Kento Momota

Kento Momota (桃田 賢斗, Momota Kento, born 1 September 1994) is a Japanese badminton player. He is known for his explosive movements on court and his unpredictable style of play. He has won several major badminton tournaments including two World Championships titles, two Asian Championships titles, and one All England title.

Kento Momota started his badminton career from junior level with quite perfect results. Momota's badminton talent has been seen since he was a child. The player born in Mitoyo, Kagawa Prefecture, on September 1, 1994, started to wrestle with feathers since he was in the second grade of elementary school. He won the first title in a fairly prestigious tournament in Japan, the All Japan Elementary School Championships. Kala's Momota, who was in grade 6, came out as a champion in the men's singles number. After elementary school, Momota continued his studies in Junior High School in Fukuoka Prefecture. In his third year, he again won a similar tournament but at the junior level, the All Japan Junior High School Championships. Graduating from junior high school, Momota studied at the Fukuoka High School.

2011

Momota's intensity is increasingly visible as he takes part in a bigger race, the 2011 WorldJunior Championship held in Taiwan. Even though he hasn't made it as a champion, his achievement is the opening for the next Momota award. At that time he had to be satisfied with the victory after losing in the semifinals of Malaysian junior Zulfadli Zulkiffli who came out as the 2011 World Junior Champion. End of 2011, Momota began to compete with his seniors in the All Japan Badminton Championship or 2011 Japan National Championship. the final after losing to the champion, Kenichi Tago, won Momota appreciated by the Nippon Badminton Association (NBA). Momota also began to join the Japanese national team and is projected to become a future son.

2012

Young Momota continues to learn from his defeat. After failing at the 2011 World Junior Championship, he tried his luck at the 2012 Asian Junior Championship held in Gimcheon, South Korea. Not wanting to repeat his mistakes in 2011, he avenged his defeat by becoming Asia Junior Champion after in the final round defeating Malaysian representatives, Soong Joo Ven two straight games, 21-13, 22-20. Momota's Asia Junior Champion Title by being the best at the world level junior level. In the same year, Momota confirmed its title at the World Junior Championship held in Chiba, Japan. Appearing at home, Momota managed to donate gold in public. In the final round, he beat the mainstay of China, Xue Song through a very tight rubber game match. Momota won 21-17, 19-21, 21-19

2013

The promising Momota prospect attracted the attention of the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation, the badminton club of NTT East which finally succeeded in asking for his hand to join. Momota officially joined the club that raised its name since April 2013. NTT is the largest telecommunications company in Japan. By joining the NTT East club, Momota was ready with the consequences of also working at the company. Momota who was then 19 years old had begun to learn to manage time management in such a way. He began to get used to dividing his time to work, practicing on the Japanese national team, and being active in his club.

In 2013, Momota who started the youth competition was sent to the International Challenge (IC) competition level. Satisfactory results in Momih in the IC satisfaction series in Europe. Momota managed to emerge as champion in Estonia, Sweden and Austria. Momota was immediately forged in a series of Grand Prix / Gold (GP / GPG) tournaments and even superseries (premiers) throughout 2013. In tournaments with higher castes, Momota could not immediately become a champion. Great achievement does require a process that is not instant, that's the sentence that would be right for Momota who at that time really struggled with often crawl from the qualifying round.

2014

He won all his matches during Japan's maiden Thomas Cup victory in 2014, playing second men's singles behind Kenichi Tago. He was the first Japanese player to win the Singapore Open. By winning that title, he became the first Japanese player to successfully capture a Super Series in Men's Singles and currently holds the record as the youngest Super Series champion in that category.

2015

In the 2015 Sudirman Cup, he repeated his feat in Thomas Cup to help Japan secure a spot as a runner-up. He once again made history in the BWF World Championships 2015 held in Jakarta. He became the first Japanese player to win a medal in the Men's Singles category of the prestigious tournament. He made it to the semi-finals, before losing to Chen Long in straight sets. Rounding off the year, he won the 2015 BWF World Superseries Final in Dubai. He competed at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon as well as the 2016 Badminton Asia Team Championships in Hyderabad.

