Sayaka Hirota / Ayako Sakuramoto
Badminton 2026 Results, Match by Match

76th All Japan Corporate Team Championships

All Japan Corporate Team Championships・Fukaya, Saitama, Japan

🆕Gifu Bluvic won the women's title for the first time, and this pair won all four of their rubbers. 🔴The first-doubles rubber of the final on 21 June was against a pair who have a page on this site: they beat BIPROGY's Kie Nakanishi and Rin Iwanaga 15-12, 14-16, 15-11. Semi-final, 20 June: 15-11, 15-4 against Ryusei Kiyama / Miki Kanehiro (Saishunkan). Quarter-final: 15-9, 9-15, 15-4 against An Uesugi / Mao Yamakita (NTT East). Group stage: 15-10, 15-11. Gifu Bluvic won the tie 3-2 in the quarter-final, 3-0 in the semi-final and 3-2 in the final — the only straight sweep was the semi-final, against the much-decorated Saishunkan. ⚠️Only the final is our own primary record; the other three come from the official live-results site. Played to 15 points, best of three, with no match times published. 📌This is also the record that settles Sakuramoto's team: the official results have her in the Gifu Bluvic line-up for all four rubbers.

Daihatsu Japan Open

Super 750・Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium

In the first round on 14 July they beat McPherson and Trans (SCO) 21-15, 21-5 in straight games. In the second round on 16 July they lost 11-21, 20-22 to 6th seeds KIM Hye-jeong / KONG Hee-yong (KOR). The second game reached 20-22 — two points from a decider.

China Open

Super 1000・Changzhou, China

In the first round they beat Pratiwi and Ramadhanti (INA) 21-16, 21-4, conceding four points in the second game. In the second round on 23 July they lost 13-21, 11-21 to LEE So-hee / BAEK Ha-na (KOR). This is a Super 1000, the top tier of the BWF World Tour.

China Masters

Super 750・Shenzhen, China

In the first round on 1 September they beat LIN Chih-Chun / YANG Chu Yun (TPE) 23-21, 21-17 in 39 minutes, taking the opening game 23-21. In the second round on 3 September they beat Yvonne LI (GER) / Iris WANG (USA) 21-14, 21-7 in 28 minutes — the shortest match of the day for any Japanese entry. In the quarter-final on 4 September they beat Benyapa AIMSAARD / Nuntakarn AIMSAARD (THA) 19-21, 21-13, 21-18, a pair who had knocked out 5th seeds Pearly TAN / Thinaah MURALITHARAN (MAS) 21-16, 17-21, 21-19 in the previous round. It was the first three-game match we had recorded for this pair in 2026 — and it took them to their first semi-final of these three events. 🔴The semi-final on 5 September was an all-Japanese tie: they lost to Sumire NAKADE / Miyu TAKAHASHI 16-21, 26-24, 16-21 in 74 minutes and finished in the last four. They rescued the second game from 24-24, winning two straight points for 26-24 (a 21-point game runs on from 20-20 until one side leads by two). At 74 minutes it is the longest time we hold for this pair in 2026, and the quarter-final and semi-final were their first back-to-back three-game matches.

Asian Games 2026

Asian Games・Ichinomiya, Aichi, Japan

Neither player is in the squad of ten men and ten women that the Nippon Badminton Association announced on 19 May 2026. The two women's doubles pairs named were Yuki Fukushima / Mayu Matsumoto and Kie Nakanishi / Rin Iwanaga.

Arctic Open 2026

Super 500・Vantaa, Finland

7th seeds in the women's doubles, quarter-finalists. First round, 7 October: a Lithuanian pair 21-7, 21-4 (24 minutes). Second round, 8 October: a Danish pair 24-22, 21-14 (45 minutes). Quarter-final, 9 October: CHEN Fan Shu Tian / LUO Xu Min (CHN) 18-21, 21-12, 11-21 (68 minutes). That Chinese pair had also beaten the top seeds Rin Iwanaga / Kie Nakanishi in the second round, and went on to win the title. ⚠️These three matches are not in the nine-match count we record (scores from Hirota and Sakuramoto's side).

Denmark Open 2026

Super 750・Odense, Denmark

Their first-round match on 13 October was all-Japanese, and they beat the 3rd seeds Rin Iwanaga / Kie Nakanishi 21-14, 11-21, 21-16. In another all-Japanese match in the second round on 15 October they beat Rui Hirokami / Sayaka Hobara 21-13, 21-15. Their quarter-final on 16 October was all-Japanese again, and they lost 14-21, 10-21 to the 7th seeds Sumire Nakade / Miyu Takahashi, finishing in the last eight. ⚠️These three matches are not in the nine-match count we record (scores from Hirota and Sakuramoto's side).

