Tama Shimabukuro Takes A MLP Break With A Double At The PPA Asia Macao Pickleball Open

BusinessSportsMoneyTama Shimabukuro Takes A MLP Break With A Double At The PPA Asia Macao Pickleball OpenByTodd Boss,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Todd Boss writes about Pickleball, the fastest growing sport in USAFollow AuthorJun 02, 2026, 11:56am EDTTama Shimabukuro shows off his unique grip enroute to two golds in MacaoPPA AsiaThe Professional Pickleball Association Asian Tour held its third event of the season, the 2026 Macao Open, on China’s south coast just down the way from Hong Kong, over the weekend. It was a 500-point event, thus worth “half” the points of a regular PPA domestic stop, and it drew a smattering of Aussie, Asian, and even a few enterprising US-based pros, who decided to fit in a quick trip to China (?!) in-between MLP events. Click here for the PickleballTournaments.com home page for the event.KOTC recently had a bit of a rant talking about how some players are “gaming” the system by traveling to Asia to win points in this manner, but there’s no real other answer. PPA assigned the points level to these events, called them a “500” event, so 500 points goes to the winner. By way of comparison, 500 points is more than you’d get for 4th place in a PPA 1000, and more than you’d get for making the quarters of a PPA slam. Is that fair? Well, fair or not, the tour is clearly going global and there’s no longer a differentiation between players ranked in Asia, or Australia, or in the US. A PPA point is a point, no matter where earned.Let’s do a quick recap of the results, highlighting the winners, the upsets, and the top players who made waves.Men’s Pro Singles RecapTama Shimabukuro took a close 11-9, 11-9 win over top seed Hong kit Wong to win the Singles title in China without dropping a game. Well traveled Brit Matthew Finnerty got solid early wins over Matthew Hargreaves and Luc Pham before settling for bronze.MORE FOR YOUWomen’s Pro Singles RecapFormer WTA Japanese tennis star Rika Fujiwara upset...