Tokyo: World No. 1 Kento Momota won his third Japan national badminton title after defeating World No. 15 Kenta Nishimoto in the men’s singles final on Sunday.
In a rematch of last year’s final, Momota saw off Nishimoto 21-14, 21-12 at Komazawa Gymnasium in Tokyo.
“This was the title I always wanted to win. It’s a confident booster as I am proud to represent Japan to play against players from around the world,” said Momota.
In women’s singles, World No. 3 was engaging in a neck-and-neck fight with World No. 19 Aya Ohori, before seeing off Ohori 22-20 in the first set.
The second set was completely one-sided for Okuhara as she quickly raced to 11-0 before eventually winning 21-4. This was also Okuhara’s third Japan national title, she had previously won it in 2011 and 2015.
Meanwhile, World No. 6 men’s pair Hiroyuki Endo/Yuta Watanabe won their second national title, coming back from a set down to defeat World No. 4 Keigo Sonoda/Takeshi Kamura 11-21, 21-18, 21-8 in the final.
Two-time reigning women’s doubles world champions, World No. 3 Wakana Nagahara/Mayu Matsumoto also came back from dropping a set to win their first national title with 10-21, 21-15, 21-8 win over World No. 2 Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota.
Yuta Watanabe claimed his second title of the day when he and Arisa Higashino picked up their third mixed doubles gold after overcoming Yujiro Nishikawa/Saori Ozaki 21-13, 21-15.
