Indian Open: Japan Badminton Faces Quarterfinal Wipeout?

(Reporter Kim Jeong-hyun, Xports News) Japanese badminton is struggling even in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour India Open (Super 750).

Major stars in each sport are dropping out early and unexpectedly.

There were also shocking results. The mixed doubles team of Hiroki Midorikawa and Nami Mitsuyama (Japan) lost 1-2 (22-20 4-21 10-21) in the round of 16 of the mixed doubles against the team of Tom Giquel and Delphine Delou (France, world No. 5) held at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi, India on the 15th (Korean time).

Of course, the opponent is strong enough to be ranked 5th in the world, and the Midorikawa-Matsuyama pair is just joining hands and feet to participate in international competitions.

However, considering that Midorikawa also had a single-digit world ranking with his previous mixed doubles partner, and that Matsuyama was a bronze medalist in women’s doubles at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, the Japanese media judged that he lost too miserably in practice. In particular, in the second game, they gave up 17 consecutive goals and fell to 4-21.

In Japan, in addition to Midorikawa and Matsuyama, a total of four teams participated in the mixed doubles, including Yuta Watanabe and Maya Taguchi, Akira Koga and Natsu Saito, and Yuichi Shimogami and Sayaka Hobara, but only one group, Shimogami and Hobara, advanced to the quarterfinals.

In the women’s doubles, which is considered the strongest of Japan’s five badminton groups, the group that won the All Japan Championships at the end of last year, Arisa Igarashi and Chiharu Shida, were eliminated early by losing 1-2 (9-21 21-10 19-21) to the world number one pair of Ryu Seong-su and Tanning (China) in the round of 16.

Both Igarashi and Shida are medalists at the Paris Olympics. Igarashi is a bronze medalist in mixed doubles at the Paris Olympics, and Shida is a bronze medalist in women’s doubles.

The two are known to have formed a women’s doubles team since September of last year to challenge for the Olympic gold medal. Last week, they lost in the first round to Korea’s Na-eun Jeong and Yeon-woo Lee, who were outside the top 10 in the world rankings, and lost in this tournament due to a lack of courage while facing the world number one.

Other Japanese women’s doubles groups were also eliminated early. The team of Ririna Hiramoto and Kokona Ishikawa were eliminated in the round of 32 after losing 1-2 to the team of Julie McPherson and Kiara Torrance (Scotland).

Nanako Hara-Riko Kiyose and Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto met in the round of 16, but Fukushima-Matsumoto won and advanced to the quarterfinals. Na-eun Jeong and Yeon-woo Lee will clash in the quarterfinals.

In Japan’s men’s singles, Kenta Nishimoto unexpectedly lost 0-2 to Raksha Sen, a player from India, in the round of 16. Yushi Tanaka was also eliminated after losing 0-2 to Jonathan Christie (Indonesia). Koki Watanabe lost 1-2 in the round of 32 to last week’s Malaysia Open winner Kunrabbut Witisarn (Thailand, world No. 2).

In the women’s singles, five Japanese players, except Natsuki Niida, who advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating Tomoka Miyazaki in the round of 16 among their own players, were eliminated early.

Previously, 22 Japanese teams participated in the Malaysian Open, but only the women’s doubles Fukushima-Matsuyama group advanced to the semifinals and took third place, and all other singles players or doubles groups bowed in the quarterfinals or below.

This tournament also signaled the decline in the prestige of Japanese badminton, which dominated the world stage in the 2010s, as many players were eliminated early.

Photo = Yonhap News

Reporter Kim Jeong-hyeon [email protected]