Thriller in Fuzhou: Kento Momota defeats Chen Long in 3 games
On November 10th, Kento Momota, the Worlds #1, defeated Chen Long in 3 terrific games of badminton. It was the semi-final match of The China Masters, which gave the right to Kento Momota to play his 9th final in the year.
For all badminton lovers, it was the most expected match after the World Championship final. Just three weeks ago, Chen Long showed that he was still on TOP and he was the one, who could take a challenge and beat Momota. In the semifinal of French Open 2018, Chen Long needed 2 straight games to defeat Kent Momota and to win the tournament on the next day.
So, it was a question if Chen Long really came back into the game. Another question was if Kento Momota kept his game on the level, which was enough to overplay Chen Long’s best shape after the Olympics?
The result was amazing! We could watch the badminton of the highest quality. The first game was won by Chen Long in 33 minutes. Beautiful defensive play, the high pace of rallies, amazing cross-court smashes from Chen Long, and intrigue till the last point… When the score was 19:19 Kento Momota made a misjudgment and left the shuttle, which was definitely in. Chen Long needed only the one point to close the game.
The second game was not less intriguing. Kento Momota has decided to raise the pace and it gave the result. In the middle of the game, he was leading by 6 points, the score was 15:9. But Chen Long found the opportunities to get back into the match and decreased the advantage of Kento Momota only to 2 points. The score was 16:14 when Kento won a few important rallies and managed to close the game with 21:17 score.
The third game was a real thriller! This times it was not Manila (if you love boxing, you know what I mean), it was Fuzhou where Chen Long had 4 points advantage after the mid-interval and was leading 12:8. At that point of the match, it seemed that Chen Long would celebrate his second triumph. But Kento Momota did not agree with that. He raised the pace again and came back into the game, winning 5 of 6 points. The score was 13:13 when Kento took another 4 of 5 points and made his victory so close (17:14). And again, Chen Long, thanks to his beautiful attacking shots and very accurate game, managed to level the game and to make the score 17:17.
We could expect the fight till the end but Kento Momota has shown why he was #1 in the World. He took 4 straight points and won the match, which I would list as the TOP-3 matches in of the year in the men’s singles category.
Tomorrow, Kento Momota will play in his 9th final of 2018. Chen Long has proved again that he is still the player, who will compete for the next Olympic gold medal. Now, I am sure — Chen Long is back!
