Incheon: World No. 1 men’s singles player Kento Momota of Japan picked up his 8th title of the year when he claimed the Korea Open on Sunday.
Momota faced tough challenge from Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan in the first set as Chou kept attacking Momota’s left side with either strong smashes or high lift to the baseline.
Chou managed to rally from 12-17 down to tie the score at 19-19, but Momota successfully wrapped up the first set 21-19 after a Hawkeye review that showed his smashes towards Chou’s left baseline was indeed “in”.
In the second set, Momota continued to pressure Chou with tight defense and net shots, forcing the Taiwanese to commit mistakes and won the match point after Chou’s return to Momota’s left hand side was found out of bound. Momota extended his career meeting record over Chou to 10-2 after Sunday’s victory.
It is worth noting that Korea Open was Momota’s fourth consecutive titles since winning the Japan Open, the World Championships, the China Open, and has stayed undefeated for 21 straight matches.
After upsetting World No. 1 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in the quarter-final, and World No. 3 Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen in the semi-final, Indonesia’s World No. 6 Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto were riding on their red-hot momentum to defeat Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda of Japan 21-16, 21-17 in 39 minutes to win the men’s doubles title.
