Nozomi Okuhara of Japan poses with gold medal after winning the women’s single final against Wang Yihan of China in the Dubai World Superseries Finals. (AFP). Right: Kento Momota of Japan beat Viktor Axelsen of Denmark to claim the men’s crown in Dubai. (AFP)

AFP/Dubai


Japan scored the finest double success in its badminton history when Kento Momota and Nozomi Okuhara captured the men’s and women’s singles titles at the tour’s year-end flagship event, the Super Series finals, yesterday.
Momota, who was involved in one piece of history last year when he helped his country win the Thomas Cup world team championship for the first time, created another by beating Viktor Axelsen, the world number six from Denmark by 21-15, 21-12 in the rather tame final.
This result was hardly in doubt from the middle of the first game on, but the earlier triumph of his compatriot, Nozomi Okuhara, who beat Wang Yihan, the former world champion from China, by 22-20, 21-18, certainly was.
Okuhara had to recover from game point down at 20-19 in the first game, which she very luckily did with two successive net cords. Then she trailed 9-15 in the second game, before summoning just enough energy to wear Wang down.
Momota knew from early on that he had game to beat the heavy-legged
Axelsen, who left much of his strength and mobility on the court yesterday when he halted Chen Long, the world number one from China.
“I got lucky on a few points but I stuck to my strategy,” said Momota, who moved his opponent around with overhead drops or net shots followed by clears or lifts to the back, and occasionally interspersed it with sudden explosive jump smashes.
Okuhara by contrast battled against the odds as she had all tournament. Her rallying and containment was often physically draining for her as well as opponents, but she always “found something emotionally when I needed it”, she said.
Amazingly Okuhara also beat Carolina Marin, the world number one from Spain, twice during the week, as well as Saina Nehwal, the former world number one from India, and Tai Tzu Ying, the titleholder from Taiwan.
Although slow shuttles helped her during this marvellous sequence of wins, which were all completed in straight games, her success still prompted questions as to whether she is now an Olympic medal candidate.
Wisely she deflected them. Momota however was a little more comfortable talking about doing well in Rio next year. As he is 21 and Okuhara still 20, their double triumph suggests that a changing of the guard may be imminent.
One of the sport’s legends, Peter Gade, the former world number one from Denmark, certainly thinks so. “It does look like a shift in the generations,” he said. “It is certainly close to a generation move in the men’s singles.”
China, which started the day with hopes of three titles, eventually had to settle for one.
It came in the women’s doubles, in which the twin sisters, Luo Ying and Luo Yu, recovered from a worrying start to beat Denmark’s Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl when Pedersen had to stop with a stomach ailment halfway through the third game.
Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan, the world champions from Indonesia, won the men’s doubles, while the married couple of Chris and Gabby Adcock produced England’s most notable success of any kind for nine years by winning the mixed doubles.