Grayson Goldin knew that his week competing at PPA Tour Asia's Skechers Shenzhen Open would be special from the very first match he played there.

That was an 11-4, 11-0 win over Cameron Luhring, an effort that gave Goldin his first singles win since suffering multiple strokes back in February.

The road back to his winning ways was anything but easy; he had a short stint on the Palm Beach Royals in Major League Pickleball before being placed on injured reserve and subsequently dropped.

That gave Goldin the opportunity to spend part of the summer overseas to play on the PPA Tour Asia circuit. That experience came with its own challenges, as Goldin failed to make it out of the first round in men’s singles at his first two events in Tokyo and Ho Chi Minh.

But once he got one win in Shenzhen, Goldin found his groove. After his opening round win over Luhring, he went on to beat Mitchell Hargreaves, Zane Ford, and Tama Shimabukuro to set a championship clash against Hien Truong, Vietnam’s top-ranked male player in the World Pickleball Rankings.

And on Championship Sunday at Bao'an Sports Center Gymnasium, Goldin used a pair of comebacks to earn the singles title with a 4-11, 11-9, 12-10 victory.

The contest seemed to be all but over when Truong got up 9-4 in the second game after taking the first, but Goldin went on to score the final seven points of Game 2 to force a winner-take-all third game.

In the decider, Truong once again jumped out to an early and eventually got up 8-2.

But after saving a championship point at 5-10, Goldin went on another seven-point run to steal the win and claim his first career title (or medal of any kind) on the PPA Tour.

And to think, the 31-year-old is just six months removed from suffering multiple strokes.

“It’s the most special medal I’ve ever won because I could have died in February. To even be standing here playing on this court is a blessing, so this means so much,” he said afterwards.

Goldin’s gold medal moment has captured the attention—and the hearts—of the global pickleball community, including Zane Navratil, Goldin’s men’s doubles partner in Shenzhen.

“It’s one of the best comebacks I’ve ever seen on the singles court,” he said in a social media post.

Goldin will look to carry this momentum from Shenzhen to his next event in the US, the Veolia Pickleball National Championships running Aug. 31-Sept. 6 in Cary, NC.

He will compete in men’s singles and men’s doubles alongside Zane Ford.