Six months after two strokes, Grayson Goldin won the PPA Tour Asia Shenzhen Open from 10-5 down in the decider, beating Hien Truong 4-11, 11-9, 12-10.
The short answer: Grayson Goldin, who suffered two strokes in February 2026 and temporarily lost his speech, won the PPA Tour Asia Skechers Shenzhen Open men’s singles title six months later. Trailing Hien Truong 10-5 in the deciding game, he won seven straight points to take it 4-11, 11-9, 12-10. Doctors had diagnosed reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome.
In February, Grayson Goldin suffered two strokes and temporarily lost the ability to speak. Six months later, the American was back in a professional final at the PPA Tour Asia Shenzhen Open. Hien Truong led him 10-5 in the deciding game and needed one more point. Goldin won the next seven.
Key takeaways
- Grayson Goldin suffered two strokes in February 2026, temporarily losing his speech during a medical emergency that interrupted his professional career.
- Six months later, he won the PPA Tour Asia Shenzhen Open men’s singles title by recovering from 10-5 down in the deciding game against Hien Truong.
- Vietnam also made history in Shenzhen as Sophia Huynh Tran and Ho Thi Truc Tam became the country’s first women to win a PPA Tour Asia women’s title.
At 10-5 in the deciding game of the men’s singles final in Shenzhen, Hien Truong needed one point.
Grayson Goldin needed seven.
Goldin won the next rally.
Then the next six.
Truong did not score again.
From 10-5, the scoreboard moved all the way to 10-12. Grayson Goldin had won the Skechers Shenzhen Open men’s singles title, 4-11, 11-9, 12-10.
There was enough in those seven points for a sports story.
The previous six months made it something else.
In February, Goldin had been taken to hospital after suffering two strokes. He wrote afterwards that he had suddenly lost his speech and could not form sentences. The 31-year-old spent nearly a week in hospital undergoing scans, neurological care and other procedures before doctors diagnosed him with reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome.
Pickleball stopped being the immediate concern.
Six months later, it mattered again.
That might be the most significant part of what happened in Shenzhen.
When the next tournament stops mattering
Before February, Goldin had built a life around professional racket sport.
A former nationally ranked junior tennis player, he competed at Division I level before eventually moving into professional pickleball. WPM previously covered Goldin’s move into the PPA system after his strong APP singles performances.
The routine is familiar across professional sport.
Train. Travel. Compete. Recover. Repeat.
Then the routine disappeared.
Goldin’s strokes left him dealing with something that could not sensibly be framed as another obstacle in an athletic career. His speech was affected. His ability to work was affected. The financial consequences arrived alongside the medical ones.
Goldin said publicly that he was uninsured and established a fundraising page to help cover hospital bills, neurological follow-up, monitoring and recovery costs.
There was no meaningful tournament schedule to worry about while those questions remained unresolved.
That matters because the language of sporting comeback stories can become careless.
Athletes overcome injuries all the time. Hamstrings heal. Ankles strengthen. Operations lead to rehabilitation programmes with timelines attached.
A stroke belongs in a different category.
The first victory was not returning to a podium.
It was recovering enough for professional sport to become relevant again.
Back to being a pickleball player
Goldin’s previous PPA Tour Asia singles record makes what happened in Shenzhen more interesting even without February.
He had played three singles events on the Asian circuit before arriving in China and lost in the round of 16 each time.
All three defeats went to deciding games.
All three were lost by two points.
In Malaysia he lost to Marco Leung. In Tokyo it was Jimmy Liong Kai Long. Earlier this month in Ho Chi Minh City, Mikar Larenzo Fisher ended his run.
Shenzhen changed the pattern.
Goldin reached the semi-final and beat Macao Open champion Tama Shimabukuro 11-8, 11-4 to reach his first PPA Tour Asia singles final.
Then came Truong.
The Vietnamese player was not an incidental finalist. Earlier this season he had already established himself as one of the circuit’s most important regional competitors, including a men’s singles title in Kuala Lumpur. WPM also covered how Truong and Quan Do beat Ly Hoang Nam and Collin Johns in Ho Chi Minh City earlier this month.
