Satomi Watanabe is the leading Japanese player on Tour, and following the Tour’s resumption after the COVID-19 pandemic, she has gone on to make history, becoming the first Japanese player to ever reach the top 20 of the World Rankings.

She made her debut on Tour in 2013, reaching the quarter-finals of the first main draw she featured in, the Pro Squash in Japan Yokohama. She reached the last eight of the same event twelve months later, along with making the same stage of the JSW WSA Circuit No.4 and the Malaysian Tour Squash Circuit No.10.

Watanabe reached three semi-finals across the next two years on the Malaysian Squash Tour, before making it to her first three finals in 2017. The Japanese No.1 reached the finals of the Malaysian Squash Tour IX, DaLian Squash Association China Grand Prix and the 2nd Nissan Open Squash Championships, winning the latter after beating Deon Saffery.

She then played in the World Championships for the first time in her career, and made it through to the last 16. That result saw her break into the top 50 of the World Rankings for the first time. A further runners-up finish came at the Malaysian Open in 2018, and she claimed her second win on Tour a year later.

That came in her last tournament of 2019, as she beat Ooi Kah Yan in the final of the SRAM PSA 2. That was followed with a runner-up finish at the Australian Open, and a quarter-final appearance at the Edinburgh Sports Club Open, which would be her only tournament of 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She only featured twice in 2021 and she was victorious on both occasions. Watanabe claimed the titles at the Dynam Cup SQ-Cube Open and the Colin Payne Kent Open sponsored by 501 Entertainment, before then claiming a fourth Japanese National Championships crown at the start of 2022.

2022 would prove to be a breakthrough year for the then-24-year-old, as she made her name known on the PSA World Tour. The year started with a victory at the University of Birmingham Open, which assured her of a spot at her PSA World Championships thanks to the Challenger 5 level competition being one of four qualifying events of rate sport’s biggest tournament.

She then also won the Qscan Sandgate Open and retained her title at the Dynam Cup SQ-Cube Open, along with making the second round of the World Championships. The Japanese No.1 then reached the semis of the City Tattersalls Club Australian Open before her World Tour breakthrough.

Watanabe made it into the quarter finals of the PSA World Tour Silver level Barfoot & Thompson New Zealand Open, before then making the same stage of a Platinum event for the first time. That came in her final outing of 2022, at the Everbright Securities International Hong Kong Squash Open, where she lost out to World No.1 Nouran Gohar.

Watanabe started 2023 with a semi-final result at the Carol Weymuller Open before going on to win her eighth, and biggest, Tour title. Her victory at the Women’s Kinetic Orange Ball 30K Challenger saw her become the first Japanese player to reach the top 20 in the World Rankings. A semi-final result at the Manchester Open capped off her breakthrough season, ending it at a career-high of World No.18.