Sayaka Hobara

Hobara at the 2025 Taipei Open
Personal information
Born	(1998-07-30) 30 July 1998 (age 27) Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
Height	1.64 m (5 ft 5 in)
Sport
Country	Japan
Sport	Badminton
Handedness	Left
Coached by	Norio Imai
Women's & mixed doubles
Highest ranking	15 (WD with Rui Hirokami, 20 January 2026) 17 (XD with Yuichi Shimogami, 20 January 2026)
Current ranking	16 (WD with Rui Hirokami) 19 (XD with Yuichi Shimogami) (3 February 2026)
BWF profile
Medal record Women's badminton Representing  Japan Sudirman Cup 2025 Xiamen Mixed team World Junior Championships 2016 Bilbao Girls' doubles 2016 Bilbao Mixed team Asian Junior Championships 2016 Bangkok Mixed team

Sayaka Hobara (保原 彩夏, Hobara Sayaka; born 30 July 1998) is a Japanese badminton player.[1][2] A left-handed player from Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, she is a former World Junior Champion, winning the girls' doubles title in 2016 with Nami Matsuyama.[3] She competes in both women's and mixed doubles, achieving career-high world rankings of No. 15 in women's doubles and No. 17 in mixed doubles. Hobara was a member of the Japanese team that won the bronze medal at the 2025 Sudirman Cup.

In 2022, Hobara partnered with Hinata Suzuki in women's doubles. On the BWF World Tour, their best result was a semifinal finish at the Taipei Open. They also reached the quarterfinals at the Super 500 Singapore Open and at two Super 100 events: the Canada Open and the Indonesia Masters. At the International Challenge level, they finished as runners-up at the Indonesia International.[4]

In 2023, Hobara partnered with Yui Suizu in women's doubles. They won the Mexican International and finished as runners-up at both the Saipan International and the Indonesia International.[5][6][7] On the World Tour, their best results were semifinal finishes at the Korea Masters and the Indonesia Masters II. The pair achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 39 on 21 November 2023.

In 2024, Hobara focused exclusively on mixed doubles, partnering with Yuichi Shimogami. On the World Tour, the pair finished as runner-up at the Malaysia Super 100 and had semifinal finishes at the Ruichang China Masters and the Vietnam Open.[8] At the International Challenge level, they won the Northern Marianas Open and finished as runners-up at the Saipan International.[9][10]

In 2025, Hobara began a new women's doubles partnership with Rui Hirokami. The pair reached the semifinals at three World Tour Super 500 tournaments: the Taipei Open, the Thailand Open, and the Hong Kong Open.[11][12][13] At the Thailand Open, they were the first qualifying doubles pair in any discipline to reach the semifinals since 2013.[14] En route to the Hong Kong Open semifinals, they upset the newly crowned world champions Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning.[13]

Continuing her mixed doubles partnership with Yuichi Shimogami, Hobara reached the semifinals at the Taipei Open and the quarterfinals at the Singapore Open and Japan Open.[15][16] In this discipline, she made her debuts at both the World and Asian Championships and was a member of the Japanese team that won a bronze medal at the Sudirman Cup.[17] The pair achieved a career-high world ranking of No. 20 on 29 July.

Girls' doubles

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result	Ref
2016	Bilbao Arena, Bilbao, Spain	Nami Matsuyama	Du Yue Xu Ya	25–23, 19–21, 21–14	Gold	[18]

The BWF World Tour, which was announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018,[19] is a series of elite badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Tours are divided into levels of World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300, and the BWF Tour Super 100.[20]

Mixed doubles

Year	Tournament	Level	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result	Ref
2024	Malaysia Super 100	Super 100	Yuichi Shimogami	Ye Hong-wei Nicole Gonzales Chan	19–21, 21–12, 20–22	Runner-up	[8]

Women's doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result	Ref
2018	Austrian International	Natsuki Sone	Chisato Hoshi Kie Nakanishi	15–21, 18–21	Runner-up	[21]
2019	Osaka International	Natsuki Sone	Rira Kawashima Saori Ozaki	14–21, 21–10, 21–16	Winner	[22]
2019	Maldives International	Natsuki Sone	Ashwini Ponnappa N. Sikki Reddy	21–10, 17–21, 21–12	Winner	[23][24]
2020	Jamaica International	Rena Miyaura	Daniela Macías Dánica Nishimura	21–3, 21–7	Winner	[25]
2022 (II)	Indonesia International	Hinata Suzuki	Lanny Tria Mayasari Ribka Sugiarto	16–21, 18–21	Runner-up	[4]
2023	Mexican International	Yui Suizu	Francesca Corbett Allison Lee	21–11, 23–21	Winner	[5]
2023	Saipan International	Yui Suizu	Hsu Ya-ching Lin Wan-ching	10–21, 18–21	Runner-up	[6]
2023 (II)	Indonesia International	Yui Suizu	Laksika Kanlaha Phataimas Muenwong	18–21, 18–21	Runner-up	[7]

Mixed doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result	Ref
2024	Northern Marianas Open	Yuichi Shimogami	Tori Aizawa Hina Osawa	21–19, 21–12	Winner	[9][26]
2024	Saipan International	Yuichi Shimogami	Hiroki Nishi Akari Sato	11–21, 10–21	Runner-up	[10][27]

  BWF International Challenge tournament   BWF International Series tournament

Girls' doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result	Ref
2016	Dutch Junior	Nami Matsuyama	Kim Ga-eun Kim Hyang-im	21–14, 22–20	Winner	[28]
2016	German Junior	Nami Matsuyama	Kim Ga-eun Kim Hyang-im	21–17, 21–13	Winner	[29]
2016	India Junior International	Nami Matsuyama	Tew Jia Jia Yee Yap	11–2, 11–8, 11–5	Winner

Mixed doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result	Ref
2016	Dutch Junior	Naoki Yamazawa	Hiroki Okamura Nami Matsuyama	16–21, 19–21	Runner-up	[28]
2016	German Junior	Hiroki Okamura	Naoki Yamazawa Nami Matsuyama	22–20, 14–21, 11–21	Runner-up	[29]

  BWF Junior International Grand Prix tournament

• Sayaka Hobara at BWFBadminton.com
• Sayaka Hobara at BWF.TournamentSoftware.com (archived)
• Sayaka Hobara at BWFWorldTourFinals.BWFBadminton.com
• Sayaka Hobara at Badminton Association of Japan (in Japanese)
• Sayaka Hobara at J Sports (in Japanese)
• Sayaka Hobara at Smash and Net TV (in Japanese)