元プロテニスの藤原里華が、8月20〜23日に開かれたPPAツアーアジアのSkechers深センオープンで、女子シングルス決勝まで勝ち上がった。決勝はチャオ・イー・ワン（Chao Yi Wang）に11-4、11-8で敗れて銀メダル。テニスで全日本を2度制し、全仏オープンのダブルスで4強に入った選手が、44歳でパドルに持ち替えて国際大会の決勝に立った。ラケット競技の経験を後ろ盾に転向を考えている日本のプレーヤーにとって、藤原の一戦は「どこまで通じて、どこで足りなくなるか」を映す実例になる。
She is a different person from the former tennis player reported on August 17 as having switched to the Vietnamese national team; Fujiwara competes for Japan. Worth keeping the two straight.
French Open semifinalist, No. 13 in WTA doubles, 20 years in tennis
Rika Fujiwara was born on September 19, 1981, in Fujisawa, Kanagawa. In tennis she won the All Japan Championships in singles twice, and in doubles she reached the semifinals of the 2002 French Open with Ai Sugiyama. Her career-high WTA rankings were No. 84 in singles and No. 13 in doubles. In 2012 she won a tour title paired with Kimiko Date-Krumm. She spent about 20 years as a pro and retired in 2020.
Her first contact with pickleball came at a tennis-related event. Within a few months she decided to go after the world stage, and at 44 she signed with the PPA Tour. On a court close in size to a badminton court, hitting a perforated plastic ball with a paddle, she carries over the contact point and footwork built in tennis. Holding a paddle while keeping her feel for tennis match play, that two-sport stance produced a final at an international event in her first year after switching.
She came in as Tokyo champion, then a returning Wang broke her down late
Fujiwara arrived in Shenzhen as the reigning Tokyo Open champion. In Tokyo shetook gold by winning seven straight points from 5-10, and she rode that run to the final in Shenzhen as well. Wang had lost two finals at home in China and was returning to competition at this event. In that match she beat Fujiwara 11-4, 11-8 and took her first singles gold.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Tournaments | Skechers Shenzhen Open (PPA Tour Asia) |
| Run | August 20–23, 2026 |
| Venues | Shenzhen, Bao'an Sports Center |
| Total prize money | USD 70,000 (about 10.36 million yen) |
| Ranking points | 500(PPA) |
| Women's singles final score | Wang 11-4, 11-8 Fujiwara |
Yen figures converted at roughly 148 yen to the dollar. The prize money is the total for the whole event.
What tennis carries over, and what gets left behind
Fujiwara's runner-up finish shows that a base in tennis can reach a world final in a short time. Power off the ground, precision on deep strokes, and a competitive sense used to final-round pressure all became weapons as they were. She is not the only one; the run of tennis players producing results in pickleball also shows inJack Wong of Hong Kong, another convert from tennis, taking a third international singles gold.
At the same time, the 11-4 first game pointed to ground that the tennis game does not extend into. The spacing of dinks that stop volleys in the seven-foot kitchen at the net, the patience to loop a high ball and change pace, the weight one point carries in a race to 11: the rhythm here differs from a tennis rally, and the sport asks you to hold back the instinct to hit through. That a player with Fujiwara's record came apart in the final is proof that score situations exist where power does not get through.
Another thing not to miss is that Wang was playing her comeback event. Losing the first game 4-11 to a player who had been away from match play says something about how fast pickleball swings: the moment Fujiwara's power was read, the initiative moved over at once. Where a tennis player could pull the flow back with one big serve or return, the serving side has far less advantage here, and taking a rally back takes time. Hanging with that speed at 44 and pushing the second game to eight points is where her tennis experience told most. She did not close it out, but as an answer for racket-sport players hesitating over a switch, it is strong enough.
Points for Japanese readers with a racket background to settle before switching
- Power and footwork are usable from day one. A base in tennis or badminton gets you match-ready within months.
- Matches are decided around the kitchen. Train dinks and taking pace off from the very start.
- In a race to 11, a run of lost points is fatal. Refusing to drop a game in one stretch feeds into your finish more than it would in tennis.
- The PPA Tour Asia is a competitive stage close to Japan. With results such asKenta Miyoshi finishing second in men's doubles in Singapore, Japanese players are within reach of the podium.
Fujiwara's next measure is how she closes the gap between gold in Tokyo and silver in Shenzhen. The four-point margin Wang took in the first game marks the wall that tennis assets alone cannot clear. For a racket-sport player thinking about the switch, start with practice holding steady in the two meters around the kitchen before sharpening the power game. Her runner-up finish makes that order plain.
