Two years after car accident, badminton ace Kento Momota in free fall – Reuters

Japan’s Kento Momota was once the undisputed king of badminton, but his career has been in a tailspin since a car accident more than two years ago left him seriously injured.

There are now serious doubts that the 27-year-old former double world champion – who was embroiled in a gambling scandal earlier in his career – will rise to the top again.

The world of Momota was turned upside down in January 2020 when the vehicle taking him to Kuala Lumpur airport crashed hours after winning the Malaysia Masters, killing the driver and leaving the player with a fractured eye socket.

He was out of action for a year and is now a shadow of his former self – the southpaw ace flopped at the Tokyo Olympics and lost in the first round of four of the five singles tournaments he has entered this year .

“His defense is still a bit uncertain, his net game isn’t as strong as it used to be and of course his self-confidence must have taken a big, big hit,” the former coach told AFP. of the Danish national team Steen Schleicher Pedersen. .

“Maybe even his life values, having been in an accident like the one where the driver died. Maybe he doesn’t have that hunger anymore, maybe he doesn’t care, maybe it changed him,” added Pedersen, now a badminton commentator.

Pedersen said it seemed like Momota’s vision was affecting his game last year, especially his defense.

Momota won a record 11 titles in 2019, losing just six of the 73 matches he played and looking every inch like a legend in the making.

Then came the accident which left him with double vision and required surgery on a bone near his eye.

Home hope Momota died out in the first round of last year’s pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics but looked back to something like his best when he won the Indonesia Masters in November without lose a game.

A back problem then forced him out of the World Tour Finals and World Championships the following month and he has struggled to generate momentum since the new year.

– ‘No more’ –
The enigmatic Momota has said little publicly about his fitness and Pedersen says the lack of information means those on the outside have to rely on “guesswork”.

“Has he been able to fully train this year? If he was limited in his practice, that could be part of the explanation,” he said.

“If he trained 100% from January 1 to today and he went to the gym and did all the badminton training he needs and this is the result, then he does not there are more, most likely. »

Momota is still ranked number two in the world, but the points system has been skewed by the coronavirus pandemic and it is set to drop once a truer picture emerges later this year.

He didn’t sound confident when he spoke to Japanese reporters in April, saying he just wanted to “do everything I can right now”.

“It makes me sad when I see comments like ‘he doesn’t play well’ or ‘the Momota of old doesn’t exist anymore’, but I try not to pay too much attention to it,” he said. .

Momota suffered another first-round loss on Wednesday, this time to Danish world number 13 Rasmus Gemke at the Indonesia Open.

He again seemed quite off-kilter and said afterwards that he “didn’t have the stamina”, blaming himself for making “so many mistakes”.

Momota has bounced back before and will have to do it again if he wants to be a force at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Momota was banned from Japan’s Rio 2016 Olympics team for gambling in an illegal casino.

The ban forced him to play in smaller tournaments around the world as he tried to move up the rankings and sent him on a winning streak that took him to the top.

Pedersen says playing regularly “gives you confidence, it gives you touch, it gives you precision”, and he thinks Momota “really needs to start winning”.

“He has to do good training and then he has to start winning games – a lot of games,” he said.

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