Badminton Asia Championships 2019: Kento Momota, Akane Yamaguchi make it a Japanese singles clean sweep
FirstpostIt has often been said that winning the world badminton championship is easier than bagging the Asian title – for the simple reason that the bulk of the world’s shuttling talent comes from the Asian continent. Having won the Badminton Asia men’s singles title in Wuhan last year, beating two-time former world champion Chen Long in the final and then pocketing the world title in Nanjing at the expense of another Chinese, Shi Yuqi, the 24 year old Japanese left-hander successfully defended his Asian crown, by putting his bunny, Shi Yuqi, to the sword by a 12-21, 21-18, 21-8 scoreline. Momota’s compatriot and current World No 4, Akane Yamaguchi, seeded third, made history by becoming the first Japanese woman to bag the Badminton Asia singles crown, with a convincing 21-19, 21-9 triumph in 42 minutes over the fifth seed from China, He Bingjiao. However, the best badminton of Sunday’s finals came from the men’s singles summit clash, which was contested by the world’s top two ranked players, who had also vied for the 2018 world championship crown. The heady cocktail, made up of the top seed’s cool and unflappable temperament, supreme fitness, terrific control at the net with several lightning taps, accurate deep clears along both flanks, tight and reliable defence, and patience in waiting for just the right moment in the rally to strike, proved too much for the local hope to handle, as he went down for the fourth time in five career meetings, all occurring in the past twelve months, starting with last year’s Badminton Asia final.