Three members of the UPA Asia Trailblazers Programme’s inaugural 12-player class will be taking their act to MLP Australia after getting drafted to the league’s 2025 Mid Season Premier Shuffle Draft held on 5 August 2025.

China’s Yufei Long, Malaysia’s Jimmy Liong, and Vietnam’s Ken Tam all got drafted in the midseason draft, where MLP teams can drop one of its players and add a new one the lineup. Long, with a singles DUPR rating of 5.315 and a double’ rating of 5.372 will be going to the Sydney Smash. Liong (singles: 5.271, doubles: 5.321), on the other hand, was drafted by the Northern Crocs, while Tam (singles: 5.155, doubles: 5.299) was nabbed by the Southeast Asia Surge.

Since being named to the pioneering class of UPA Asia Trailblazers, Long has been on quite a roll, in particular. First, she teamed up with fellow Trailblazer Jaime Wei at the Select Medical Orange County Cup in San Clemente, California in June and very nearly reached the quarterfinals in the women’s doubles. Next, Long became the first women’s champion of the PPA Tour Asia, accomplishing the feat in the Panas Malaysia Open 2025 where she beat former MLP Australia first overall pick Nicole Schoeman.

Liong, meanwhile, has been showing marked improvement for Malaysia in recent months, and his semis finish in the Panas Malaysia Open 2025 is further proof that he’s stepping up his game more and more. Indeed, he has shown he is on the right track to being one of Asia’s best pickleball players, and his getting drafted in MLP Australia will only accelerate this development.

Aside from Long, Tam, and Liong, other Asians drafted in the 2025 Shuffle Draft were Vietnam’s Nok Yiu Tang and Japan’s Mihae Kwon and Mayu Ito.

MLP Australia will resume its season in September.