Don’t make him angry: Kento Momota wins Japan Open 2019
Kento Momota, who managed to return to the badminton elite in 2018 and became world’s #1, wins his homeland tournament, Japan Open 2019.
In a year from now, Kento Momota will be playing his first Olympics, which will be held also in Japan. No doubts, this year super series tournament in Japan could serve as a sort of “dress rehearsal” for Kento and his team.
The less time there is before the Olympics, the more important each tournament becomes. Especially, when saying about getting confidence to lead the “peloton”.
The Total Badminton of Kento Momota: read here.
Keeping in mind Olympics, coaches and the team of Japan, have definitely changed their tactics of preparation. In 2018, starting from the Thomson Cup, Kento took part in almost all Super Series tournaments and lost only 2–3 matches in a year, beating everyone on his way. This year, obviously, Momota’s coaches have decided to keep the focus on some key tournaments, without putting additional physical and phycological pressure on the player, who has been fairly considered as the main favorite of Tokyo 2020.
…this year, Momota’s coaches have decided to keep the focus on some key tournaments…
Saying about Jonatan Christie, we have to mention that he has been showing really high-quality badminton and can be a serious opponent for Kento Momota and all other top-players at any tournament. In the quarterfinal of Japan Open, he has beaten Indonesia Open finalist, Anders Antonsen, who seemed to be in a good shape after his Indonesia Masters success.
So, we could really expect a good match, where there were two main questions:
- Can Jonatan Christie challenge the champion and put his leadership under the question?
- What are the current playing conditions of the world champion?
The first few points of the first game were more about warming up. Both players played low pace game, keeping the shuttle in the game and trying to move their counterparts around the court. Such a game, which, nevertheless, had injections of pace from Jonathan Christie, made Indonesian player leading 4:2.
What has happened after the 4:2 score, was definitely a tactical move from Kento Momota. The Japanese player has raised the pace and tried to keep the shuttle in the game as long as possible. As a result, the next 3–4 rallies contained not less than 100 shots in total… and it has brought the needed result for Japanese. Clearly, after long rallies, Jonathan started showing signs of tiredness. Kento has noticed that and sharpened the game by playing more attacking and aggressive shots.
What was interesting to see is that Kento Momota was playing with the fire of inspiration in his eyes. That fire was the fire of predator, who saw the prey… Jonathan Christie did not look as prey but it was not clear how he can back to the game and to challenge the Japanese in the second game. The first game was won by Kento, 21:16.
The second half of the match was just a dull copy of the second half of the first game. Kento Momota was deadly accurate on the net and on his defense. At some point, Christie tried to play a more aggressive game but the defense of Kento was absolutely perfect this day. The second game was also won by the world champ, 21:13…
Kento Momota wins his second consecutive Japan Open and shows everyone in the “peloton” that it is better not to make him angry ;)
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