Vantaa: Japan’s World No.1 Kento Momota who suffered an early exit at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after losing to World No. 34 Heo Kwanghee of Korea in the last Group A match, took the court for the first time (since his heartbreaking loss in Tokyo) at the 2021 Sudirman Cup on Tuesday,
Momota had to work exceptionally hard to shrug off an inspired first set by England’s World No. 205 Johnnie Torjussen as the English player was playing very similar to Heo Kwanghee (during Tokyo Olympics) by launching powerful smashes aimed towards the left and right midcourt area of Momota and managed to save two game-points, coming back from 18-20 to tie the game at 20-20.
The Japanese World No. 1 was then able to produce some vintage display at the critical moment, utilizing his cross-court drop shot to lead at 21-20, before fending off Torjussen by forcing him to make an out of bound shot to wrap up the first game 22-20.
In the one-sided second game, Momota jolted Torjussen with his big strong defense and thunderous smashes to give Japan a 2-0 lead against England with a 21-10 second set win.
Before the men’s singles match, mixed doubles World No. 5 Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino represented Japan in the first match against England’s World No. 7 Marcus Ellis/Lauren Smith and outlasted their English counterpart 21-16, 21-12.
Japan’s World No. 27 men’s doubles pair, Akira Koga/Taichi Saito successfully brushed aside World No. 18 Ben Lane/Sean Vendy 21-17, 19-21, 21-12 in a 66 minutes battle to clinch the third point for Japan, thus sending Japan to the Sudirman Cup quarter-finals.
Akane Yamaguchi and Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida finished the tie between Japan and England with victories against Abigail Holden (21-16, 21-12) and Chloe Birch/Lauren Smith (21-16, 21-12) in the women’s singles and women’s doubles events respectively.
Japan will play Malaysia on Thursday to determine the champions and runners-up for Group D. Only the top two teams from each group could advance to the quarter-finals.
Below are day three results for the 2021 Sudirman Cup:
Sudirman Cup – Group B, Chinese Taipei vs. Germany 5-0
Sudirman Cup – Group B, Korea vs. Tahiti 5-0
Sudirman Cup – Group D, Japan vs. England 5-0
Sudirman Cup – Group D, Malaysia vs. Egypt 5-0
