Japan and Qatar Win the First Asian Games Padel Golds

Japan and Qatar won the first Asian Games padel gold medals on October 3, 2026, in Nagoya.

Saki Tsukamoto and Kae Tokumoto beat Indonesia in the women’s final at Nagoya City Higashi Sports Center. Mashari Nawaf and Rashed Nawaf beat Malaysia 6-3, 6-1 for the men’s title, six days after the sport’s debut on the programme.

Qatar and Japan Take the First Padel Golds

The International Padel Federation had spent a year arguing that medal status would prove padel belonged on the Olympic pathway. Six days of pairs play gave that file two golds, and they did not go to Asia’s usual racket powers.

Tsukamoto and Tokumoto, the second Japanese pair in the women’s draw, won 6-3, 6-4 in 1 hour 55 minutes. Organiser stats had Japan with 58 points and Indonesia with 51. Fadona Kusumawati and Fitriani Sabatini led 4-1 in the second set, then dropped five games in a row.

The Qatari men, listed by FIP as the top seeds, needed 55 minutes. Christian Didier Chin and Aidan Yunus, a four-player Malaysian squad’s entire men’s entry, took silver. Iran’s Farsad Shahi and Amirmohammad Jamshidi beat compatriots Hami Golestan and Arya Roghani 6-3, 6-4 for bronze, after both Iranian pairs had reached the semi-finals.

THE FIRST ASIAN GAMES PADEL MEDALS

Five National Olympic Committees split six medals. Indonesia left with the heaviest bag, silver and bronze from the same women’s event, and no gold.

Five Countries Share Six Medals

FIP put 20 pairs in the men’s draw and 23 in the women’s, 86 players from 13 nations. Japan, as host, sent eight. So did Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, the Philippines and Qatar. Lebanon, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Thailand sent four each. The United Arab Emirates sent six after a late cut on the men’s side.

WHO WAS IN THE DRAW

• Full teams of eight: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, the Philippines and Qatar.
• Fours: Lebanon, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia (women only) and Thailand.
• Six: United Arab Emirates, two men and four women.
• Not in the field: China, India and South Korea, the continent’s usual medal factories in racket sport.

India and Chinese Taipei had joined FIP only in November 2025, among 14 new member federations. Neither appeared in Nagoya. The debut asked Olympic committees to put names on a sheet, and 13 did. The gap between those programmes showed up in the scores as much as in the medal table.

The Top Japanese Seeds Never Reached the Final

Kotomi Ozawa and Chifumi Sato opened the women’s tournament as top seeds. On October 1, Kusumawati and Sabatini beat them 6-0, 6-1 in the quarter-finals. Japan’s other pair, Tsukamoto and Tokumoto, then beat Putria and Gumulya 6-1, 6-3 in the semi-finals and played the final on home glass.

The men’s draw was colder for the hosts. Teruaki Ando and Shinnosuke Nakamura had opened with a three-set win over Lebanon, 7-6, 2-6, 6-4, with a queue already outside the hall. Both Japanese men’s pairs went out in the quarter-finals to Iran, Golestan and Roghani beating Ando and Nakamura 6-4, 7-5, Shahi and Jamshidi beating Kazuki Tomita and Nasa Hatakeyama 6-1, 7-6(5).

Tomita, 31, from Saitama, had moved to Spain seven years earlier because Japan had so few coaches. He told Japanese reporters before the Games he would be glad if one extra person picked up a racket after watching him. He left Nagoya without a medal. The home gold came from the women’s second seed, not from the men who had gone abroad to train.

Malaysia reached the men’s final the hard way, losing the first set 1-6 to Shahi and Jamshidi, then winning 6-4, 6-1. Chin and Yunus had already beaten the Philippines in the quarters. A four-player team walked out with silver in a sport new to the Games.

