‘You’re so young,’” Dy says. He uses that youth to fuel a game defined by “creativity and energy.”

He talks about his game with a clinical detachment. For Dy, the appeal lies in the creativity of a tight angle or the sudden shift in pace that leaves an opponent frozen. “I’m looking to be aggressive,” he explains. “I think what gives me an edge is I’m willing to take risks. I think that pays off, pays dividends over time.” It is a style built on the idea that the court is a puzzle, and he has no interest in solving it the same way twice.

This type of play requires a certain level of psychological armour. Dy admits that he feels more at ease during a high-stakes tournament than in a weekend match with friends. To keep that composure from cracking, he consults with Dr. Sean Graham, a former football player who helps him with the mental aspect of competition. Dy works from the assumption that if the head isn’t right, the hands won’t follow. “If you don’t got it up in the mind, it’s not going to show in your game,” Dy says. “That’s a big thing we’ve been working on recently.”

During the pandemic, he dismissed pickleball as a slow-motion hobby for the retired until two players in their fifties beat him. “It’s the classic,” he laughs. “Get beat by two fifty-year-olds. That brought up the competitive pride in me. I was like, ‘Nah, I gotta get better at this.’” He entered the tournament scene around 2023 and has been climbing the ladder with a speed that suggests he stopped finding the game boring a long time ago.

The PPA’s arrival in Canada serves as a milestone for Dy. It brings the professional circuit to his backyard, but more importantly, it validates a domestic talent pool full of new players. “I finally don’t have to travel 1000 kilometers to get to a PPA,” he says. “It just shows the legitimacy of pickleball in Canada.” On the court, he offers a kind of voltage, refusing to be intimidated by the resumes of the players across the net.

At the very start of his professional life, Armaan Jiwa Mawji has already become one of the more intriguing young figures rising through North American pickleball. Tall and preternaturally composed, he brings a tennis‑bred foundation and a competitiveness that make his ascent feel less like a surprise than an inevitability.

He grew up inside Canada’s high‑performance tennis system: Grant Connell, Hollyburn, Tennis Canada at the North Shore Winter Club and has absorbed the footwork and instincts that now slip neatly into his pickleball game. The sport itself entered his orbit only last year in Arizona, at PPA Mesa, where he wandered the practice courts asking anyone for a game. Marshall Brown said yes, played five, and told him to take the sport seriously. Steve Deakin later echoed the sentiment. It was clear he had something worth cultivating.

Armaan’s style is built on controlled explosiveness with two‑handed rolls, quick flicks, and a willingness to improvise. He’s adding lobs, angles, and faster hands, and he’s candid about the pieces still under construction. What he promises spectators is energy, athleticism, and a refusal to concede. He has already saved match points in every tournament he’s played, a habit that is more like temperament.

There’s a quiet nationalism in his approach in a landscape dominated by American players. “I am pretty blessed to have this opportunity to compete in Canada and show off my level in North America. I’m excited for the future of Canada and everything we can bring… we can compete with the top if we can get some good training.” He trains in the U.S. partly to bring that experience back home. Playing with the Friday Pickleball paddle, he’s assembling the support needed to compete full‑time. Tournaments, he notes, are not cheap.