(Xports News Reporter Kim Hyun-ki) Will a Japanese badminton fairy break Ahn Se-young’s record?
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is paying attention to whether Japanese women’s singles new ace Tomoka Miyazaki will break the record ahead of the BWF 2025 World Tour Finals, which will open in Hangzhou, China on the 17th.
BWF announced that various records could be broken ahead of this tournament, and that Miyazaki could break the record set by Ahn Se-young as the youngest winner of the World Tour Finals in 2021.
Miyazaki is a former gold medalist at the Badminton World Junior Championships, and is expected to become the Japanese women’s singles ace, following in the footsteps of Akane Yamaguchi, who will also be participating in this tournament.
He made his name known by winning the women’s singles at the World Junior Championships held in Santander, Spain in 2022.
He then stood out on the senior stage by taking second place at the China Open, a Badminton World Federation (BWF) Super 1000 tournament, in September last year. She won the women’s singles trophy three times on the Super 300 stage, including reaching the top at the Taiwan Open (Super 300) last May. In Japan, she is also called the Badminton Fairy, and she has quite a few fans in Korea as well.
Miyazaki reached the quarterfinals in two consecutive BWF Super 750 tournaments held in Europe, including the Denmark Open and the French Open last October.
In particular, in the quarterfinals of the Denmark Open, she faced world No. 1 Ahn Se-young and won the first game 21-16, but bowed her head in the second and third games, falling 9-21 and 6-21, respectively.
Miyazaki was ranked 9th in the women’s singles world rankings and made it to the last train of the World Tour Finals. Chen Yufei (China), ranked 5th in the world, was pushed out by two Chinese athletes, Wang Zhiyi (2nd) and Han Yue (4th), due to the regulation limiting the participation of two players from the same country per event. Accordingly, Miyazaki was added to the list of participants for the World Tour Finals.
BWF introduced, “Miyazaki can become the World Tour Finals champion at the age of 19 years, 4 months, and 4 days. If he wins, he will break the record of Ahn Se-young, who reached the top in 2021 at the age of 19 years, 10 months.”
Seyoung Ahn showed off her spirit by winning the 2021 tournament held in Bali, Indonesia, without being seeded. In the final, he defeated 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist Pusarla Venkata Sindhu (India).
However, it is unclear whether Miyazaka will be able to break Ahn Se-young’s record in this competition. This is because their stamina and defense are lower than those of the top ranked players, and they make frequent mistakes. In the quarterfinals and higher of major tournaments, there is a clear sign of wavering from the middle of the second game.
Photo = Tomoka Miyazaki SNS / Yonhap News
Reporter Kim Hyun-ki spitfire@xportsnews.com
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