How Padel Reached the Asian Games

FIP President Luigi Carraro met OCA Director General Husain Al-Musallam in Kuwait in early November 2025, during the first FIP World Cup Pairs. On November 10, FIP said the OCA had recognised the federation and would put padel on the Asian Games programme. Al-Musallam said the council was pleased to welcome the International Padel Federation and Padel Asia into its family, citing growth across the continent.

By then FIP counted over 4,600 courts across Asia, in 1,700 clubs and more than 30 countries, plus World Cup stops in Doha and Dubai. On November 29 in Acapulco, 14 new national federations pushed membership to 100. Carraro previewed a World Padel Report putting global play above 35 million, up 5 million from 2024, with more than 80,000 courts and activity in 170 countries.

The March confirmation of padel as a medal sport turned that recognition into a competition. On March 6, 2026, FIP, the Aichi-Nagoya organisers and the OCA signed the memorandum that put FIP in charge of planning and sporting delivery, working with local organisers under OCA governance.

This is a significant moment for our sport. The Asian Games represent one of the most important multi-sport events in the world, and the confirmation of Padel as a medal sport reflects both the rapid development of the sport across Asia and its growing global impact.

Luigi Carraro, FIP President, March 6, 2026

Padel had already been a medal sport at the South American Games in 2022 and the European Games in 2023. FIP also pointed to the Mediterranean Games in Taranto and the Asian Beach Games in Sanya, China, held April 22 to 30, 2026. Nagoya was the largest of those stages.

THE ROAD TO THE FIRST MEDALS

1. November 10, 2025: FIP announces OCA recognition and Asian Games inclusion after Carraro’s meeting in Kuwait.
2. November 29, 2025: FIP reaches 100 member federations at its Acapulco assembly.
3. March 6, 2026: AINAGOC, OCA and FIP sign the memorandum confirming padel as a medal event.
4. September 28, 2026: Play starts at Nagoya City Higashi Sports Center, 20 men’s pairs and 23 women’s pairs.
5. October 3, 2026: Japan and Qatar win the first golds; Indonesia and Malaysia take silver; Indonesia and Iran take bronze.

Carraro’s March line about rapid development across Asia is now a results sheet. The development that showed up was uneven, and it was not centred on the NOCs that usually empty the medal stand in tennis and badminton.

Japan Wins Gold From a 60,000-Player Base

The Japan Padel Association puts the domestic playing base at about 60,000, against FIP’s 35 million worldwide. Japanese coverage around the Games also put the competitive player pool near 1,600. Padel arrived in Japan in 2013. Association president Koji Nakatsuka had said before the tournament that the sport was still little known at home.

Tsukamoto, 35, plays out of Tokyo Gas and the Tactical club. Tokumoto, 35, born April 20, 1991, is also with Tactical. After the semi-final she had already drawn a line under the week’s theme, power against patience.

I hope that everyone who watched us today understood that you cannot win with powerful shots alone. The gold medal we are aiming for is within reach. We just need to play our game and I believe the result will come. We want to enjoy tomorrow’s final.

Kae Tokumoto, Japan, FIP, October 2, 2026

In the final they had to prove it. Indonesia came out hitting through the first games, and Tokumoto later said the Japanese pair could feel the other side tiring, so they stretched the rallies. Tsukamoto said they talked each other through the 1-4 hole in the second set and won five games running. They hugged at midcourt when it ended.

Tokumoto then asked people who had only just seen padel at these Games to try it once, as if they had been talked into it. That was the host’s return on a small player base: one gold, a packed first-day queue, and a public invitation to walk onto a glass court.

Former Tennis Players Fill Indonesia’s Podium

Beatrice Gumulya, 35, had already been to the Asian Games as a tennis player and left without a medal. She took up padel about two years ago, she said, first as a pastime after she stopped tennis, and did not expect the new sport to send her back to a multi-sport Games. On October 3 she and Novela Putria won bronze 6-0, 6-0 in 40 minutes, 54 points to 18, against Danna Abad and Joshea Malazarte of the Philippines.

