Fujiwara, Sawaki rally from 2-11 down to stun No. 2 seeds in Macao
Down 2-11 in the opener, Rika Fujiwara and Kei Sawaki flipped the match on its head, then Fujiwara finished a historic Macao week with singles gold.
Rika Fujiwara and Kei Sawaki turned a quarterfinal that looked over almost as soon as it began into the biggest result of the day in Macao. The unseeded Japanese pair dropped the opening game 2-11 to No. 2 seeds Yu-chieh Hsieh and Yufei Long, then answered with an 11-6 second game and an 11-8 decider to reach the Women’s Doubles semifinals at the Macao Open 2026.
The comeback landed at The Venetian Macao during a PPA Asia 500 stop, with 500 ranking points on the line across the May 28-31 event. In a draw filled with leading contenders, the result stood out not just because Fujiwara and Sawaki survived a bad start, but because they did it against a pair seeded near the top of the bracket. For a Japanese duo entering the tournament unseeded, the path from a one-sided opening game to a semifinal berth captured how thin the margin has become in Asian pro pickleball.
That uncertainty is part of the larger story. PPA Tour Asia had revealed a stacked Macao field, with names such as Hong Kong’s Hong Kit Wong and Asia debutant Lingwei Kong anchoring multiple draws as top seeds. Against that backdrop, Fujiwara and Sawaki’s run showed that seed lines no longer guarantee control on a 500-point stage. Japan’s women are no longer simply showing up for experience. They are taking pressure points from established teams and turning them into statement wins.
Fujiwara’s week only grew more significant from there. She later won the Women’s Singles title in Macao, claiming her first gold on PPA Tour Asia and becoming the first Japanese athlete to win Women’s Singles gold on the tour. That made the doubles comeback more than a quarterfinal upset. It became the first act in a breakthrough tournament, and a sign that Japan’s depth in women’s doubles is beginning to reshape who can realistically challenge Asia’s top seeds. The Macao Open was the third stop on the 2026 PPA Tour Asia calendar, and Fujiwara left it with the kind of week that changes how a draw is read the next time it is released.
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