Padel Makes Asian Games Debut in Nagoya: One Week to Go

History at Higashi Sports Center: padel's first Asian Games

The Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games opened on September 19 across the greater Nagoya area in Japan, assembling more than 11,000 athletes from 45 nations and regions. In exactly one week, on September 28, padel will step onto an Asian Games court for the first time in the sport's history. The venue is the Higashi Sports Center in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, and competition runs through October 3, when the gold medal matches will close out an event that the International Padel Federation (FIP) has been working towards for several years.

The inclusion of padel alongside teqball was approved by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) earlier in 2026, bringing the total number of sports at the Aichi-Nagoya Games to 43. All costs associated with the padel competition are covered by FIP under the standard arrangement for sports added to the Asian Games programme.

Format: national pairs, full bracket

The padel competition features men's and women's pairs events, each running through a full bracket — first round, second round, quarterfinals, semifinals, bronze medal match, and gold medal final. Unlike on the professional CUPRA FIP Tour or Premier Padel, where pairs form independently and represent no national affiliation, the Asian Games entries are national team selections. Athletes compete for their countries, carrying a dimension of national representation that gives the event a character entirely distinct from the regular professional calendar.

The draw for the Aichi-Nagoya padel event has not yet been announced. With competition beginning September 28, it is expected in the coming days ahead of the first-round schedule.

Japan, the Gulf states, and a continent on the rise

Host nation Japan enters the tournament as the most closely watched participant. Padel has grown rapidly in Japan in recent years, driven by urban club openings, a strong recreational base, and the country's deep-rooted racket-sport culture. The Higashi Sports Center crowd is expected to create an atmosphere unlike anything typically generated on the FIP circuit, where national identity is absent from the competitive format.

The Gulf states — particularly Qatar and the UAE, both of which host professional FIP events — have invested heavily in padel infrastructure and will arrive in Nagoya as credible medal contenders. China and South Korea, where the sport is expanding rapidly in metropolitan areas, are also expected to field competitive pairs. According to the Global Padel Report 2026, the number of padel courts worldwide has reached 58,334, six times the figure recorded in 2016, with Asia representing one of the sport's fastest-growing regions.

A stepping stone towards an Olympic bid

The Asian Games appearance is a deliberate component of FIP's strategy to establish padel in multi-sport Games before a future Olympic application. Padel was not included in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic programme — a setback the federation has consistently framed as a motivation to accelerate growth. Appearances at the Pan-American Games and Commonwealth Games have already been secured in recent cycles; the Asian Games adds a third multi-continental platform.

Each inclusion exposes padel to national Olympic committees and government sports bodies that make funding and development decisions based partly on multi-sport Games visibility. An Asian Games medal carries institutional weight in countries where central sports policy shapes the growth of individual disciplines — precisely the environment where padel needs traction if a future IOC application is to succeed.

The timing also matters: the Asian Games padel event runs in parallel with the FIP Platinum Lyon and the start of the Cupra Rotterdam Premier Padel P2 (September 28 – October 4), illustrating that the sport now operates simultaneously across multiple competitive fronts on a global scale.

The gold medal matches at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games are scheduled for October 3 at the Higashi Sports Center in Nagoya.