{"id":1240,"date":"2026-04-09T15:31:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/player\/yuta-funemizu\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T18:16:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:16:48","slug":"yuta-funemizu","status":"publish","type":"player","link":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/player\/yuta-funemizu\/","title":{"rendered":"Yuta Funemizu\uff5cFrom soft tennis world champion to the first Japanese PPA pro"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Yuta Funemizu<\/strong>is a leading Japanese pickleball player. A former soft tennis world champion, he has 10 straight Japan League titles (NTT West). He moved to the US in January 2024 and decided to turn pro in pickleball.<\/p>\n<h2>A string of historic feats<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The first Japanese exclusive PPA Tour \/ UPA contract<\/strong>Player<\/li>\n<li><strong>The first Japanese JOOLA brand ambassador<\/strong>(December 2024)<\/li>\n<li><strong>The first Japanese MLP (Major League Pickleball) player<\/strong>(March 2025, drafted by the Miami Pickleball Club)<\/li>\n<li>Asia Pickleball Games 2024 (Taiwan) men's singles silver medal<\/li>\n<li>PJF Pickleball Championships 2024: men's doubles (skill division) gold medal, mixed doubles (open) gold medal<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/en\/tournament\/ppa-tour-2026\/\">PPA Tour<\/a> At the Masters, he beat the world No. 1 player in mixed doubles<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Play style<\/h2>\n<p>His weapons are the outstanding hand skills and court coverage built in soft tennis. His reaction speed and soft touch at the net in particular are world-class, and in a short time he gained the ability to go toe-to-toe with the PPA Tour's top players.<\/p>\n<h2>Sponsor<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"\/en\/brand\/diadem-pickleball\/\">Diadem Sports<\/a>He is active under contract with.<a href=\"\/en\/tournament\/mlp-2026\/\">MLP<\/a>In, he belongs to the Miami Pickleball Club.<\/p>\n<h3>Related Articles<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/en\/tournament\/ppa-tour-2026\/\">PPA Tour 2026<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/en\/tournament\/mlp-2026\/\">MLP 2026<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/en\/brand\/diadem-pickleball\/\">Diadem Sports brand overview<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/en\/tournament\/ppa-tokyo-open-2026\/\">PPA Tokyo Open 2026<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Reference Links<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ppatour.com\/soft-tennis-world-champion-yuta-funemizu-becomes-the-first-japanese-player-to-sign-exclusive-contract-to-play-on-carvana-ppa-tour-and-in-major-league-pickleball\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PPA Tour official announcement<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/pickle-one.com\/news\/ppa-funemizu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pickle-One: PPA contract report<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/pickle-one.com\/news\/funemizu-joola\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pickle-One: JOOLA ambassador<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/pickle-one.com\/news\/funemizu-mlp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pickle-One: MLP draft<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u8239\u6c34\u96c4\u592a\uff08\u3075\u306a\u307f\u305a \u3086\u3046\u305f\uff09\u306f\u65e5\u672c\u3092\u4ee3\u8868\u3059\u308b\u30d4\u30c3\u30af\u30eb\u30dc\u30fc\u30eb\u9078\u624b\u3002\u5143\u30bd\u30d5\u30c8\u30c6\u30cb\u30b9\u4e16\u754c\u30c1\u30e3\u30f3\u30d4\u30aa\u30f3\u3067\u3001\u65e5\u672c\u30ea\u30fc\u30b01 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ssp_meta_description":"\u8239\u6c34\u96c4\u592a\uff08Yuta Funemizu\uff09\u306e\u30d7\u30ed\u30d5\u30a3\u30fc\u30eb\u30fb\u6226\u7e3e\u30fb\u30d7\u30ec\u30fc\u30b9\u30bf\u30a4\u30eb\u3092\u5fb9\u5e95\u89e3\u8aac\u3002\u30d4\u30c3\u30af\u30eb\u30dc\u30fc\u30eb\u9078\u624b\u56f3\u9451\u3002","swell_btn_cv_data":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[23,106,105,113,37,114],"player_country":[137],"player_level":[148],"player_hand":[152],"player_gender":[154],"region":[1973],"class_list":["post-1240","player","type-player","status-publish","hentry","category-overseas","tag-joola","tag-mlp","tag-ppa","tag-pro-player","tag-japan","tag-japan-national","player_country-japan","player_level-pro","player_hand-right","player_gender-male","region-united-states"],"acf":{"dupr_rating":"","achievements":"","sns_x":"","sns_ig":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/player\/1240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/player"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/player"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"player_country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/player_country?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"player_level","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/player_level?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"player_hand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/player_hand?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"player_gender","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/player_gender?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=1240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}