S/J League 2026-27

Japan domestic league・15 venues across Japan

Japan's top domestic team league starts on 31 October 2026 in Yokote, Akita and runs to the TOP4 Tournament at Yokohama BUNTAI on 21 February 2027, across 15 venues. Gifu Bluvic's women are in the women's S block. ⚠️The block list we recorded on our S/J League 2026-27 page still has Sakuramoto on the Yonex side, in the women's J block. The association listed both players at Gifu Bluvic when we checked on 12 September 2026, so we have not confirmed which team she will play for in 2026-27. Line-ups are announced by each team.

80th All Japan Championships

All Japan Championships・Keio Arena Tokyo, Chofu, Tokyo

They were the runners-up in the women's doubles at the 79th edition in December 2025, losing to Chiharu Shida and Arisa Igarashi. ⚠️Shida and Igarashi announced on 31 July 2026 that they had ended their partnership, so that pairing will not be defending the title. The 80th edition runs from 24 to 30 December 2026 at Keio Arena Tokyo and will use the three-game, 15-point format that Japan has adopted ahead of the international switch. The entry list has not been published.

All England Open 2027

Super 1000・Birmingham, England

Our All England page lists Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota as the 2020 women's doubles champions. The 2027 edition runs from 4 to 14 March and moves to a new format with group stages followed by a knockout. Entries have not been published.

Up to 5 September, we hold nine matches from four tournaments for this pair in 2026, each with the game scores. Here we line up the eight matches from the three World Tour events, leaving out the team event at the All Japan Corporate Championships (three games to 15). Their October matches at the Arctic Open and the Denmark Open are not in this comparison. Line them up and a pattern appears: the events they won the first round most easily are the ones that ended soonest, and the event where the first round was tightest is the one they went furthest in.

• 🔴July — Daihatsu Japan Open. First round 21-15, 21-5, five points conceded in the second game. Out in the second round, 11-21, 20-22 to 6th seeds KIM Hye-jeong / KONG Hee-yong of Korea.
• 🔴July — China Open (Super 1000). First round 21-16, 21-4, four points conceded. Out in the second round, 13-21, 11-21 to LEE So-hee / BAEK Ha-na of Korea.
• 🟢September — China Masters. First round 23-21, 21-17 in 39 minutes, the tightest opener of the three. They then took the second round 21-14, 21-7 in 28 minutes and the quarter-final on 4 September 19-21, 21-13, 21-18, reaching their first semi-final of these three events. In the semi-final on 5 September they lost an all-Japanese tie to Sumire NAKADE / Miyu TAKAHASHI, 16-21, 26-24, 16-21 in 74 minutes, and finished in the last four.

Both second-round exits came against Korean pairs; the third time they got past that round. A results table shows only "second round, second round, last four" — what happened in the opening matches is invisible there. We keep all nine matches game by game.

Their two rankings sit a long way apart. They are third in the women's doubles of Japan's own national ranking for August 2026 (6,655.00 points, published by the Nippon Badminton Association) and 28th on the official BWF women's doubles list of 13 October 2026 (Week 42), with 45,750 points. The Badminton Spirit list of the same date gives the same place and points (on 15 September 2026 they were 33rd, outside that list). That specialist list had them 41st on 1 September 2026, with 33,010 points from six counting tournaments. On its 15 September list the Japanese pairs above them have played far more: 15 for Fukushima and Matsumoto, 13 for Igarashi and Shida, 20 for Osawa and Tabe (⚠️Igarashi and Shida announced on 31 July 2026 that they had ended their partnership, so that pairing will not add any more). A BWF world ranking is built from the tournaments played in the last 52 weeks — the sum of all of them if a pair has played ten or fewer, or the best ten if they have played eleven or more — so a shorter schedule leaves fewer points to add up.

Both rankings are updated regularly. We publish them only as dated records and make no claim about the current position, and a gap in ranking is not the same thing as a gap in standard.

