(Reporter Kwon Dong-hwan, Xports News) Voices of concern arose as ‘Badminton Fairy’ Tomoka Miyazaki (9th in the world) was eliminated early from an international competition again.
Miyazaki was defeated with a game score of 0-2 (10-21 13-21) by ‘Princess of Thailand’ Pichamon Opatnipus (ranked 36th in the world) in the women’s singles round of 16 of the 2026 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Indonesia Masters (Super 500) held at Istora Senayan, Jakarta, Indonesia on the 22nd (Korean time).
Before the competition, Miyazaki had a three-game lead against his opponent, but on this day, he suffered his first loss to Opadnippus.
After losing the first game by a large score of 10-21, Miyazaki was unable to find a way to rebound in the second game and was dragged down to 5-14. They struggled until the end and narrowed the score gap to 13-17, but then gave up 4 points in a row and lost the second game 13-21.
In the end, Miyazaki finished the Indonesia Masters in the round of 16, losing with a game score of 0-2 in 36 minutes.
Miyazaki, 20 years old this year, is evaluated as a player who will become the star of Japanese badminton women’s singles, following in the footsteps of Akane Yamaguchi (#3 in the world), who won the World Championships three times.
She won the women’s singles title at the 2022 World Junior Championships, and ranked first in the world in women’s singles in the BWF World Junior Rankings in 2023. Afterwards, he stood out on the senior stage as well, raising his ranking to 9th place.
In particular, she is very popular in Japan, where she is called the ‘Badminton Fairy’ due to her neat appearance. Recently, the number of Miyazaki’s fans has increased in Korea, where there are many badminton enthusiasts.
However, the performance in recent international competitions was below expectations, causing disappointment.
Miyazaki was eliminated early in the round of 16 in all three international competitions he participated in in the 2026 season. In the round of 16 of the Malaysia Open (Super 1000), she lost 0-2 to India’s Pusala Venkata Sindhu (world No. 13), and at the India Open (Super 750), which followed immediately, she lost 1-2 to fellow countryman Nidira Natsuki (world No. 24) and failed to advance to the quarterfinals.
In the Indonesia Masters, Ahn Se-young (world No. 1) and others did not participate, so he was considered one of the favorites for the championship as he received the 4th seed, but lost face by being eliminated early in the round of 16.
As Miyazaki fell into a slump, Japanese fans also could not hide their concerns, saying in the comments, “Yamaguchi’s next generation is not growing up,” “Maybe he will be buried like this,” “He is being studied, so he can’t win as much as before,” and “He was eliminated in the round of 16 for three consecutive times and is ranked 9th in the world. What happened?”
Photo = Yonhap News
Reporter Kwon Dong-hwan [email protected]
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