BADMINTON: No. 1 Momota wins China Masters for win no. 4 this season

World men's Singles no. 1 Kento Momota (JPN)

Being ranked no. 1 in the world was a good indicator of success in the China Masters stop of the BWF World Tour, with three top-ranked entries winning in Fozhou:

∙ Men’s Singles leader Kento Momota (JPN, pictured above) won his fourth tournament of the season, dispatching no. 3 Tien Chen Chou (TPE) in the final;

∙ Men’s Doubles stars Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (INA) won for the seventh time in tour this season (!), but it was a struggle, taking three sets to edge China’s Jiting He amd Qiang Tan, and

∙ Siwei Zhang and Yaqiong Huang won the all-China Mixed Doubles final with a three-set victory over Yilyu Wang and Dongping Huang. For Zhang and Huang, it was win no. 6 on the Tour for 2018.

Winning may be old hat for these veterans, but not for 20-year-old Yufei Chen of China, who won her first World Tour title in the women’s division, defeating Japan’s Nozumi Okuhara in straight sets. It was Chen’s fourth World Cup medal, but she had lost all three prior finals she had been in this season.

Korea’s So-Hee Lee and Seung-Chan Shim won the women’s Doubles, their first win of 2018 and the pair’s second World Tour/Superseries win together. Summaries:

BWF World Tour China Masters
Fuzhou (CHN) ~ 5-11 November 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Singles: 1. Kento Momota (JPN); 2. Tien Chen Chou (TPE); 3. Long Chen (CHN) and Yuqi Shi (CHN). Semis: Momota d. Chen, 19-21, 21-17, 21-17; Chen d. Yuqi Shi (CHN), 21-11, 21-10. Final: Momota d. Chou, 21-13, 11-21, 21-16.

Men’s Doubles: 1. Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (INA); 2. Jiting He/Qiang Tan (CHN); 3. Cheng Liu/Nan Zhang (CHN) and Mohammed Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan (INA). Semis: Gideon/Sukamuljo d. Liu/Zhang, 17-21, 21-18, 21-14; He/Tan d. Ahsan/Setiawan, 21-14, 21-15. Final: Gideon/Sukamuljo d. He/Tan, 25-27, 21-17, 21-15.

Women’s Singles: 1. Yufei Chen (CHN); 2. Nozomi Okuhara (JPN); 3. Carolina Marin (ESP) and Bingjiao He (CHN). Semis: Chen d. Marin, 11-21, 21-15, 21-13; Okuhara d. He, 21-13, 21-13. Final: Chen d. Okuhara, 21-10, 21-16.

Women’s Doubles: 1. So-Hee Lee/Seung-Chan Shim (KOR); 2. Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara (JPN); 3. YuJung Chae/So-Yeong Kim (KOR) and Misaki Matsumoto/Ayaka Takahashi (JPN). Semis: Matsumoto/Nagahara d. Chae/Kim, 24-22, 21-16; Lee/Shim d. Matsumoto/Takahashi, 21-16, 21-12. Final: Lee/Shim d. Matsumoto/Nagahara, 23-21, 21-18.

Mixed Doubles: 1. Siwei Zhang/Yaqiong Huang (CHN); 2. Yilyu Wang/Dongping Huang (CHN); 3. Jiting He/Yue Du (CHN) and Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino (JPN). Semis: Zhang/Huang d. He/Du, 21-12, 21-12; Wang/Huang d. Watanabe/Higashino, 21-14, 21-6. Final: Zhang/Huang d. Wang/Huang, 21-15, 11-21, 21-9.