Asian Games: padel's first medal week reaches the quarter-finals

Padel is getting its first taste of a major multi-sport event. The sport is making its debut at the Asian Games in Japan, and the quarter-finals are being played today at the Nagoya City Higashi Sports Center. Eight matches are on the schedule, four men's and four women's, spread over two courts from 10:00 local time. The semi-finals follow on Friday, and the first Asian Games padel medals will be decided on Saturday, 3 October.

A new medal sport for Asia

The Olympic Council of Asia confirmed in November 2025 that padel would be on the programme, and its medal status was confirmed in March 2026. Thirteen nations are competing in Nagoya: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, hosts Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. There are two events, men's pairs and women's pairs. According to the FIP, 20 pairs entered the men's draw and 23 the women's.

The entry list shows how much padel has grown in the Gulf and in East and Southeast Asia over the past few years. Kuwait will host a Premier Padel Major at the end of October, and Qatar has hosted Premier Padel Majors in previous seasons.

Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia make their mark

Wednesday's round of 16 produced some of the best matches of the week so far, the FIP reported. In the women's draw, Hong Kong's Chan and Law came from a set down to beat the Philippines' Tan and Capadocia 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Saudi Arabia's Fareh and Yamani beat Thailand's Narkpraset and Srirungreang 6-1, 6-7, 7-6 in a match that lasted about three hours.

Chan and Law now play Indonesia's Novela Putria and Beatrice Gumulya, one of the leading seeds. Japan has two strong women's pairs. Kotomi Ozawa and Chifumi Sato came into the tournament as top seeds, and Kae Tokumoto and Saki Tsukamoto are also through to the last eight. Pairs from the Philippines and Iran also won on Wednesday.

Qatar lead the men's field

In the men's event, top seeds Mashari Nawaf and Rashed Nawaf Naif of Qatar were dominant in their round of 16 match. They beat Kuwait's Redha and Behbehani 6-1, 6-0. Malaysia's Christian Chin and Aidan Yunus, also among the seeds, had a harder time and needed three sets to beat Kazakhstan's Khabibulin and Danilov (6-2, 3-6, 6-3).

The other men's quarter-finalists include Japan's Ando and Nakamura, the Philippines' Lapidus and Canizares, Iran's Golestan and Roghani, and the United Arab Emirates pair Aljanahi and Alabdulla. Iran's Amir Mohamad Jamshidi and Farsad Shahi were seeded second behind the Qatari pair.

Bronze medal matches will be played alongside the finals on Saturday. A home medal for Japan would be a big boost for padel in a country where it is still a niche sport. Whatever happens, padel can now say it has been part of a continental multi-sport games, which matters for its longer-term goal of getting into the Olympics.