They grew up in Hawaii. They’re heading to Japan. And they’re sitting on the prime of the draw.
The brackets for the Sansan Tokyo Open 2026 have dropped, and the headline names belong to 2 of pickleball’s most fun younger abilities—18-year-old Kiora Kunimoto and 15-year-old Tama Shimabukuro, each Hawaiian, each ascending at a tempo the game has hardly ever seen from gamers their age. Qualifying begins 1 July from 8 a.m. (GMT+9), with the primary draw operating 2 to 4 July at Area Tachikawa Tachihi in Tokyo. Admission is free.
Kiora Kunimoto Makes Her Asia Debut on the High
Kiora Kunimoto solely turned skilled in mid-2025. Inside months she was accumulating medals on the PPA Challenger circuit, upsetting top-10 gamers, and incomes her place on the primary tour. She arrives in Tokyo for her Asia debut because the No. 1 seed in Girls’s Singles—a exceptional assertion for a participant nonetheless discovering her footing on the skilled circuit.
The timing is uncommon. Kunimoto is in the midst of an MLP season as a California Black Bears participant, arriving on an off-week and stepping straight into the highest billing in a serious PPA Tour Asia occasion. Her No. 2 seed is Sahra Dennehy—her Black Bears teammate. Identical group, reverse sides of the draw, stored aside till the enterprise finish of the match.
If the bracket holds, the Girls’s Singles remaining is a California Black Bears inner affair. That’s one method to make a debut.
Tama Shimabukuro Is Again—And Everybody Is aware of It
A 12 months in the past, Tama Shimabukuro was a 14-year-old qualifier on the Sansan Fukuoka Open, working via early rounds and upsetting seeds in Japan. He has spent the intervening twelve months rewriting expectations at each flip.
Essentially the most dramatic chapter got here on the Atlanta Slam in April, the place Shimabukuro tore via the draw as a twenty second seed—beating Federico Staksrud and Hunter Johnson earlier than falling to Chris Haworth within the Males’s Singles remaining. Tama Time arrived, and it has not stopped since.
He returns to Japan as some of the talked-about gamers within the sport, three occasions deep into his 2026 Asia marketing campaign and with a goal firmly on his again. He tops the Males’s Doubles and Combined Doubles attracts and sits at No. 2 in Males’s Singles.
Zane Ford Has a Rating to Settle in Males’s Singles
Zane Ford enters Tokyo because the No. 1 Males’s Singles seed—and he’s carrying unfinished enterprise from Beijing. Ford made the ultimate of his PPA Tour Asia debut on the Capital Securities Beijing Open solely to fall to Hong Package Wong 11-5, 11-8. He’s at the moment ranked No. 9 on the PPA Tour and is aware of precisely what he left behind within the Chinese language capital.
Wong is available in at No. 3 because the reigning Beijing champion and some of the adorned gamers on the circuit. Grayson Goldin slots in at No. 4. Under the seeds, Zane Navratil, Kenta Miyoshi, and Mitchell Hargreaves all carry the aptitude to go deep if the draw opens up.
Sahra Dennehy Goes for Triple Crown—Once more
In Beijing, Sahra Dennehy received Girls’s Singles and Girls’s Doubles. Chao Yi Wang denied her the Triple Crown in Combined Doubles, claiming the title and spoiling what would have been an ideal weekend. Wang isn’t within the Tokyo draw. The triple crown may be very a lot again on the desk.
Dennehy arrives carrying that unfinished enterprise alongside real title credentials throughout all three occasions. Yufei Lengthy at No. 3 and Lingwei Kong at No. 4 in Girls’s Singles are positioned to problem, and Kunimoto on the prime of the bracket is seeded there for good cause. However Dennehy’s kind throughout 2026 makes her the one to beat in each self-discipline she enters.
She companions Funemizu in Combined Doubles and teammates with Townsend in Girls’s Doubles as the highest seeds—Townsend and Dennehy having received the PPA Tour Finals 500 title collectively in Might. Townsend additionally arrives because the No. 2 seed in Combined Doubles alongside Joseph Wild, a partnership with Asia gold already on its résumé from the MB Vietnam Open 2025.
In Males’s Doubles, Funemizu and Shimabukuro lead the draw because the No. 1 seeds, constructing on the chemistry they’ve been creating collectively on the PPA Tour in the USA.
Tokyo awaits. Two youngsters from Hawaii are main the cost.
