Before representing their countries in Nagoya, athletes from Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, Thailand and the UAE had already been competing against one another on APPT courts across Asia Pacific.
Padel is about to enter a new chapter in Asia.
For the first time, the sport will be contested as an official medal event at the Asian Games, with the padel competition at Aichi-Nagoya 2026 taking place from 28 September to 3 October at the Nagoya City Higashi Sports Center.
For followers of the Asia Pacific Padel Tour, however, many of the athletes stepping onto this historic stage will already be familiar.
Across APPT tournaments in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Dubai and beyond, players who will now compete under their national flags have already faced one another throughout the regional circuit.
Among the confirmed Asian Games athletes are at least 15 players from five national teams who have previously competed on APPT courts.
And just weeks before Nagoya, APPT provided a preview of exactly what that could mean.
Singapore offered a glimpse of what was coming
At the APPT Love All Grand Slam Platinum Singapore in September, the Pro Men’s consolation final featured a particularly significant match-up.
Representing the Philippines were Argil Lance Cañizares and Jason Tamayo Lapidus.
Across the net were Malaysia’s Aidan Yunus and Christian Didier Chin.
The Filipino pair won the match 7–5, 6–3.
It was an APPT final in Singapore — but all four players were also preparing to represent their respective countries at the Asian Games.
Just days before padel’s debut on one of Asia’s biggest sporting stages, two Asian Games partnerships were already competing against each other on an APPT court.
That match tells only part of the story.
🇲🇾 Malaysia: Aidan Yunus & Christian Didier Chin
Malaysia will be represented in the men’s competition by Aidan Yunus and Christian Didier Chin, two players already familiar to the APPT community. Malaysia confirmed the pair as its representatives ahead of the Games.
Both have competed across APPT tournaments in Malaysia and elsewhere in the region.
Christian has appeared at events including Singapore, Batangas, Penang and Jakarta, while Aidan has featured in Malaysian APPT competition and represented Malaysia at the Asia Pacific Padel Cup.
Their most recent APPT appearance together came in Singapore — giving them competitive match experience against the very Philippine pair they could encounter again on the continental stage.
From APPT opponents to national-team representatives, their next shirts will carry the Malaysian flag.
🇵🇭 Philippines: Four familiar APPT competitors
Few national teams have a stronger connection to the APPT circuit than the Philippines.
The Philippine squad preparing for Nagoya consists of Argil Lance Cañizares, Jason Tamayo Lapidus, Joanna Tao Yee Tan and Marian Jade Capadocia.
All four have competed on APPT courts.
Cañizares has become one of the Tour’s most active Philippine competitors, with appearances stretching across multiple seasons and countries. His 2026 results include winning the Pro Mixed category at the APPT Grand Slam Platinum Hong Kong and, alongside Lapidus, the Pro Men’s consolation title at the recent Singapore Grand Slam Platinum.
On the women’s side, Joanna Tao Yee Tan and Marian Capadocia have already built a significant APPT history together.
One of their biggest results came at the 2024 APPT Grand Slam Singapore, where the Philippine pair won the Pro Female title after defeating Japan’s Kotomi Ozawa and Indonesia’s Beatrice Gumulya in a three-set final.
Now, the same athletes who have represented the Philippines throughout the regional padel circuit will do so on the Asian Games stage.
🇯🇵 Japan: APPT champions representing the host nation
For Japan, the moment carries an additional significance: its players will compete at a home Asian Games.
The Japan Padel Association selected Kazuki Tomita and Nasa Hatakeyama for the men’s competition and Kae Tokumoto and Saki Tsukamoto for the women’s competition following its national selection event.
All four already have APPT experience.
Tokumoto and Tsukamoto produced one of the most memorable home performances in APPT history when they captured the Pro Female title at the inaugural APPT Open Tokyo in 2025.
Tokumoto also won the Pro Mixed category in Tokyo and has won APPT titles in Singapore, Manila and Jakarta during her time on the circuit. Tsukamoto’s APPT record includes titles in Manila, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo.
On the men’s side, Tomita and Hatakeyama are also long-time participants on the regional circuit.
Both reached the Pro Men’s semifinals at the APPT Open Tokyo in 2025, while their APPT histories include appearances across Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Singapore, Phuket, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta and Bali.
This time, their home tournament is considerably bigger.
They will step onto court not simply as individual competitors, but as Team Japan athletes at the Asian Games.
🇹🇭 Thailand: All four Asian Games representatives have APPT experience
Thailand provides perhaps one of the clearest examples of the connection between regional tournament competition and national-team padel.
Thailand has selected Arnav Rawal and Stefano Mocciola for the men’s competition, alongside Natalie Narkprasert and Dares Srirungreang in the women’s event.
All four competed at the APPT Prime Padel Pattaya Grand Slam in July 2026.
Rawal and Mocciola came through Pro Men’s qualifying together before reaching the consolation final, while Narkprasert went all the way to the Pro Female final.
Srirungreang, meanwhile, reached the Pro Female semifinals with fellow Thai Thassha Vitayaviroj.
Narkprasert and Srirungreang have also accumulated APPT appearances across Bangkok and Pattaya, building competitive experience against players from throughout the region.
Only a few months after competing on home soil at the APPT, the four will now represent Thailand in Japan.
🇦🇪 UAE: An APPT champion heads to Nagoya
The connection extends beyond Southeast and East Asia.
The UAE has entered multiple men’s and women’s pairings for the Asian Games, including Sergio Icardo Alcorisa, who will compete alongside Arnau Delgado.
Alcorisa arrives with one of the strongest APPT records among the Asian Games field.
He won the APPT Emirates NBD Masters Dubai in 2025, followed it with victory at the Karachi Grand Slam and then added the 2026 Grand Slam Platinum Hong Kong title to his APPT record.
He is another player whose journey has moved between domestic competition, international FIP tournaments and the APPT — and now onto the Asian Games stage.
15 players. Five countries. One increasingly connected Asian padel ecosystem.
The significance of these players reaching the Asian Games is bigger than any individual tournament result.
Padel in Asia is developing quickly, but building a genuinely competitive regional ecosystem requires more than courts and participation.
Players need to travel.
They need to face different styles.
They need to compete outside their home communities.
And they need opportunities to repeatedly test themselves against the players they may eventually face while representing their countries.
That is increasingly what is happening.
A Malaysian pair can face a Philippine pair in Singapore.
Japanese athletes can compete in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.
Thai national-team players can face international fields in Pattaya.
Philippine players can compete across Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and beyond.
UAE players can meet competitors from the rest of Asia on the same circuit.
The national federations, clubs, coaches and athletes themselves remain responsible for developing these players.
But tournaments like the APPT give them something equally important: a place to meet and compete.
And as Asian padel grows, those meetings matter.
From ranking points to national colours
Throughout the season, these players compete for trophies, prize money and ranking points.
In Nagoya, the context changes.
They will compete for their countries.
Padel’s Asian Games debut represents an important milestone for the sport across the continent — and for the players who have spent the past several years building Asian padel tournament by tournament, match by match and country by country.
For the APPT community, there will also be something special about watching it unfold.
Because when the first balls are struck in Nagoya, some of the players on court will not be strangers.
We have seen them compete in Singapore.
We have seen them in Bangkok, Pattaya, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Jakarta, Hong Kong and Dubai.
Now we get to watch them represent their countries on one of the biggest sporting stages in Asia.
From APPT courts across Asia Pacific to the Asian Games in Nagoya — the stage is getting bigger.
And Asian padel is only getting started.
