Third game, 5-10 down. From the brink, with her opponent holding match point, the 44-year-old took seven straight points and pulled a gold medal toward her. On July 4, in the women's singles final of the PPA Tour Asia Sansan Tokyo Open at Arena Tachikawa Tachihi in Tokyo, Rika Fujiwara beat Taiwan's Pei-Chuan Kao 7-11, 11-7, 12-10 to take the title. It was her second gold in as many events after May's Macau Open, and a second career win in the discipline that makes her the first Japanese player to do it on the PPA Asia tour. In women's doubles, paired with 15-year-old Kyo Sawaki, she came through a comeback that saved three match points to take silver. A veteran who switched over from tennis and a hope from the junior high school age group standing on the podium in the same weekend is a major milestone for Japanese pickleball, still in its growth phase at home.
Seven straight points from 5-10: what happened in the final
Her opponent in the final was Taiwan's Pei-Chuan Kao. Fujiwara lost the first game 7-11, took the second 11-7, and carried the match into a deciding third. Waiting there was a hopeless-looking 5-10. In pickleball only the serving side can score, so stopping the opponent's match point with a side-out, winning the serve back, is the absolute precondition for any counterattack. From there Fujiwara saved match point after match point, winning back the serve and piling up points for seven in a row. She turned it around 12-10 and sealed gold at home in Tokyo.
The official PPA Tour Asia report frames Fujiwara's run that weekend as one of the great comebacks of the 2026 season. Here is how her Tokyo Open went.
| Event and round | Opponent | Score | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Women's singles final | Pei-Chuan Kao (Taiwan) | 7-11、11-7、12-10 | Win (seven straight points from 5-10) |
| Women's doubles quarterfinal (with Kyo Sawaki) | The No. 3 seeded pair | 12-10、9-11、12-10 | Win (three match points saved) |
| Women's doubles final (with Kyo Sawaki) | Townsend / Denehy (Australia) | 4-11、5-11 | Runner-up |
From the French Open doubles semifinals to two years in a new sport: a 44-year-old on the rise
Fujiwara is a former professional tennis player who reached the semifinals of the women's doubles at the French Open. After closing a tennis career of about 20 years, she picked up a paddle in 2024 and switched to pickleball. Just two years in, she signed with the PPA Tour, the world's top tour, and in the women's singles at the Macau Open in May she became the first Japanese player to take gold. This title makes it two golds in a row, and according to the PPA her singles winning streak now stands at eight.
Forty-four is a number that would put an athlete in the post-retirement category in a sport decided by explosive speed. But the pickleball court is small and the rally is controlled by reading and placement, so 20 years of tactical sense and touch built in tennis carry over intact. The comeback from 5-10 was not a matter of overpowering her opponent physically; it should be read as placement that denied her opponent a clear line of attack and drew the errors. She has proved, in the clearest possible form, that this is a sport where tennis capital still trades at a premium.
Silver for the pair 29 years apart who saved three match points
Fujiwara had another face at this tournament: women's doubles with 15-year-old Kyo Sawaki. In the quarterfinal against the No. 3 seeds they went down 7-10 in the third game and faced three match points, saved every one and came through 12-10. They took that battle 12-10, 9-11, 12-10, knocking out a seeded pair on the way through. In the final they lost 4-11, 5-11 to Australia's Townsend and Denehy, but a newly formed, improvised all-Japanese pair reaching the final of an international event is no small thing.
Sawaki is a 15-year-old from Tokyo. She started tennis at five, met pickleball at 14, and in March 2025 became the youngest selected for Sansan's top pro development project, Pickleball X. In November 2025 she won two titles in the U16 junior division at the world championships, and in June 2026 she signed a pro contract with the PPA Tour. As reported inthe news that the captain of Japan's padel national team and a 15-year-old signed PPA pro contracts at the same time, Japanese players turned professional in a rush this summer. A 44-year-old and a 15-year-old, 29 years apart, taking silver on the same court is proof that two entry points from different generations, the second-career group and the junior group, both lead to the world stage.
"I couldn't have won like that" — reactions in the arena and on tour
After the win Fujiwara thanked the crowd: "It's all thanks to everyone here. Without that, I couldn't have won like that" (TBS NEWS DIG). Given how the match went, seven straight points from 5-10, this reads not as a courtesy but as a genuine sense that the home support carried her play.
