Muelheim: The World No. 2 Kento Momota of Japan and the reigning World Champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore suffered early exits at the 2022 German Open on Wednesday.
Playing his first tournament of the season, the former World No. 1 Kento Momota showed glimpses of his best form when he managed to push compatriot and World No. 19 Kenta Nishimoto to the limit before losing the first game 21-23.
However, Momota seemed to run out of gas against the ferocious Nishimoto, going down 9-21 in the second game.
Nishimoto will play Brian Yang of Canada next. Yang, on the other hand, also created another big upset himself by stunning reigning world champion – Loh Kean Yew of Singapore 12-21, 21-16, 21-18 in 58 minutes.
Interestingly, Loh had only lost two matches so far this season, in the 2022 India Open final (lost to Lakshya Sen of India) and the German Open first round. And both times, he was defeated by players whom he had trained together at the Viktor Axelsen training camp in Dubai.
In other men’s singles first-round match, Malaysia’s World No. 7 Lee Zii Jia was made to work before winning his opener against Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands.
Caljouw took the first set 21-19 but Lee looked like he had turned things around when he leveled the match 21-13 and was firing on all cylinders in the decider to beat the Dutch 21-8. Lee will meet Christo Popov of France in the second round.
“I made many unforced errors in the first game,” said Lee.
“Caljouw is a very experienced player, I have played him several times before this, he is a good player,” added Lee.
“I have prepared myself that today would be a tough game for me,” explained Lee.