2018

Momota returned to the Japanese national team at the end of 2017. However, due to a lack of his points, he was not qualified to play in the 2018 All England Open, a significant Super 1000 tournament which was held in March. On 28 April, he won the 2018 Asian Championship which was held in Wuhan, after defeating Chen Long of China in the finals with a score of 21–17, 21–13.

On 5 August, he won the World Championships title in Nanjing, China after beating Shi Yuqi from China in the finals with a score of 21–11, 21–13. He also won 4 BWF World Tour titles: Indonesia Open, Japan Open, Denmark Open and Fuzhou China Open. Momota became the first Japanese men's singles player to occupy the World number 1 in the BWF World ranking in 27 September.

2019

Momota started the 2019 season by competing at the Malaysia Masters as the first seeds, but his pace stopped by Kenta Nishimoto in the first round. He then reached the final in Indonesia Masters, but losing to Anders Antonsen of Denmark. Momota claimed his first title in 2019, by winning the German Open a Super 300 tournament. In March 2019, he won the All England Open beating Viktor Axelsen from Denmark in the finals in 3 sets with a score of 21–11, 15–21, 21–15, becoming the first Japanese man to win the All England Open title.

In April, Momota won his second Asian Championships title in Wuhan, China beating home favorite Shi Yuqi in three games 12–21, 21–18, 21–8. He also won the Singapore and Japan Open titles. In August, he reclaimed his World Champion title, beating Anders Antonsen 21–9 and 21–3. In doing so, Momota became only the fourth player to win back-to-back titles on a short, all-Chinese list that includes Yang Yang, Lin Dan and Chen Long. After that, he won his first title in China and Korea Opens, also defend his title at Denmark Open and Fuzhou China Open.

Momota closed his stellar 2019 year by winning his 11th title, the World Tour Finals by beating Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 17–21, 21–17, 21–14. Previously in the gala dinner of the same event, he was awarded as the BWF Best Male Player of the Year. He is also nominated as Best Male Athlete by the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive.

2020

Momota began the 2020 season as the men's singles world No. 1. He competed at the Malaysia Masters as the first seeded, defeated Indian's Kashyap Parupalli and H. S. Prannoy in the first and second round with two straight games, later in the quarter final beat Huang Yuxiang in the rubber games. In the semi final, he dashed the host's hopes by bowing Lee Zii Jia with the score of 21–10, 21–19. Despite not being at his physical best, Momota pulled off a good show to beat the 2017 World Champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark 24–22, 21–11 in the final. He extended his head-to-head record over Axelsen to a whopping 14–1. After winning the Malaysia Masters, Momota was involved in an accident on the way to the airport. He suffered a broken nose as well as injuries to his lips and face.

BWF World Championships

Men's singles

Asian Championships

Men's singles

BWF World Junior Championships

Boys' singles

Asian Junior Championships

Boys' singles

BWF World Tour (14 titles, 4 runners-up)

The BWF World Tour, announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018, is a series of elite badminton tournaments, sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Tour are divided into six levels, namely World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300 (part of the HSBC World Tour), and the BWF Tour Super 100.