Before the tournament she had said herself to "keep an eye on" the pairing with Sawaki (TBS NEWS DIG), which suggests the pair 29 years apart was a deliberate gambit on her part. The official PPA Tour Asia report featured the three saved match points in the quarterfinal as one of the season's best comebacks, so the tour too treated the pair as the lead in its story. Sansan, which backs Sawaki, announced her PPA pro contract in its own release on June 30, and as title sponsor with its name on the Tokyo event, it got the clearest possible return: the players it supports on the podium.
What a podium shared by a 44-year-old and a 15-year-old tells Japanese players
The first lesson is how concrete pickleball has become as a landing place for a second career. Two years after switching from tennis, Fujiwara has two world tour titles, which makes her the clearest success story going for the returning athlete.A survey finding that 72.5% of people with tennis experience are interested in pickleballwas covered here before, but what pushes interested people over the line is an example, not a statistic. Tennis school coaches, players who have left corporate teams, working adults who gave up the game after school: for anyone with racket-sport savings in the bank, a world-class result at 44 erases the excuse of age.
Second, the timeline for junior development changes. Sawaki reached the final of an international tournament with barely a year in the sport. With a tennis foundation, junior development may reach the world on a two-to-three-year plan rather than a ten-year one. It also matters that the corporate development project, the pro contract and the route to international events all fell into place within this single year. Against the lag in junior development pointed out inour article on the overseas teenagers who came to the Tokyo Open, Japan has now produced its first answer.
Third is the commercial side. Home event, home player, huge comeback: that set of three was the best combination of media exposure a sport can get while it is spreading.The commercial design of the Tokyo Open that we broke down when it opened in Tachikawaworked as intended in setting a stage for a Japanese star to be born. For title sponsor Sansan, the two players it backs, Fujiwara and Sawaki, brought home gold and silver at the tournament bearing its name, giving the company an easy case to make internally and externally for the return on sports backing. It should become a reference point when other Japanese companies consider supporting players or sponsoring events.
The implication for facility operators is just as clear. This podium showed that two different customer bases, recreation for older players and competitive development for juniors, can live inside one sport. Weekday daytime for converts and enthusiasts, evenings for junior classes: that scheduling is a direct carry-over of tennis school operating know-how.
The tournament at a glance, and what to watch
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Tournament Name | Sansan Tokyo Open (PPA Tour Asia) |
| Venues | Arena Tachikawa Tachihi (Tachikawa, Tokyo) |
| Schedule | Opened July 1, 2026; finals in every event on July 4 |
| Rika Fujiwara's results | Women's singles champion, women's doubles runner-up |
| Kyo Sawaki's results | Women's doubles runner-up (paired with Fujiwara, 29 years apart) |
大会開催当時、PPA Tour Asiaは年内もアジア各地での大会開催を予定していました。シングルス連勝を伸ばす藤原選手と、プロ1年目の佐脇選手がどこまで序列を上げるかが、今後の注目点です。2人がペアを継続するのかどうかも、ファンにとっては大きな関心事です。
Wrap-up — a reason to watch and a reason to start, born on the same day
5-10からの7連続ポイントは、競技を知らない人にも一言で伝わる物語です。そしてその主役が44歳の転向組で、隣のコートでは15歳が世界のシード勢を破っていた。観戦の入口と競技の入口が同時に開いた週末でした。テニス経験のある方は、まず近隣の体験会でパドルを握ってみてください。施設・スクール関係者は、転向組とジュニアの2層を意識したプログラム設計を検討する好機です。本大会は、日本のピックルボール普及にとって大きな転機となりました。
Sources
- PPA Tour Asia: Fujiwara Fairytale — Home Gold Closes Out Tokyo
- PPA Tour Asia: Three Match Points Saved — Fujiwara/Sawaki Stun in Tokyo
- TBS NEWS DIG (Yahoo! News): Gold at home in Japan — Rika Fujiwara storms back for a Japanese player's first second title
- TBS NEWS DIG (Yahoo! News): Tokyo Open opens — 44-year-old Rika Fujiwara on her pairing with 15-year-old Kei Sawaki: "Keep an eye on us"
- PR TIMES (Ambiente): Former pro tennis player and French Open doubles semifinalist Rika Fujiwara (44) signs a player contract with the PPA TOUR
- Sansan: Nasa Hatakeyama and Kei Sawaki sign pro contracts with the PPA Tour
- Sansan: Kei Sawaki takes two titles in the junior division of the sport's top international event
