The PPA Tour held its first European event, a 125-grade tournament, on July 22-26 in Portorož on Slovenia's west coast. Men's singles went not to an American star but to Hungary's Bálint Bakó (22). Men's doubles went to a British-German pair, and women's doubles and mixed were taken by British players, leaving the podium almost entirely European. More than the size or standing of the event itself, the fact that European players won a European event carries the bigger lesson for Japanese players and organizers.
Bakó beat Spain's Cañadell to win men's singles
今回のポルトロージュ大会は、通常のPPA本戦の8分の1にあたる125ポイントを優勝者に配る入門的な位置づけの一戦だった。開催地は名称こそ「PPAイタリア」シリーズだが、実際の会場はイタリアではなくスロベニアの海辺で、アドリア海をはさんでベネチアの対岸にあたる。この地でバコは、スペインのジョゼップ・”ペップ”・カニャデルを退けて男子シングルスの頂点に立った。
An overview of the same event is inthe article on what the PPA Tour's first European stop means, so this piece does not repeat it. What deserves attention here is a single point: the winner was not a visiting American but a local European player.
In doubles and mixed too, the winners were British, German and Spanish
Results outside singles were also almost entirely European. They break down as follows.
| Event | Winner | Main country of origin |
|---|---|---|
| Men's singles | Bálint Bakó | Hungary |
| Women's singles | Sabrina Méndez Domínguez | Spanish descent |
| Men's Doubles | Louis Laville / Tom Protzek | United Kingdom, Germany |
| Women’s doubles | Claudia Caymel Romero / Katie Morris | Spain, United Kingdom |
| Mixed doubles | Katie Morris / Ben Cawston | UK |
英国のケイティ・モリスは女子ダブルスと混合の2冠を運んだ。男子ダブルスを組んだドイツのトム・プロツェクは、大学まで米タルサでサッカー（NCAA1部）を続けたのち2024年11月にPPAデビューした選手で、2025年のPPAワールドではジャック・ソックを破ったこともある。米国から来た有名選手が上位を分け合う構図ではなく、欧州各国のパスポートを持つ選手が種目ごとに賞を分けた。
Bakó, 22 and a former tennis player, is also heading out to America
Bakó is Hungary's national champion and sits at the top of his country's rankings. A 22-year-old who came from tennis, he also won men's singles at the BaseX Austrian Open in Austria in June, beating American William Sobek in the final. He is not only winning in Europe: he has signed with the APP Tour in the United States and travels to its stops. In other words, this is the reverse of an imported star, a player raised in Europe crossing the ocean to take on the sport's home market.
This overlaps with the wider pattern of converts from tennis and table tennis making their names at home events. In Asia too, a teenager who came from table tennisreached the men's singles final in Penang, and the way athletes with a sporting base behind them are rising on courts everywhere is taking a similar shape in Europe and Asia.
The RTA Tour's "Road to Arlberg" deepened Europe's player pool
Behind so many local wins in Europe lies a tour of the continent's own. The RTA Pickleball Tour is a circuit that bundles national events, designed as a "Road to Arlberg" leading to the Arlberg Championships as its final stop. Bakó entered all eight RTA events in 2025 and reached the men's singles podium six times, with four golds and two silvers. From 2026 the tour awards points down to 17th through 24th place, shifting to a system that rewards consistency across a season rather than top finishes alone. The points ceiling was also raised from 6,000 the previous year to 8,500, opening the door to international players.
It turns everything from a title to an early exit into one continuous trip worth taking, with clinics and amateur events attached to each stop. That footing keeps talent from ending in a single win and builds it into the next season's standings. A European podium filled with local names was not chance but the result of several years of that accumulation.
The distance between Japan, swept by overseas players in Utsunomiya, and Europe, where locals won
For Japanese players, this result is a mirror. At the APP Asia qualifier held in Utsunomiya in July 2026, overseas players took the top places and Japanese players barely held on to a corner of the podium. That day is described inthe account of the overseas sweep in Utsunomiya. Japan is still at the stage where hosting an international event at home means the invited contenders win.
Asia, meanwhile, has begun producing champions of its own. In Vietnam,a local player took two titles at a home event. Just as Europe stacked up players through the RTA circuit, producing local players who can win takes more than one-off invitational events: it takes a continuous stage where a loss still counts toward next year, plus a plan for the travel and cost of getting there. With the Japanese federation building a domestic tour and more players such as Yuta Funamizu competing abroad, the next question is which route will push players from Japanese courts out into the world. The podium in Portorož shows what a region that answered that question first looks like.
