Akira Koga / Natsu Saito
Badminton 2026 Results, Match by Match

India Open 2026

Super 750・New Delhi, India

They lost the first round on 13 January 19-21, 17-21 in 32 minutes to YE Hong Wei / Nicole Gonzales CHAN (TPE). ⚠️Our India Open page does not carry this match at all, so it is not one of the ten below. The only source we have for it is BWF's official day-by-day match data.

Thailand Masters 2026

Super 300・Bangkok, Thailand

Unseeded, they reached the semi-finals. First round, 28 January: 21-11, 21-14 in 36 minutes over Dejan FERDINANSYAH / Bernadine Anindya WARDANA (INA). Second round, 29 January: 15-21, 21-15, 21-16 in 67 minutes over second seeds Ruttanapak OUPTHONG / Jhenicha SUDJAIPRAPARAT (THA) — after losing the opening game. Quarter-final, 30 January: 21-17, 11-21, 21-13 in 53 minutes over Supak JOMKOH / Ornnicha JONGSATHAPORNPARN (THA). Semi-final, 31 January: 27-29, 16-21 in 51 minutes to Adnan MAULANA / Indah Cahya Sari JAMIL (INA), the sixth seeds — who went on to win the title. All four scores agree between our Thailand Masters 2027 page, which carries the 2026 results, and BWF's official day data.

Swiss Open 2026

Super 300・Basel, Switzerland

They came through qualifying and lost their first match in the main draw. In qualifying on 10 March they beat Kristoffer KOLDING / Mette WERGE (DEN) 21-17, 17-21, 21-19 in 55 minutes; in the first round on 11 March they lost to GUO Xin Wa / CHEN Fang Hui (CHN) 11-21, 19-21 in 35 minutes. Our Swiss Open 2027 page only records that they were the pair who came through qualifying, with no scores, so these are not among the ten below.

Orleans Masters 2026

Super 300・Orléans, France

First round, 18 March: 21-17, 21-4 in 27 minutes over WONG Tien Ci / LIM Chiew Sien (MAS). Second round, 19 March: 22-20, 21-23, 19-21 in 68 minutes to Ruben GARCIA / Lucia RODRIGUEZ (ESP) — they took the first game at deuce and lost the second at deuce too. Our Orleans Masters 2027 page records only that they came through qualifying and carries no scores, so these are not among the ten below.

Daihatsu Japan Open

Super 750・Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium

🥉Semi-finals — and the three wins here came at the biggest event we record for them, a Super 750. First round, 14 July: 21-14, 18-21, 21-14 in 66 minutes over CHENG Xing / ZHANG Chi (CHN), a pair our tournament page describes as world No. 9. Second round, 16 July, an all-Japanese tie against Yuta Watanabe and Maya Taguchi: 21-10, 17-21, 21-8 in 51 minutes. Quarter-final, 17 July: 21-14, 17-21, 21-13 in 59 minutes over YANG Po-Hsuan / HU Ling Fang (TPE). Semi-final, 18 July: 13-21, 8-21 in 37 minutes to Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping (CHN), who went on to win the title.

China Masters

Super 750・Shenzhen, China

First round, 1 September: 21-14, 21-10 in 30 minutes over PAR Tien Ann (MAS) / Juliana Zefanya GABRIELA (VEN) — the shortest of the ten matches we had recorded up to 3 September. Second round, 3 September: 14-21, 21-19, 10-21 in 58 minutes to eighth seeds GOH Soon Huat / LAI Shevon Jemie (MAS). Our tournament page notes that this defeat left no Japanese pair in the mixed doubles.

Arctic Open 2026

Super 500・Vantaa, Finland

Quarter-finalists. They were the only pair the association sent as the national team to this event (squad published on 11 September 2026). In the first round on 6 October the fourth seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh / Supissara Paewsampran (THA) retired with Koga and Saito leading 11-6 in the first game (7 minutes); in the second round on 8 October they came from a game down to beat a Malaysian pair 19-21, 21-7, 21-11 (61 minutes); and in the quarter-final on 9 October they lost to GAO Jia Xuan / WU Meng Ying (CHN) 23-25, 21-23 (49 minutes). The Chinese pair went on to finish runners-up. ⚠️These three matches are not in the ten-match count above (scores from Koga / Saito's side).

