TOKYO — Showboating Japanese badminton star
Kento Momota promised to cool down after being fired up by an adoring home crowd in
his first-round win at the world championships in Tokyo on Monday.
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Second-seeded Momota’s career has been in
free fall since a car crash more than two years ago which left him badly hurt,
but he looked back on top form during a 21–16, 21–14 win over Mexico’s Lino
Munoz.
Momota rushed out to an early lead and seemed
to be enjoying the adulation of the Tokyo crowd, until world number 82 Munoz
started to come back into the match.
Momota said he had wanted to show the crowd
what he could do “a little too much” and promised to “calm down” in his next
match.
“I scored a point and I heard a little girl
behind me shout out ‘brilliant,’” said a sheepish Momota after the match.
“I heard that and thought I wanted to do it
again, but then I ended up giving away the next point. Next time I’ll try and
keep my cool.”
Momota advanced to the next round along with
top-ranked Dane Viktor Axelsen, but third-seeded Anders Antonsen crashed out at
the first hurdle.
The 2019 world silver medallist fell behind
early and never managed to get a foothold in a 21–15, 21–19 loss to Japan’s
Kenta Nishimoto.
The 25-year-old Antonsen was playing his
first competitive match in three months after pulling an abdominal muscle and
said it “felt a bit strange just to suddenly be on court again”.
“I felt like I played better and better and
it was a shame that I didn’t make the comeback in the second game, I was so
close,” said Antonsen, who had fended off four match points.
“It’s my first match in a long time so I just
need to get back to competition. Today was the beginning.”
Axelsen lived up to his billing as the
world’s number one with a straightforward 21–16, 21–12 win over Malaysia’s
Daren Liew.
Axelsen was pleased to safely negotiate his
way past the world number 29.
“Every first round is always tricky. Daren is
an experienced opponent, he’s a really good player when he plays well,” said
Axelsen.
“I really had to step up in big parts of the
game today and I’m really happy about how I managed to deal with everything.”
China’s Shi Yuqi returned to action for the
first time in 10 months after serving a ban and beat Azerbaijan’s Ade Resky
Dwicahyo 22–20, 21–10.
Shi, a world finalist in 2018, retired during
a 2021 match against Momota and was banned by the Chinese Badminton Association
for making “inappropriate comments” about his withdrawal.
He said he “felt a bit nervous” as he entered
the court to face Dwicahyo but “felt good to be playing again” once he had
settled into the match.
“It definitely feels a lot different,” said
the 26-year-old.
“When you’re playing in training it’s a lot
different from playing tournaments.”
Defending champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore also
advanced with a 21–12, 21–12 win over Spain’s Pablo Abian.
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