Lakshya Sen and Koki Watanabe
It was theater of dreams for several shuttlers at the Kumamoto Masters Japan badminton championships.
For India’s Lakshya Sen it was back-to-back titles, for Akane Yamaguchim it was her turn to break away from the shadows of rival An Se-young and for Aaron Tai-Yap Roy King, it was bagging Malaysia’s first ever men’s doubles title in the championships history.
Just two weeks after clinching his first title of the season, Lakshya now has two titles to his name. The Hylo Open men’s singles champion clinched the Kumamoto Masters title with a hard-earned 13-21, 21-18, 21-14 win over unseeded Japanese Koki Watanabe in a final that lasted just over 64-minutes.
It was sweet revenge for Lakshya, who had lost to Watanabe twice this year – in the Singapore Open quarter-finals and the opening round of the Japan Open.
It was a second disappointment for Watanabe on home soil as he had also lost in the final of the Japan Open to Frenchman Christo Popov in July.
Watanabe had scalped second seeded Thai Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the semi-finals and came out charging in the final against Lakshya. But the Indian eighth seed tightened his game and with impressive cross court smashes dismantled Watanabe’s game plan.
As for Yamaguchi, she overcame stiff resistance from China’s Wang Zhiyi to claim the title. Yamaguchi has played second fiddle to Se-young in five finals this year and was looking to change her fortunes in Kumamoto.
With Se-young making a late withdrawal from the tournament, she was the favourite to clinch the title and she kept her cool to defeat Zhiyi 21-14, 22-20 in the 49-minute final clash.
Aaron- Roy King made history by becoming the first Malaysian men’s doubles pair to win title, defeating home favourites Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi 16-21, 21-13, 21-15.
Having only joined forces a month ago, the Malaysians, playing in only their fifth tournament together shrugged off a slow start to upset their rivals, who are the former world champions, currently ranked tenth in the world.
It was their second title together following their success at the Arctic Open in Finland last month.
FINAL RESULTS
Men’s singles: Lakshya Sen (Ind) bt Koki Watanabe (Jpn) 13-21, 21-18, 21-14
Men’s doubles: Aaron Tai-Yap Roy King (Mas) bt Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi (Jpn) 16-21, 21-13, 21-15
Women’s singles: Akane Yamaguchi (Jpn) bt Wang Zhiyi (Chn) 21-14, 22-20
Women’s doubles: Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi (Jpn) bt Ririna Hiramoto-Chiharu Shida (Jpn) 21-19, 21-15
Mixed doubles: Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin (Chn) bt Gao Jiaxuan-Wu Mengying (Chn) 15-21, 21-15, 21-14