Denmark Open 2026

Super 750・Odense, Denmark

The squad the association published on 11 September 2026 had two mixed doubles pairs, Yuichi Shimogami / Sayaka Hobara and this pair (in the BWF main draw, Japan's mixed pairs are this pair and Yuta Watanabe / Maya Taguchi). They beat HEMMING / VAN LEEUWEN (ENG) 21-16, 21-19 in the first round on 13 October and fourth seeds Thom GICQUEL / Delphine DELRUE (FRA) 22-20, 21-19 in the second round on 15 October. In the quarter-final on Friday 16 October they lost 15-21, 22-24 to HOO Pang Ron / LAI Pei Jing (MAS), a second quarter-final exit in two weeks after the Arctic Open. ⚠️These three matches are not in the ten-match count above either.

French Open 2026

Super 750・near Paris, France

The same squad list of 11 September 2026 names two mixed doubles pairs here as well: Yuichi Shimogami / Sayaka Hobara and this pair, but Shimogami / Hobara are not in the main draw published on 15 October (no reason has been announced). Japan's two mixed pairs in the draw are this pair and Yuta Watanabe / Maya Taguchi, who meet the 8th seeds CHENG Xing / ZHANG Chi (CHN) in the first round. In the main draw published on 15 October, their first-round opponents are Mathias CHRISTIANSEN / Alexandra BØJE (DEN, 3rd seeds).

The ten 2026 matches we had recorded up to 3 September are four at the Thailand Masters 2026 in January, four at the Daihatsu Japan Open 2026 in July and two at the China Masters 2026 in September — seven wins and three defeats, or 15 games to 11.

• 🥉Two semi-finals — the Thailand Masters in January and the Japan Open in July. Both times the pair who beat them went on to win the title: Adnan MAULANA / Indah Cahya Sari JAMIL in Bangkok, and Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping in Tokyo.
• 📐Six went to a third game, and those six are five wins and one defeat. The four that ended in two games are two wins and two defeats — the longer the match, the better they have done.
• 🔁Twice they lost the opening game: one win, one defeat. They beat the second seeds 15-21, 21-15, 21-16 in 67 minutes in the Thailand Masters second round, and lost 14-21, 21-19, 10-21 in 58 minutes to the eighth seeds in the China Masters second round.
• 🌱They met seeded pairs three times, for one win and two defeats — past the second seeds, out to the sixth and the eighth. They were never seeded themselves in any of these ten matches.
• ⏱The longest was 67 minutes, the shortest 30. The ten add up to 508 minutes.
• 📏The longest single game was the 27-29 opener of the Thailand Masters semi-final. Our Thailand Masters 2027 page uses that very game as its example of what the three-game, 15-point format of 2027 will stop.
• 🇯🇵One all-Japanese match — the Japan Open second round against Yuta Watanabe and Maya Taguchi, 21-10, 17-21, 21-8 in 51 minutes. They held their opponents under ten points in both the first and the third game.

Every one of the ten scores comes from our own tournament pages, checked match by match against the day data published by BWF. Match times are BWF's.

🏆On 5 July 2026 this pair won the mixed doubles at the Canada Open (Super 300, Markham), beating Liu Kuang Heng / Hsu Yin-Hui (TPE) 21-17, 17-21, 21-17 in the final. It was their first title together.

• 🇯🇵Japan won all five titles that week — BWF's own headline was "Canada Open: Clean Sweep by Japan". Yudai Okimoto took the men's singles, Riko Gunji the women's singles, Hiroki Okamura / Kyohei Yamashita the men's doubles and Hinata Suzuki / Nao Yamakita the women's doubles.
• ⚠️We hold no match-by-match scores from the Canada Open (our Canada Open 2027 page lists only the final, as last year's result), so this title is not part of the ten matches above. Our two sources are BWF's official news story of 6 July 2026 and English Wikipedia, which agree down to the final score.
• 📄Five more matches show up in BWF's official day data that none of our tournament pages carry — the India Open first round on 13 January, both Swiss Open matches on 10 and 11 March, and both Orléans Masters matches on 18 and 19 March. Each has its own card in the list above and none is counted in the seven wins and three defeats.
• 🔢This is what we checked, not a full audit of their season. If you know of something missing, please use the correction and removal contact below.

The Canada Open final reads "21-17 17-21 21-17" in BWF's news story and "21–17, 17–21, 21–17" in the results table on English Wikipedia — the same scoreline.

They were world No. 18 in mixed doubles on the list of 13 October 2026, with 49,590 points. The official BWF ranking (Week 42), the BWF World Ranking table on English Wikipedia and Badminton Spirit's list, all dated 13 October 2026, agree on both the place and the points.

