Welcome back, Kento!
Kento Momota, the World’s #1 player who has dominated three years before the Covid time, is back. In two straight games, the Japanese smashed rising start Lee Zii Jia, the Malaysian who won the first match against Kento Momota after returning to All England 2021.
This year, Kento Momota has lost to Lee Zee Jia and a Korean player K.H. Heo at the Olympics quarterfinal. In fact, before today’s match and after his return at the beginning of 2021, Kento was a shade of the men who terrified all badminton players before.
That’s why the match, we could see today was a point of truth for the Japanese. Everyone, who watched the game had only one question in mind: “Is he back?”.
This question got even more supporting thoughts and doubts after the start of the match. Lee Zee Jia went into 6 points lead from the beginning and looked very confident on the court. Malaysian plaid long rallies, and most of them brought his points. It seemed that Kento Momota couldn’t resist the power of Lee’s smashes. Also, it appeared that going into that long rallies was not smth that Kento should do…
But, the World's #1 had his own plans for the match. He gradually took the initiative and continued playing long rallies, smashing cross courts and down the line smashes, making Lee Zee Jia move over the court constantly. Finally, these tactics had brought a result. After 6:0, Kento managed to get back to level (10:10) but gave the next point to Malaysian. It was the last success in the match for the young contender.
What we saw after could be called “He is back.” However, I do not want to call it “The Return of the King” as we have to see Kento in action against Anders Antonsen or Viktor Axelsen to say if he is back, BUT his play after the break in the first game and the way he kicked off Lee Zee Jia in the second game, give us a hope that we will see more matches of Kento Momota at his best.
The second game was won by Kento Momota at 21:10 without any chances going to Lee Zee Jia.
Welcome back, Kento! 21:18, 21:10 — who is next?
By Max Sydorenko, This Is Badminton Blog, Kyiv, Ukraine, 30.09.2021
