Former world No 2 Kento Momota is back – playing his best badminton but not at his peak yet – has given strong signals that he will soon be the man to beat in the game.
After reaching the men’s singles semi-finals in the on-going Wuhan City of Automobile Badminton Asia Championships in Wuhan and will play Malaysia’s former world No 1 Lee Chong Wei for a place in Sunday’s final.
Momota, ranked No 17 in the world, is not only showing confidence in his game and but he is also on track to be his country’s number one. He is currently the third ranked player in his country after Kenta Nishimoto (No 13) and Kazumasa Sakai (No 16).
In Wuhan he demolished world No 6 Chou Tien-chen of Chinese Taipei 21-5, 21-13 in quarter-finals in the Badminton Asia on Friday in only 32 minutes.
“I am not only eyeing gunning for my previous best of number two in the world but I want to be the No 1 in the world….of course I also aim to make up for lost time and get to play in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” said Momota.
The 23-year-old missed the 2016 Rio Olympics when he was punished by the Japanese Badminton Association for gross indiscipline and with that went Japan’s hopes of winning a medal in Rio in the category. He was put in cold storage for more than a year.
Momota returned to competitive badminton in July last year and has been under the radar of his rivals.
Reaching the semi-finals in the Badminton Asia Championships in Wuhan also came with good news for Momota. He is delighted that he has qualified for this year’s World Championships in Nanjing.
For the semi-finals in Wuhan the Momota-Chong Wei clash has drawn a lot of interest if the Japanese ace can stop the Malaysian ace.
