the japanese Akane Yamaguchi took another step in her goal of retaining the title of world champion of badminton by defeating the Spanish 2-0 (21-17 and 21-17) in the Tokyo quarterfinals Carolina Marínwhich failed to stop the downpour of good shots from his rival and made numerous unforced errors.
It ends like this for Marin, fifth in the world, the first World Cup he has played since the one he won in 2018 -he had also won in 2014 and 2015-, after missing the 2019 and 2021 due to injury. The two players had faced each other thirteen times, with a minimal advantage over Marín, 7-6, in the history of their matches. The stats leveled off.
The first bars were for the Spanish, who took more advantage of the long points that marked the beginning of the match. Thanks to her greater height (1.72 m for the local player’s 1.56), Marín dominated from mid-court and enjoyed small rents until, with two assists from the net, Yamaguchi equalized 9-9.
The Japanese then took out a varied repertoire of blows and punished Marín with blows to the feet. A series of errors by the reigning European champion placed Yamaguchi with a 19-12 margin that Marin found big. Although he saved two game points, he finally gave up the set after 22 minutes of great physical demand.
The second manga opened with excellent exchanges and without any of the quarterfinalists managing to escape on the scoreboard. Yamaguchi insisted on putting the shuttlecock at his opponent’s feet and for the first time took off slightly at 16-13. The Andalusian’s reaction did not allow her to overcome that disadvantage. With 19-17 against, Marín fell while moving towards the back of the court and took a few seconds to recover, with apparent discomfort in the hip. The world number one put the shuttlecock out of her reach in the next point and closed the quarter again with 21-17. Marin showed one of his rare gestures of rage when hit the racket on the ground.
If in 2021 Yamaguchi won the world title in Marín’s hometown, Huelva, in her absence due to injury, this Friday she acted as hostess and showed enough play to repeat the championship in front of her own fans. His next obstacle will be the South Korean Se Young Anwho defeated the American Beiween Zhang 21-12 and 21-10.
On the other side of the draw, Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei of China advanced to the semifinals with a 21-18, 21-17 victory over Canada’s Michelle Li. Her rival will be the Taiwanese Tzu Ying Tai, silver in Tokyo 2020, who defeated the Thai Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-16 and 21-9.