• 2017-2019 — World Championships — three straight women's doubles silvers
  Sayaka Hirota reached the final with Yuki Fukushima in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and finished runner-up each time. The specialist outlet Badminton Spirit lists all three on her player page. Our own World Championships page records the same run.
• 2018 — World No. 1 in women's doubles
  Badminton Spirit gives Hirota's career-high as world No. 1 in women's doubles. The BWF World Ranking table on the English Wikipedia also lists Yuki Fukushima's individual peak as No. 1, with partner Sayaka Hirota, on 21 June 2018, so the two sources agree. World rankings are updated every week; this is a career high, not a current position.
• 2018 — Japan Open, Indonesia Open and Hong Kong Open titles
  From the career summary on Badminton Spirit. The same year brought runner-up finishes at the All England, the Denmark Open and the Korea Open.
• 2019 — Indonesia Open, Fuzhou China Open and Malaysia Masters titles
  From the same summary, along with a semi-final at the All England.
• 2020 — All England Open — women's doubles champions
  Our All England page lists Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota as the 2020 women's doubles champions. Badminton Spirit records a Denmark Open title in the same year.
• 2025 — 79th All Japan Championships — runners-up
  December 2025, at Musashino Forest Sport Plaza. They lost the final to Chiharu Shida and Arisa Igarashi. The winners' club, BIPROGY, reports the same result on its official site, and so does our All Japan Championships page.

Their week at the China Masters 2026 (Super 750, Shenzhen, 1 to 6 September) ended in the semi-finals on 5 September, 16-21, 26-24, 16-21 to Sumire NAKADE / Miyu TAKAHASHI in 74 minutes. It is the furthest they have gone in the three events we had recorded in 2026 up to September. 🥇Sumire Nakade and Miyu Takahashi, who won that semi-final, went on to take the title, beating BAO Li Jing / CAO Zi Han (CHN) 21-18, 21-18 in 49 minutes in the final on 6 September. The game Hirota and Sakuramoto took off them, 26-24, was one of only two games the champions dropped all week — see their page.

After that, the dated events are the French Open 2026 from 20 to 25 October (in the main draw published on 15 October their first-round opponents are BAO Li Jing / CAO Zi Han (CHN, 6th seeds) — see October in Europe below), the S/J League 2026-27, which starts on 31 October (our S/J League page lists the two in different blocks, but we have not confirmed which team each will play for — see the card above), and the 80th All Japan Championships from 24 to 30 December. Neither player is in the ten-strong Japan squad for the Asian Games 2026 in Ichinomiya, Aichi, from 20 to 29 September.

🗓️October in Europe: They were on the list of self-funded entrants the Nippon Badminton Association published on 11 September 2026 for three events. At the Arctic Open 2026 (6–11 October, Finland, Super 500) they were 7th seeds and reached the quarter-finals (lost 18-21, 21-12, 11-21 on 9 October to CHEN Fan Shu Tian / LUO Xu Min of China, who went on to win the title). At the Denmark Open 2026 (13–18 October, Denmark, Super 750) they beat Rin Iwanaga / Kie Nakanishi (3rd seeds) 21-14, 11-21, 21-16 in an all-Japanese first round, beat Rui Hirokami / Sayaka Hobara 21-13, 21-15 in another all-Japanese match in the second round on 15 October, and lost the all-Japanese quarter-final on 16 October to the 7th seeds Sumire Nakade / Miyu Takahashi 14-21, 10-21, finishing in the last eight. After that comes the French Open 2026 (20–25 October, France, Super 750), in women's doubles. In the main draw published on 15 October, their first-round opponents are BAO Li Jing / CAO Zi Han (CHN, 6th seeds).

⚠️ Line-ups for the S/J League and the All Japan Championships, and entries for the All England Open 2027 in March, have not been published. We do not guess at names. Confirmed fields go on the tournament pages.

Six of the nine 2026 matches we had recorded for this pair up to 5 September finished in two games. Their October matches at the Arctic Open and the Denmark Open are not in those nine. The three that went the distance were the All Japan Corporate final on 21 June (three games to 15) and, back to back at the end of the China Masters, the quarter-final on 4 September and the semi-final on 5 September. Among the two-game matches the tightest passage was the second game of the Japan Open second round, which reached 20-22. "Second round" as a result says nothing about those two points. Keep a scoresheet match by match and the difference between two identical results stays visible.

Badsheet records your own matches point by point, builds an official-style scoresheet and charts win rate and shot placement.

📮 Corrections and removal. This is an unofficial summary built from published information. If anything here is factually wrong, or if the player or their team would like this page taken down, please contact us and we will correct or remove it promptly. We do not publish anything about injuries, health or private life.