Men's singles

Year	Tournament	Level	Opponent	Score	Result
2020	Malaysia Masters	Super 500	Viktor Axelsen	24–22, 21–11	Winner
2019	BWF World Tour Finals	World Tour Finals	Anthony Sinisuka Ginting	17–21, 21–17, 21–14	Winner
2019	Fuzhou China Open	Super 750	Chou Tien-chen	21–15, 17–21, 21–18	Winner
2019	Denmark Open	Super 750	Chen Long	21–14, 21–12	Winner
2019	Korea Open	Super 500	Chou Tien-chen	21–19, 21–17	Winner
2019	China Open	Super 1000	Anthony Sinisuka Ginting	19–21, 21–17, 21–19	Winner
2019	Japan Open	Super 750	Jonatan Christie	21–16, 21–13	Winner
2019	Singapore Open	Super 500	Anthony Sinisuka Ginting	10–21, 21–19, 21–13	Winner
2019	All England Open	Super 1000	Viktor Axelsen	21–11, 15–21, 21–15	Winner
2019	German Open	Super 300	Kenta Nishimoto	21–10, 21–16	Winner
2019	Indonesia Masters	Super 500	Anders Antonsen	16–21, 21–14, 16–21	Runner-up
2018	BWF World Tour Finals	World Tour Finals	Shi Yuqi	12–21, 11–21	Runner-up
2018	Fuzhou China Open	Super 750	Chou Tien-chen	21–13, 11–21, 21–16	Winner
2018	Denmark Open	Super 750	Chou Tien-chen	22–20, 16–21, 21–15	Winner
2018	China Open	Super 1000	Anthony Sinisuka Ginting	21–23, 19–21	Runner-up
2018	Japan Open	Super 750	Khosit Phetpradab	21–14, 21–11	Winner
2018	Indonesia Open	Super 1000	Viktor Axelsen	21–14, 21–9	Winner
2018	Malaysia Open	Super 750	Lee Chong Wei	17–21, 21–23	Runner-up

BWF Superseries (4 titles)

The BWF Superseries, launched on 14 December 2006 and implemented in 2007, is a series of elite badminton tournaments, sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). BWF Superseries has two levels, Superseries and Superseries Premier. A season of Superseries features twelve tournaments around the world, introduced in 2011, with successful players invited to the Superseries Finals held at the end of the year.

Men's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
2016	India Open	Viktor Axelsen	21–15, 21–18	Winner
2015	World Superseries Finals	Viktor Axelsen	21–15, 21–12	Winner
2015	Indonesia Open	Jan Ø. Jørgensen	16–21, 21–19, 21–7	Winner
2015	Singapore Open	Hu Yun	21–17, 16–21, 21–15	Winner

     BWF Superseries Finals tournament

     BWF Superseries Premier tournament

     BWF Superseries tournament

BWF Grand Prix (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

The BWF Grand Prix has two levels, Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It is a series of badminton tournaments, sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007.

Men's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
2017	Macau Open	Ihsan Maulana Mustofa	21–16, 21–10	Winner
2017	Dutch Open	Yu Igarashi	21–10, 21–12	Winner
2017	Canada Open	Kanta Tsuneyama	20–22, 21–14, 14–21	Runner-up

     BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament

     BWF Grand Prix tournament

BWF International Challenge/Series (7 titles)

Men's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
2018	Vietnam International	Goh Giap Chin	21–9, 21–15	Winner
2017	Czech Open	Thomas Rouxel	21–8, 21–14	Winner
2017	Belgian International	Lee Cheuk Yiu	21–14, 21–18	Winner
2017	Yonex / K&D Graphics International	Kevin Cordon	21–7, 21–15	Winner
2013	Austrian International	Riichi Takeshita	21–19, 21–12	Winner
2013	Swedish Masters	Eric Pang	21–9, 16–21, 21–18	Winner
2013	Estonian International	Eetu Heino	20–22, 21–15, 21–15	Winner

     BWF International Challenge tournament

     BWF International Series tournament

On 7 April 2016, Momota admitted visiting an illegal casino in Tokyo after casino staff reported him gambling there "frequently". In a board meeting, it was revealed that he gambled away 0.5 million yen during 6 visits to the casino with his teammate, Kenichi Tago, who spent 10 million yen after 60 visits to various casinos. The Nippon Badminton Association secretary general Kinji Zeniya said it would “probably be impossible” for Momota to participate in the Rio 2016 Olympics, with frequent gambling being punishable by law with a prison sentence of up to 3 years. He was banned from playing until late 2017 for this.

National team

• Junior level

• Senior level

Individual competitions

• Junior level

• Senior level

Record against year-end Finals finalists, World Championships semi finalists, and Olympic quarter finalists. Accurate as of 14 January 2020.