Riku Hatano
Riku Hatano is a Japanese badminton player who specializes in singles. He is a former member of the Japanese national team and has been a member of the Tonami Transportation team since 1 April 2020. Hatano won his first international title at the 2022 Slovak Open and was part of the Japanese squad that won a bronze medal at the 2022 Thomas Cup. He reached a career-high ranking of world No. 39 on 8 July 2025.
Early career
Riku Hatano began playing badminton at the age of seven in Memuro, Hokkaido. He attended Obihiro Daiichi Junior High School and Saitama Sakae High School. While at Saitama Sakae High School, he won the boys' singles title at the 2018 All Japan Junior Badminton Championships. He was also the singles runner-up at the National High School Invitational Tournament in both 2018 and 2019.On the international junior circuit, Hatano was a member of the Japanese team that won a silver medal at the 2018 Asian Junior Championships. In individual competition that year, he reached the fourth round of the World Junior Championships and was a boys' doubles runner-up at the Banthongyord Junior International with Takuma Kawamoto.
Career
Hatano began competing in senior-level tournaments in late 2019 while still in high school. He joined the Tonami Transportation badminton team in April 2020 and was selected for the Japanese national B team for the first time in 2021.In 2022, Hatano won his first senior international titles at the Slovak Open by defeating Chi Yu-jen in the final. He then won the 2022 Réunion Open over his compatriot, Yushi Tanaka. He also finished as the runner-up to Tanaka at the North Harbour International. He was also a member of the Japanese squad that secured a bronze medal at the 2022 Thomas Cup.
He made his BWF World Tour debut at the 2023 Thailand Masters. In 2024, Hatano was selected as a sparring partner for the Japanese team for the Paris Olympics. He later finished as the runner-up in two International Challenge tournaments: the Malaysia International, where he was defeated by Minoru Koga, and the Indonesia International, where he lost to Koo Takahashi. On 8 July 2025, he achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 39.
Achievements
BWF International Challenge/Series (2 titles, 3 runners-up)
Men's singles| Year | Tournament | Opponent | Score | Result | Ref | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | Slovak Open |  gold1BWF Junior International (1 runner-up)Boys' doubles
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