In Shenzhen, Truong won the opening game 11-4. Goldin levelled 11-9.
Then Truong moved within one point of the championship.
At 10-5, Goldin’s medical history was irrelevant to the arithmetic.
One more point for Truong and the tournament was over.
This is where it would be easy to make claims the evidence cannot support.
Perhaps what Goldin experienced in February changed his relationship with pressure. Perhaps recovering from something so serious made 10-5 in a pickleball match seem less intimidating.
We do not know.
Perhaps he was simply a professional athlete trying to solve the next rally.
That is enough.
What the scoreboard gives us is remarkable without anything being added to it.
Goldin faced the edge of defeat and won seven consecutive points.
12-10.
Champion.
Why Truong matters to the story
Goldin’s comeback should not obscure the player who came within one rally of beating him.
Truong reaching the final was part of a wider Vietnamese performance in Shenzhen.
Elsewhere in the tournament, Sophia Huynh Tran and Ho Thi Truc Tam defeated Lingwei Kong and Selina Turulja 11-9, 3-11, 11-6 to win the women’s doubles title.
It was Vietnam’s first gold medal in a women’s category on PPA Tour Asia.
The tournament also completed a wider competitive set for Vietnam. Vietnamese players have now won medals across all five professional disciplines during the 2026 PPA Tour Asia season: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
Huynh then partnered Truong to take mixed doubles silver, losing to Sahra Dennehy and Tama Shimabukuro.
That does not prove that the competitive balance of Asian pickleball has suddenly changed. Nor does one tournament require a grand declaration about the sport’s development across an entire continent.
It tells us something more specific.
Goldin did not travel to Shenzhen and encounter a draw waiting for an established American professional to win it.
Truong was one point from taking the men’s title himself.
Huynh and Tam did take theirs.
The distinction matters as PPA Tour Asia continues to build its own competitive pathway. Regional players are increasingly supplying the competition rather than merely the geography.
The part we should not turn into a fairytale
Goldin’s title will inevitably be described through what happened to him in February.
It is impossible to tell the story properly without doing so.
But Shenzhen does not provide a tidy ending to what happened six months ago.
Winning a professional pickleball tournament does not erase two strokes. It does not settle whatever medical, financial or personal consequences followed. Nor does it allow us to know what Goldin went through privately during his recovery.
What it does provide is a marker.
In February, Goldin’s ability to speak had been affected and his professional career had been interrupted by a medical emergency.
In August, another professional player was trying desperately to prevent him winning a tournament.
That is a considerable distance to travel in six months.
And there is something almost comforting about how normal the final eventually became.
Goldin was not being treated as a patient.
Truong did not owe him a point because of what he had survived.
Nobody moved the finish line.
Goldin had to win the match.
Ordinary again
At 10-5, he was losing it.
There was no medical story on the scoreboard.
No rehabilitation.
No context.
Just one player needing a point and another needing seven.
Goldin found all seven.
The result will sit on his record as a PPA Tour Asia men’s singles title. It will appear beside a date, a tournament and an opponent, stripped eventually of most of what made it unusual.
That feels appropriate.
For a few hours in Shenzhen, Grayson Goldin got to be judged by one of the least important things that had happened to him this year.
He played a pickleball tournament.
He reached the final.
He nearly lost.
Then he won.
After everything required simply to get back there, ordinary was worth having again.
Frequently asked questions
He suffered two strokes and temporarily lost his speech; he was diagnosed with reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome.
Goldin beat Hien Truong 4-11, 11-9, 12-10.
Sophia Huynh Tran and Ho Thi Truc Tam became Vietnam’s first women to win a PPA Tour Asia women’s title.
Further reading
- Grayson Goldin signs with the UPA and secures his PPA Tour place
- Vietnam’s best partnership beats Ly Hoang Nam and Collin Johns
- The PPA is building two different tours, and Asia is testing the future
- More tournament coverage and results
Chris Beaumont
Founder and Editor-in-ChiefChris Beaumont is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of World Pickleball Magazine, published by World Pickleball Media Ltd. He follows the global game closely, reporting on news, developments, stories and tournaments from all five continents. He also hosts the World Pickleball…
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