That score followed another 6-0, 6-0, in the semi-finals, where Kusumawati and Sabatini had already bagelled the same Philippine pair. Two days, four sets, no games for Abad and Malazarte. On September 28 Abad had said adding padel gave more Filipino players a way to represent the country, and Malazarte called the Games a once-in-a-lifetime chance that comes every four years. They were right about the chance. The last two matches showed how wide the gap still is when a new medal sport meets players who grew up on a tennis court.

Fitriani, after the final, called the match messy in the way padel gets messy. Her pair hunted for openings in the first set, led 4-1 in the second, and still lost. She treated the collapse as ordinary. Indonesia still put two pairs on the women’s podium in the sport’s first Asian Games appearance, and both of its men’s pairs were out by the second round.

FIP’s Olympic File Now Has Results

Team Qatar posted the men’s gold as the first padel title in Asian Games history, Rashid Nawaf and Mishari Nawaf in the committee’s own spelling, the same pair FIP had seeded first as Mashari Nawaf and Rashed Nawaf Naif.

ذهبية أول نسخة للبادل في الأسياد🥇🇶🇦

ثنائي أدعم البادل راشد نواف ومشاري نواف يحققان الميدالية الذهبية بعد الفوز على ماليزيا بنتيجة 2-0 في النهائي 💪

راشد ومشاري يكتبان التاريخ في الأسياد 🇶🇦👏

Gold in the first-ever Asian Games padel competition 🇶🇦🥇

Team Qatar padel duo… pic.twitter.com/LzNzm0J8tj

— Team Qatar 🇶🇦 (@qatar_olympic) October 3, 2026

Carraro has said FIP is working toward Olympic inclusion without a host-city date attached. The federation already handed its anti-doping programme to the International Testing Agency. Continental Games are the evidence file: Asunción, Kraków, Taranto, Sanya, now Nagoya. Two golds, two events, 13 NOCs, and a host champion from a 60,000-player market do more for that file than another memorandum.

They also leave a hole. China, India and South Korea can still build padel programmes before the next Asian Games. They did not use this one. The bet FIP placed in Kuwait and signed in March was that Asia would put padel on a medal court and that the continent would fill it. The court was full enough to crown champions. The filling was Gulf money, a Japanese home pair that was not the top seed, Iranian men’s depth, a Malaysian silver from four athletes, and Indonesian women who had learned the walls after tennis.

The Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games close on October 4. Padel’s six days are already in the book.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Did Padel First Become a Medal Sport at the Asian Games?

Padel was a medal sport for the first time at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, with matches from September 28 to October 3, 2026, at Nagoya City Higashi Sports Center. The programme had only two events, men’s pairs and women’s pairs, with no mixed doubles and no singles.

How Long Were the First Gold-Medal Matches?

The men’s final lasted 55 minutes, Qatar winning 6-3, 6-1. The women’s final lasted 1 hour 55 minutes, Japan winning 6-3, 6-4 after Indonesia led 4-1 in the second set; Japan made 48 of 54 first serves (89 percent) and Indonesia 47 of 56.

How Was the Padel Field Split Between Men and Women?

The 86 players were 40 men in 20 pairs and 46 women in 23 pairs, from 13 National Olympic Committees. Japan’s eight-player team was two men’s pairs and two women’s pairs.

Is Padel an Olympic Sport After the Asian Games Debut?

No. FIP describes an Olympic pathway and has used other IOC-recognised events, including the 2022 South American Games, the 2023 European Games, the 2026 Mediterranean Games in Taranto, and the Asian Beach Games in Sanya from April 22 to 30, 2026. Nagoya adds a continental medal table, not an Olympic berth.

How Is Padel Played Compared With Tennis?

Padel is a doubles game on a court smaller than a tennis court, enclosed by glass and mesh walls that are in play. Players use solid, stringless rackets, and the serve is underhand. Tokumoto’s point in Nagoya was that long rallies and wall use beat raw power, which is the opposite of the first instinct many tennis converts bring to the box.