'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Two-time world champion Kento Momota has announced that his international career will end with the 2024 Thomas & Uber Cup Finals, set to start later this month. The multinational team tournament will be played from April 27-May 5 in Chengdu, China.
Momota won the World Championships title in men's singles category in successive years - 2018 and 2019. These two years saw the Japanese shuttler dominate the men's singles circuit and reach near-invincible level of domination.
The 29-year-old also won the Asian Championships gold in those two years, along with a staggering 13 BWF World Tour titles. On top of those, he won the BWF World Tour Finals in 2019, having finished as the runner-up in 2018.
The only tournament where Kento Momota failed to live up to the expectations was the 2018 Asian Games. There, the Japanese star lost in the semifinals to Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and settled for a bronze.
What broke Kento Momota's dominant streak?
With his brutal domination of men's singles badminton in 2018 and 2019, Kento Momota was well set to become the Olympic champion on his home soil in 2020.
That year started in expected fashion for the Japanese superstar, as he won the Malaysia Masters tournament. Then, destiny delivered a crushing blow to the two-time world champion.
On his way to the airport after the Malaysia Masters, Momota's car suffered a horrible accident, in which the driver was killed. Though the celebrated shuttler didn't suffer a fracture, he became physically debilitated due to his injuries.
Speaking on the occasion of his retirement announcement, Momota described how the accident affected him.
"Since the accident in January 2020, there was a lot of hardship. I tried so many things but I just couldn’t close the emotional, physical gap between who I used to be and who I am. I felt I couldn’t become World No. 1 again," the former World No. 1 said in a press conference (via Olympics.com).
"I had eye surgery and I was seeing double. I couldn’t move on the court the way I wanted to. I’d get tired like I never used to. I tried but I just felt it was no longer possible to keep up with the world’s best players. I couldn’t play badminton the way I wanted to," he concluded.
Momota's playing style and biggest rivals
Kento Momota had a unique playing style. He was known for playing long rallies and besting opponents through his incredible stamina. Operating mainly from the baseline, the two-time Asian champion used to play rallies like a boa constrictor, slowly strangling his opponents.
He could increase the tempo of his rallies if needed, though his favored pace was a more leisurely one.
Momota's two biggest rivals during his period of dominance in 2018 and 2019 were Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and Denmark's Viktor Axelsen.
The Dane had an especially difficult time against Momota. Despite being the second-best player in this period, Axelsen just couldn't find a way of beating the Japanese. Before the car crash, Momota had a 14-1 lead in his head-to-head record against the Danish star.
One player who did manage to overcome Momota's challenge, occasionally, was Ginting. It was Ginting who defeated him in the Asian Games semi-finals, before losing to his own compatriot Jonatan Christie.
Ginting also defeated Momota in the 2018 China Open tournament's final. The Indonesian seemed the only one capable of troubling the former world champion in his heyday. The two played out an exciting final in the 2019 World Tour Finals, with the Japanese emerging victorious by 17-21, 21-17, 21-14.
Kento Momota's career graph
The car crash in 2020 wasn't the first major setback in Momota's career. He endured one in his early days too.
In 2012, Momota won the World Junior and Asian Junior Championships titles, heralding his future greatness.
It was 2015 when the youngster first made a splash at the senior level, winning the Singapore Open, Indonesia Open, and the World Superseries Finals. Along with that, the future world champion also claimed the bronze at that year's World Championships.
Great times lay ahead for the up-and-coming Japanese shuttler, but then his career suffered a major breakdown. Momota admitted to visiting an illegal betting shop repeatedly, as punishment for which, the badminton association of his country banned him for close to two years. He thus missed the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Momota returned to action towards the end of 2017, before going on to dominate men's singles badminton for two years.
This was a self-inflicted wound on Kento Momota's career. But the car crash in 2020 was a cruel twist of fate. Though Momota returned to action in December 2020, he could never recover his touch.
The 29-year-old added only two World Tour titles to his kitty - Indonesia Masters in 2021 and Korea Masters in 2023. Most disappointingly, in his home Olympics in 2021, Momota was eliminated from the group stage itself.
Looking at the uncertain nature and inconsistent form of all top men's singles players in the last three years, it becomes clear that a fully-fit Momota would have continued his domination.
In his absence, Viktor Axelsen won the Olympic title in Tokyo and the world title in 2022. But neither he nor anyone else has consistently been at the top of the pile. The derailment of Momota's career didn't just hurt him personally but also the sport. One wishes the Japanese better luck in his post-retirement life.
