Shimabukuro, Bhatia power Macao Open sweep as Fujiwara makes history

Tama Shimabukuro walked out of the Venetian Macao with the kind of week that can redraw a regional pecking order. The 15-year-old American beat top seed Hong Kit Wong 11-9, 11-9 in the men’s singles final, then teamed with Armaan Bhatia to complete a double-gold run at the PPA Asia 500 Macao Open, a stop carrying US$70,000 in prize money and 500 ranking points.

That singles win mattered well beyond one trophy. Wong arrived in Macao as the Hong Kong Open 2025 men’s singles champion and the No. 1 seed, with PPA Tour Asia noting that a gold would have moved him to the top of the men’s singles overall medal ladder in Asia. Instead, Shimabukuro, who had already been a two-time men’s singles quarterfinalist in Asia, finally broke through for his first singles medal on the tour and did it by holding off the bracket’s favorite at 11-9, 11-9.

The biggest statement may have come later. Shimabukuro and Bhatia, who had lost the Panas Kuala Lumpur Open men’s doubles final to Collin Johns and Len Yang 11-3, 11-6 only two weeks earlier, reversed the result in Macao by beating Mitchell Hargreaves and Kenta Miyoshi 12-10, 11-5. As top seeds, they turned a recent defeat into proof that the Asian men’s doubles race is no longer being written by one result in Kuala Lumpur.

Bhatia’s day did not stop there. He added mixed doubles gold with Kara Wheatley, defeating Nok Yiu Tang and Eunggwon Kim 13-11, 11-7. For Wheatley, it was a first PPA Tour Asia medal after coming up short in mixed play earlier, another sign that the Macao Open was rewarding players who could handle multiple draws on the same stage.

Japan also made its own mark on the tournament history. Rika Fujiwara beat Ho Tam 11-4, 11-4 to win women’s singles gold, becoming the first Japanese woman to win that title on PPA Tour Asia. Fujiwara’s background gave the result extra weight: she is a former professional tennis player who reached No. 13 in the WTA doubles rankings and reached the 2002 French Open women’s doubles semifinals.

The women’s side added another clean finish when Jamie Haas and Pei-Chuan Kao beat Ho Tam and Mihae Kwon 11-6, 11-2 for doubles gold. With the Hong Kong Slam set for October 19-25 and billed by PPA Tour Asia as the biggest professional pickleball tournament ever staged in Asia, Macao looked less like a standalone event than a preview of who may shape the next tier of the sport across the region.