• 🔁On 15 September 2026 they were No. 20 with 47,300 points. They have since moved up two places and added 2,290 points.
• 🧮Sixteen tournaments count towards that total; BWF's own ranking data and Badminton Spirit's list of 13 October agree.
• 🇯🇵In the same event, Yuta Watanabe and Maya Taguchi were world No. 12 on 13 October 2026. The Japan Open second round was a meeting between these two pairs.

Rankings change every week. We publish the place only as a dated record and never write "world No. 18" without the date.

• 2026 — Canada Open (Super 300) — mixed doubles champions
  Their first title as a pair. They beat Liu Kuang Heng / Hsu Yin-Hui (TPE) 21-17, 17-21, 21-17 in the final on 5 July. Two sources: BWF's official news story "Canada Open: Clean Sweep by Japan" of 6 July 2026 and English Wikipedia, which agree down to the final score. ⚠️We hold no match-by-match scores from the Canada Open, so this match is not among the ten we record.
• 2026 — Thailand Masters (Super 300) — mixed doubles semi-finals
  The earlier of the two semi-final runs we hold match by match. Unseeded, they won three and lost the semi-final 27-29, 16-21 to the eventual champions. Sources: our Thailand Masters 2027 page and BWF's official day data.
• 2026 — Daihatsu Japan Open (Super 750) — mixed doubles semi-finals
  The biggest event we record for them, a Super 750. Three wins, then a 13-21, 8-21 semi-final against the champions, Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping. Sources: our Japan Open 2026 page and BWF's official day data.
• 2026 — Japan's No. 1 mixed doubles ranking (January)
  Our Kaohsiung Masters 2026 page records that Koga began playing with Saito in the second half of 2025 and that the pair reached No. 1 in Japan's national ranking in January 2026. They are Japan's mixed doubles national-team pair for 2026.
• 2025 — Kaohsiung Masters (Super 100) — mixed doubles title (Koga)
  From before the current partnership, with Yuho Imai; the final went 16-21, 21-13, 21-15 against Wu Hsuan-yi / Yang Chu-yun (TPE). Our Kaohsiung Masters 2026 page and English Wikipedia agree, and that pairing has since ended.
• 2023 — World No. 14 in men's doubles (Koga)
  The infobox on English Wikipedia gives 12 December 2023 as the date of Koga's best men's doubles ranking, No. 14, with Taichi Saito. ⚠️Taichi Saito and Natsu Saito are different people.
• 2025 — World No. 7 in mixed doubles (Saito)
  The infobox on English Wikipedia gives 21 October 2025 as the date of Saito's best mixed doubles ranking, No. 7, with Hiroki Midorikawa. Our Indonesia Masters 2027 page also records Midorikawa and Saito as the 2025 mixed doubles winners there.
• As a pair — They came together at the end of 2025
  English Wikipedia places the start of the partnership in 2025, citing a Badminton Spirit article of 5 November 2025, which matches the "second half of 2025" on our own Kaohsiung Masters page. English Wikipedia also says their international debut was the Malaysia Open in January 2026, where they reached the second round, but we have only that one source for it and do not state it as fact.

🗓️October in Europe: both players were on the squad the Nippon Badminton Association published on 11 September 2026. At the Arctic Open 2026 (6 to 11 October, Vantaa, Finland), as the only pair sent as the national team, they reached the quarter-finals (lost 23-25, 21-23 to the eventual runners-up). At the Denmark Open 2026 (13 to 18 October) they won their first-round match, beat fourth seeds Thom GICQUEL / Delphine DELRUE (FRA) 22-20, 21-19 in the second round, then lost 15-21, 22-24 to HOO Pang Ron / LAI Pei Jing (MAS) in the quarter-finals on 16 October. They are also named for the French Open 2026 (20 to 25 October); the main draw published on 15 October gives them Mathias CHRISTIANSEN / Alexandra BØJE (DEN, 3rd seeds) in the first round.

⚠️Neither player was in Japan's squad of ten men and ten women for the Asian Games 2026 (20 to 29 September, Ichinomiya, Aichi). The mixed doubles pair selected was Yuta Watanabe / Maya Taguchi.

⚠️ At the French Open 2026, their opponents from the second round on depend on results. We do not write speculative results; we update this page and the tournament pages as matches finish.

Six of the ten matches we had recorded up to 3 September went to a third game, and those six are five wins and one defeat, against two wins and two defeats in the four that ended in two games — the longer the match, the better they have done. One game went past 20-20: the 27-29 opener of the Thailand Masters semi-final, the longest game in anything we hold for them.

🔴International events used 21-point games in 2026; from 2027 they move to three games of 15 points. A game like 27-29 cannot happen under the new format, where 21 is the ceiling. Our guide to the 15-point format explains it.

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.