OSAKA, Japan — Home favorites
Kenta Nishimoto and Akane Yamaguchi thrilled the crowd at badminton’s Japan Open in
Osaka on Sunday, winning the men’s and women’s singles titles for the host
country.
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World number 21 Nishimoto stunned Taiwan’s number
four seed Chou Tien-chen 21–19, 21–23, 21–17 to finally claim his first
international title, having lost in his previous six final appearances.
Nishimoto’s win gave the home crowd something to
cheer after Japan’s number two seed Kento Momota lost in the first round
earlier in the week.
The 28-year-old Nishimoto said he was “really happy
and also a bit relieved” after landing his first title.
“I was very worried going into the third game,” said
Nishimoto.
“He’s a veteran player with a lot of skill who knows
how to play cleverly, so I had to be careful right until the end.”
Chou, who reached the semifinals of last week’s
world championships in Tokyo, is known as badminton’s comeback king but he
could not find a way past Nishimoto in the third game.
“I just tried to keep pushing,” said Chou.
“It worked in the second set but in the third set I
made some mistakes and it was difficult to move closer.”
Yamaguchi gave
Japan another gold medal to celebrate
when she beat South Korea’s An Se-young 21–9, 21–15 in the women’s final.
Yamaguchi retained her world title last week in
Tokyo, and she still had enough left in the tank to win her third tournament of
the year.
“Me and my opponent were both really tired so I
wanted to take control of the game right from the start,” said the 25-year-old
world number one.
“I had to take it to the limit, and when I hit that
limit, I had the crowd to push me forward.”
In women’s doubles, South Korea’s Jeong Na-eun and
Kim Hye-jeong beat their compatriots Baek Ha-na and Lee Yu-lim 23–21, 28–26 to
win the title.
Chinese pair Liang Weikeng and Wang Chan took the
hossss in men’s doubles, beating Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup
Rasmussen 21–18, 13–21, 21–17.
In mixed doubles, Thailand’s Dechapol Puavaranukroh and
Sapsiree Taerattanachai beat Japan’s Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino 16–21,
23–21, 21–18.
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