(Xports News Reporter Kim Hyun-ki) An unexpected event occurred in a match between badminton idols.
This is because ‘Thai Princess’ Pichamon Opadnipus (Pichamon) completely defeated ‘Japanese Fairy’ Tomoka Miyazaki, who was seeded 4th in this tournament.
Pichamon, ranked 36th in the badminton women’s singles world rankings, easily defeated Miyazaki with a game score of 2-0 (21-10 21-13) in 36 minutes in the 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).
Pichamon became the main character of Paran.
This is because Miyazaki is the winner of the women’s singles at the 2022 World Junior Championships held in Santander, Spain, and is currently a top-ranked player, ranked 9th in the world. He won the 2024 All-Japan Championship as a high school student, and won the Taiwan Open (Super 300) in May last year, lifting the trophy on the senior international stage.
Miyazaki has risen to the level of A-level player, reaching the quarterfinals of the Super 750 competition and participating in the year-end BWF World Tour Finals.
Pichamon has no recent achievements other than taking second place in the final at the Taiwan Open, where Miyazaki won.
Just looking at the ranking difference, Miyazaki’s easy victory was expected, but the result was Pichamon’s ‘win.’
The two are also popular among badminton fans. Pichamon is also called the ‘Thai Princess’ and Miyazaki is called the ‘Badminton Fairy’.
In the match against ‘Badminton Idol’, Pichamon easily won the first game 21-10, and continued to widen the score gap with Miyazaki in the second game.
Miyazaki chased down to 12-16, but afterward, mistakes continued, leading to Pichamon’s ‘upset’.
Miyazaki is in a swamp of sluggishness, having been eliminated in the round of 16 at this year’s Malaysia Open (Super 1000) and India Open (Super 750), as well as being eliminated in the early stages of this year’s Indonesia Masters, where many top-ranked players such as An Se-young, Wang Ziyi, and Akane Yamaguchi were absent.
Pichamon lost to Chen Yufei (China, world No. 4) in the first round of the previous tournament, the India Open, after a hard fight, including winning one game, but is continuing his good form at the Indonesia Masters.
Photo = Pichamon SNS / Miyazaki SNS / BWF video channel broadcast capture
Reporter Kim Hyun-ki [email protected]
