Tama Shimabukuro is 14 years old, and on Thursday he beat a top-three seed twice in one afternoon. The opening day of main-draw play at the Sansan Fukuoka Open belonged to the teenager from Honolulu, even with the hosts giving the Itoshima crowd plenty to cheer.
TAMA SHIMABUKURO✓TYLER LOONGThursday's results
Shimabukuro (USA) opened by beating Men's Singles third seed Tyler Loong (USA), the PPA Tour's No. 38, 11-5, 11-4. He then teamed with fellow Hawaiian Xiao Yi Wang-Beckvall (USA) to knock out second Mixed Doubles seeds Loong and Pei-Chuan Kao (TPE) 11-6, 6-11, 11-6. That is two wins over the same opponent in one day, one of them in singles.
Japan had its moments. Nasa Hatakeyama (JPN) beat Eunggwon Kim (KOR) 11-3, 11-4 to reach the quarterfinals. Rika Fujiwara and Kei Sawaki (JPN) dug out a 10-12, 11-3, 11-9 Women's Doubles win over Hsiang Wen Huang (TPE) and Ekaterina Biakina (RUS). Kenta Miyoshi (JPN), out in the round of 16 in both Malaysia and Hong Kong, finally got a first PPA Tour Asia singles win, beating Jimmy Liong (MAS) 11-8, 11-3.
Syed Uzair Sufi (MAS) had the best week of any Malaysian so far on tour. He won four qualifying matches without dropping a game to reach the Men's Singles main draw, where Phuc Huynh (VIE) beat him 11-0, 11-8. Liong and Isha Lakhani beat Fujiwara and Hatakeyama 11-4, 11-6 in the Mixed Doubles round of 16.
Friday order of play
All quarterfinals are played on Friday. Connor Garnett (USA) has yet to drop a game in any of his three events. Home hopes Seina Shima and Hatakeyama (JPN) each chase a first PPA Tour Asia singles semifinal, against Sahra Dennehy (AUS) and Hong Kit Wong (HKG) respectively. Two recent silver medalists meet when second seed Nicola Schoeman (AUS), runner-up at the Malaysia Open, plays Yu-Chieh Hsieh (TPE), who lost the Hong Kong final on Sunday.
Next on the tour
Semifinals Saturday, finals Sunday, then the tour moves to Vietnam for the MB Vietnam Open, September 4 to 7. Full schedules are on events.thepicklebase.com.