At the PPA ASIA 500 Sansan TOKYO OPEN 2026 Produced by TBS, which closed on July 4, Naoki Sakane, a coach at the major tennis school operator Noah Indoor Stage, won the amateur men's singles (19 and over). Yuta Funamizu's men's doubles title took the headlines on the pro podium, but at the same Tachikawa venue, someone whose job is teaching pickleball stood at the top as a player himself. Pickleball in Japan is swelling with players coming over from tennis, and this site has reported onthe market headroom in the 72.5% of tennis players who say they are interested. Here we dig into the facts behind what it means that a coach from the schools building that on-ramp took the amateur title at an international tournament.
What happened in Tachikawa: a coach wins amateur men's singles
Sakane won the amateur men's singles, 19-and-over category, at the PPA ASIA 500 Sansan TOKYO OPEN 2026. The tournament ran from July 1 to 4, 2026, at Arena Tachikawa Tachihi and Dome Tachikawa Tachihi in Tachikawa, Tokyo. It is an official stop of the PPA Tour, the top circuit in the world, staged in Asia, with amateur divisions run at the same venues alongside the pro draws.
Sakane is on the roster at Tennis & Badminton School Noah Yokohama Idogaya, run by Noah Indoor Stage, and coaches both tennis and pickleball. In other words, a man who normally teaches beginners how to hold a racket worked his way through the open 19-and-over division at a world-scale tournament held in Japan and took home gold. From a different angle than a pro's breakthrough, the result shows how thick the base of the sport has grown.
The Noah Indoor Stage backdrop: 35 schools and a teaching network of about 40,000
Sakane's personal title takes on meaning when read together with the size of the company behind him. Noah Indoor Stage is an indoor tennis operator headquartered in Himeji, Hyogo, founded in 1980. It runs 35 schools nationwide with about 40,000 students. As of March 2024 it posted ¥6.8 billion in revenue with 1,023 employees, putting it among the largest of its kind in Japan.
Noah began transferring the indoor courts and coaching systems it built for tennis straight over to pickleball in January 2025. It launched classes at sites such as Amagasaki Tsukaguchi in Hyogo and moved toward a nationwide rollout. Classes now run mainly in Osaka and Hyogo, and have spread to Kanagawa, Tokyo, Aichi, Saitama, and Kyoto. Paddles and balls are lent free so players can turn up empty-handed, and the indoor setting is sold on not being at the mercy of the weather — a design that slides the operating know-how of a tennis school almost directly across. One of its coaches winning a tournament gives the business the backing of proven playing ability among the people who teach. Converting tennis courts into pickleball courts is spreading across companies, andMizuno's project turning two tennis courts in a prefectural park into six pickleball courtsis one example.
The amateur draw in numbers: built to play under the same roof as the pros
The amateur divisions at this tournament were not a side event attached to a pro show; they were built with clear category design. Laid out, the divisions and entry conditions look like this.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Tournament Name | PPA ASIA 500 Sansan TOKYO OPEN 2026 Produced by TBS |
| Dates and venue | July 1-4, 2026 / Arena Tachikawa Tachihi and Dome Tachikawa Tachihi (Tachikawa, Tokyo) |
| Sakane's winning division | Amateur men's singles (19 and over) |
| Amateur age groups | 18 and under / 19 and over / 35 and over / 50 and over |
| Amateur skill groups | Each age group split into 3.5 and above / 3.499 and below |
| Amateur entry fee | US$60 per event plus a US$70 registration fee (pros paid US$90 per event) |
The point is the structure: amateurs were split finely by age and skill rating, and they played in the same Arena Tachikawa Tachihi as the pros. A 3.5 skill rating marks the line where players move from recreational to serious. Sakane won in the 19-and-over bracket, the one most likely to be thick with competition, and it is natural to read a coach's grasp of tactics as part of the result.
The facts around the title
Line up the backgrounds and it is clear the win was not a one-off piece of luck.
