All yr, gamers have been following the dragon throughout Asia. Now, on the Hold Seng Financial institution Hong Kong Slam 2026, it’s time to catch it.
Seven gamers arrive at Kai Tak Area subsequent week with the physique and tail already in hand. Make a ultimate, and the dragon is full. Two of them are chasing one thing even rarer: a golden dragon.
Tama Shimabukuro: Three Occasions, Three Paths
Fifteen years previous, seven golds in 2026. Tama Shimabukuro’s résumé reads like a veteran’s. He earned his physique with Males’s Singles gold on the Leapmotor Kuala Lumpur Cup, beating Noe Khlif, 11-8, 11-5, and his tail got here from any of six golds, beginning with Blended Doubles on the Panas Kuala Lumpur Open.
At Kai Tak, each occasion he performs is a path to the pinnacle. He’s the No. 6 seed in males’s singles. In Males’s Doubles, he’s the No. 4 seed with JW Johnson, a brand new partnership already turning heads within the US and enjoying its first occasion in Asia. Then there’s combined doubles with Sahra Dennehy, who gained gold with him in Tokyo and once more in Shenzhen, dropping simply seven factors in the whole ultimate.
Alix Truong: The All-Gold Set
Shimabukuro and Alix Truong are the 2 gamers with gold on each items. Win a title in Hong Kong, they usually depart with a golden dragon. They constructed their tails on the identical courtroom, successful combined doubles on the Panas Kuala Lumpur Open in Could.
Truong’s physique got here from Girls’s Doubles gold with Jessie Irvine on the Leapmotor Kuala Lumpur Cup, of their first occasion collectively in Asia. They’re unbeaten as a workforce on this tour. In combined doubles, she companions Christopher Haworth on his Asia debut, and Truong has already gained combined gold on the tour with three totally different companions. Haworth will get his shot at being the fourth.
The Aussies, the Veterans, and a Heartbreak
Dennehy and Danni-Elle Townsend took the physique final month in Malaysia, and their tail got here with Girls’s Doubles gold on the Sansan Tokyo Open after an 11-4, 11-5 ultimate. They’re paired once more in Hong Kong. Dennehy can be the No. 3 seed in girls’s singles, whereas Townsend debuts a brand new combined partnership with World Blended No. 7 Federico Staksrud.
Hien Truong has been ready since Could. Silver on the MB Hanoi Cup gave him the physique, and gold on the Panas Kuala Lumpur Open gave him the tail. He groups with Quan Do in males’s doubles, and reunites in combined with Sophia Nhi Huynh, with whom he took silver in Shenzhen, dropping to Shimabukuro and Dennehy.
Len Yang returns to the place it began, having gained his first Asia males’s doubles gold in Hong Kong in 2025. His accomplice is Collin Johns, with whom he gained three golds this yr, and the pair lead the lads’s doubles medal depend, so their No. 8 seeding undersells them.
After which there’s Joey Wild, who is aware of how shut the dragon can get. He and Townsend led 7-2 within the deciding recreation of the Kuala Lumpur Cup combined doubles ultimate and misplaced, 12-10. That silver gave him his physique, and he’s entered in all three occasions.
The place the Dragon Got here From
None of this could be attainable with out the medal design that began all of it. Again in January, the PPA Tour Asia unveiled a brand new medal for 2026 that pays homage to the tradition and traditions of Asia. It is available in three interlocking items, one for every tier of the calendar: Open, Cup, and Slam. A podium end offers a participant one piece, and podium finishes in all three tiers let that participant full a ceremonial fan marked by a dragon winding via the items.
The dragon sits on the coronary heart of Asian mythology. It’s “lengthy” in China, “rong” in Vietnam, “naga” in Thailand, and “ryu” in Japan. The names differ, however the which means is essentially the identical: energy, prosperity, and success. Deep royal blue, the color of imperial courts and the Aristocracy, units the creature towards the valuable steel, and white lotus flowers add a decorative contact. The lotus grows in mud and rises above the floor, an emblem of perseverance and transformation that matches the athlete’s journey to the highest of the rostrum.
Followers, in the meantime, carry ceremonial weight throughout Asia, opened at weddings, introduced to royalty, and used to mark moments of significance. The completed medal radiates outward, locked on the centre, telling a narrative of victories throughout the continent.
It additionally matches the tour’s calendar. The dragon took off in Hanoi, whose previous identify, Thăng Lengthy, means “rising dragon,” the place the MB Hanoi Cup opened the season in April. 9 stops later, the journey ends in Hong Kong with the ultimate piece nonetheless up for grabs.
Seven gamers. One shot at finishing the set. Kai Tak Area, 19 to 25 October. Tickets are on sale now.
