WUHAN, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Japan showed its muscle to pose a real threat to China's dominance in badminton, winning two finals out of three against China at the Asian Badminton Championships here on Sunday.
Top seed Kento Momota defended his title after defeating Chinese second seed Shi Yuqi 12-21, 21-18, 21-8.
"Momota is a strong opponent who lives up to his reputation," said Shi. "I regret about the loss. But I made more mistakes compared to him. His offensive play was not a lot, but with good quality."
The third-seeded Akane Yamaguchi of Japan surged to early leads in both games against her Chinese opponent He Bingjiao, and sealed the game 21-19, 21-9. This victory brought Japan the first women's singles title in Asian Badminton Championships.
"The battle exposed some of my weaknesses, on which I need to improve," He Bingjiao said after the match. "Champion needs not only fighting spirit, but also good technique and tactics. When I am prepared for that, I will have the confidence to beat her (Yamaguchi) in the coming matches."
In the final of the women's doubles, Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan notched up a hard-fought victory against Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara of Japan 19-21, 21-14, 21-19.
"In the women's doubles, we should learn from Japan to expand the pool of talents to increase our chance of winning," said Chen. As shown in the latest rankings, the top three pairs of women's doubles are all from Japan.
Japanese shuttlers have been rising in all five categories. Back to 2015, Japan claimed no title in the Asian Badminton Championships, while it steadily took gold medals in the women's doubles from 2016 for three consecutive years, men's singles from 2018, women's singles and men's doubles in 2019.
Wang Yilyu/Huang Dongping defeated their compatriots He Jiting/Du Yue 21-11, 13-21, 23-21 to win the champion of the mixed doubles.
"The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be a tough battle against Japanese players. They must be 200% motivated when fighting on home soil," said Wang. "But there will only be one champion (in each category), and we have the same goal as they do -- the gold medal."
In the men's doubles, the Japanese pair Hiroyuki Endo/Yuta Watanabe took the champion by beating Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia 21-18, 21-3. Enditem