- Sakane is an active coach at Noah Yokohama Idogaya teaching both tennis and pickleball, showing that someone on the teaching side also holds top-amateur playing ability
- Noah Indoor Stage, a major operator with 35 schools and about 40,000 students, announced the win on its own information site as well, treating it as a showcase for the business
- The tournament had Sansan as title sponsor and TBS as producer, designed so pros and amateurs ran side by side at the same venue. The tournament brand's halo falls on the amateur gold medal too
If pro title coverage makes the peak of the sport visible, a coach's amateur title makes its depth visible. Japan is said to have roughly 330,000 pickleball players, many of them arriving from tennis and badminton. That someone on the teaching side won the top amateur bracket shows, at minimum, that this coach's own skill is at a high level as a player. Stretching that to the quality of coaching in general would be hasty, but having coaches with playing credentials on the floor of a school is no small thing.
What it suggests for tennis schools: teaching brands and where new players land
This title raises three points for sports businesses in Japan.
First,A coach's competitive record becomes a selling point for the school. Pickleball still has no settled standard for who to learn from to improve. If a school has a coach carrying the title of amateur champion at an international tournament, that gives beginners an easy marker when choosing where to sign up. Existing schools with teaching systems built through tennis have plenty of room to get there first.
Second,Existing indoor sports facilities work as the place new players land. Noah reused its tennis courts and operating systems and spread classes nationwide in a year and a half. An air-conditioned indoor space you can walk into empty-handed routes around the bottleneck peculiar to Japan: a shortage of outdoor courts. Other formats are making the same move, and set againstTipness stepping into a full rollout across 45 clubs, you can see the lead role shifting from owner-run dedicated courts to major chains.
Third,The design of amateur tournaments sets the speed of adoption. When a tournament splits entries finely by age and skill and lets players compete at the same venue as the pros, both the teaching side and the learning side get a concrete next stage to aim at. Sakane's title is proof that the stage exists and that coaches are seriously targeting it. For organizers, how to cut the amateur brackets is a business decision that moves entry numbers.
Noah's pickleball business: the basics
Here is what public sources say about the pickleball rollout at Noah Indoor Stage, where Sakane works.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Operating company | Noah Indoor Stage Inc. (Himeji, Hyogo; founded 1980) |
| Company size | 35 schools nationwide, about 40,000 students (¥6.8 billion in revenue, 1,023 employees, as of March 2024) |
| Pickleball launch | Nationwide rollout began in January 2025 (Amagasaki Tsukaguchi in Hyogo and others) |
| Areas covered | Centered on Osaka and Hyogo, plus Kanagawa, Tokyo, Aichi, Saitama, and Kyoto |
| Lesson features | Indoor courts, free equipment rental, classes for beginners and experienced players |
| Featured coach | Naoki Sakane (Yokohama Idogaya; tennis and pickleball) |
Summary: what to check next
At a Tokyo Open where a pro's feat took the lead, a tennis school coach won amateur men's singles. If Funamizu's title showed that a Japanese player can win on the world stage, Sakane's showed that the teaching side has grown that strong too — a mark of the sport maturing. For anyone about to start pickleball in Japan, three things are worth following. First, how big schools like Noah reflect a coach's record in the way they run classes. Second, how far existing tennis and fitness facilities take court conversion. Third, how next season's amateur tournaments rework skill brackets and events. Start by checking whether the indoor facility near you has a pickleball class, or a taster session on its noticeboard.
Sources
- Noah coach wins the PPA ASIA 500 Sansan TOKYO OPEN (Noah Indoor Stage / PR TIMES)
- Coach Naoki Sakane wins an international pickleball tournament (Tennis School Noah information site)
- Tennis school leader Noah Indoor Stage starts a full nationwide rollout (PR TIMES / Kobe Shimbun NEXT)
- PPA Asia 500 Tokyo Open 2026: dates, venue and how to enter (Pickleball Hack)
- Start pickleball at NOAH (Noah official pickleball site)
