Five Finals, Five Champions: Championship Sunday Wraps Up the Panas Kuala Lumpur Open 2026

The triple crown never came. Neither did any double. Championship Sunday at the Panas Kuala Lumpur Open 2026 ended the way pickleball fans love most: spread out, shared around, five different champions across five finals. 

Hien Truong finally has his Men's Singles gold. Chao Yi Wang finally has her Women's Singles gold. And Nasa Hatakeyama, who started the week in qualifying, leaves Kuala Lumpur with a silver medal and a story no one will forget.

Final Results

Truong Ends the Wait

Three singles finals in Asia. Two silvers. One bronze. Hien Truong had been the nearly-man of Men's Singles on PPA Tour Asia. He's always the favourite, always close, somehow never quite over the line.

In Kuala Lumpur, he made sure there was no drama. The #1 seed and world No. 18 dispatched qualifier Nasa Hatakeyama 11-2, 11-3 in a final that was over almost before it started. From the first point, Truong was surgical: tight to the lines, patient at the kitchen, and completely unbothered by the occasion. He didn't drop a single game across the entire tournament.

Hatakeyama had been the story of the week. He'd knocked out #2 seed Hong Kit Wong in the Round of 16. He'd beaten #7 seed Zane Navratil in the quarters. He'd made Japan's first ever Men's Singles medal a certainty by reaching the final. Against Truong, though, the creativity that made him dangerous — the unorthodox angles, the lefty wrist plays, found no gaps. Truong had an answer for everything.

The gold is significant beyond the scoreline. It means Truong now holds two pieces of PPA Tour Asia's medal set . He won Men's Doubles gold at the Vibrant Linping Hangzhou Open in 2025, claimed silver at the MB Hanoi Cup 2026. Today's singles gold is the tail. The head and the full dragon awaits at the Hong Kong Slam.

Wang Gets Her Gold

The triple crown bid didn't survive the afternoon, but Chao Yi Wang still walked away from Championship Sunday with what she came for most.

In Women's Singles, she took down qualifier Pei-Chuan Kao 11-5, 11-6 in a final that was controlled from start to finish. Wang's game (measured, clean, relentless at the baseline) was always going to be a tough assignment for a player ranked No. 76 in the world. Kao's run from qualifying to the final was the kind of story that earns a standing ovation, and she'll get one. But Wang was too clinical when the moment arrived.

It's her first Women's Singles gold on PPA Tour Asia after a silver in Hangzhou last year. The one that got away kept getting away until today.

The triple crown fell in Women's Doubles. Wang and Alix Truong ran into Yufei Long and Ting Chieh Wei playing at their absolute best. Long and Wei took it 11-5, 11-2, dominant from the opening rally, suffocating in their accuracy and court coverage. It's their second gold as a pair after the Sansan Fukuoka Open 2025, and Wei's fourth Women's Doubles gold on the tour overall. The bronze went to Nok Yiu Tang and Kara Wheatley, who had pushed Wang and Truong all the way to a decider in the semis.

Johns and Yang Make It Look Easy

Collin Johns and Len Yang never looked troubled. The Men's Doubles final was over before Tama Shimabukuro and Armaan Bhatia had time to settle in as a partnership. Johns and Yang took it 11-3, 11-6 with the kind of composed, experienced pickleball that comes from time logged together on court.

It's Yang's second Men's Doubles gold in Asia after the Hong Kong Open 2025 with Thomas Yu, and Johns' first on the tour. Bhatia was left with a second doubles silver to go alongside his others. No gold yet, but the talent isn't in question. For Shimabukuro, Men's Doubles silver is his best result in the discipline in Asia. The bronze went to Hong Kit Wong and E. Kim.

Shimabukuro and Truong Hold Off Wang in Three

If there was a final worth watching twice, it was Mixed Doubles. Tama Shimabukuro and Alix Truong took the first game comfortably 11-5, then Wang and Len Yang hit back to win the second 11-3 and level the match. For a moment, the door to a Wang double gold (Women's Singles and Mixed Doubles) cracked open.

The #1 seeds shut it. Shimabukuro and Truong closed the decider 11-2 to seal the gold and ensure no player left Kuala Lumpur with more than one title.

It's Shimabukuro's first gold in Asia after two bronze medal playoff losses earlier in his career. It's Truong's third Mixed Doubles gold on the tour, extending her lead at the top of the discipline's medal ladder. The bronze went to Vaidehi Kapadia and J. Haas.

The Week in Full

The Panas Kuala Lumpur Open 2026 gave everyone a reason to care. Hatakeyama's qualifier run defined the Men's Singles narrative from Day 1 through to the final. Mihae Kwon finally broke past the round of 16 ceiling and earned her first Women's Singles medal (bronze) after three previous exits at that stage. Pei-Chuan Kao rode the wave from qualifying all the way to a Women's Singles final. Wang ended her singles drought. Truong closed a chapter three tournaments in the making.

Five finals. Five different champions. Nobody left with more than one gold. This means heading into the next stop, the Macao Open at the Venetian Macao from May 28-31, the race is still wide open.

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