Kento Momota

Kento Momota is a Japanese badminton player born on 1st September 1994. He hails from Mino village of Kagawa district of Japan. He represents Japan internationally in Singles and Team events. Momota is currently the World's No.1 singles badminton player.

Background:

Kento Momota was born to Nobuhiro Momota and his wife. He has a sister Momota Meika. Kento was born in Mityo city at Kagawa Prefecture and later, his family moved to Mino village.

Kento picked up an interest in badminton at a very young age. He had a talent for the sport when he was a child. His badminton career started when he was in school. When he was in the 2nd grade of his elementary school, he began to wrestle with the feathers of the shuttlecock.

Kento won his first badminton title at the All-Japan Elementary School Championships. In 6th grade, he won the men’s singles title of the tournament. Kento joined the junior school in Fukuoka Prefecture. While studying in the 3rd year of junior school, he won the junior title at the All-Japan Junior High School Championship. After the completion of his junior school studies, Kento enrolled in Fukuoka High School to pursue higher studies.

Rise to Glory:

After success at the school and junior high school levels, Kento joined the national camp, where his badminton career began to take off. His first international achievement came in 2011 when he won the Bronze medal in Boys’ Singles at the Asian Junior Badminton Championships in Lucknow. That year, he won the Bronze medal at the World Junior Badminton Championships in Taipei, Chinese Taipei.

In 2012, Kento became Asian Junior and World Junior Champion in Boys’s Singles. The following year, he won three International Challenge titles at the Estonian Open, Swedish Masters, and Austrian International.

In 2015, Kento won his senior Mixed Team medal by winning the Silver medal at the Sudirman Cup in Dongguan, China. In 2016, he won two medals on the Indian circuit, a Silver at the Asian Team Championships in Hyderabad, and the India Open title in New Delhi.

In 2017, he won three Grand Prix titles at the Canada Open, Dutch Open, and Macau Open. That year, he also won three International Challenge titles at the US International, Belgian International, and Czech Open.

In 2020, Kento became the National Champion for the 3rd time at the All-Japan Badminton Championship.

Major Achievements:

Kento Momota received a senior international break in 2014 when he all the singles matches and helped Japan Men’s Team to Gold medal at the Thomas Cup in New Delhi. In 2015, he won the Bronze medal at the World Badminton Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia. That year, he also won 3 BWF Superseries titles at the Singapore Open, Indonesia Open, and Dubai World Super Series Finals.

In 2018, Kento Momota became the World Champion for the first time at the World Badminton Championships in Nanjing, China. That year, he became the Asian Champion at the Asian Badminton Championships in Wuhan, China, followed by his first BWF World Tour title at the Indonesia Open by defeating Viktor Axelson of Denmark. Kento went on to win 13 World Tour titles, including the prestigious All England Open and BWF World Tour Finals in 2019.

At the 2018 Asian Games, Kento won the Bronze medal in the Men's Team in Jakarta, Indonesia. In 2019, he defended his World Championships and Asian Championships title in the Men’s Singles.

Kento Momota qualified for his debut Olympics at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics as World No.1 in the Men’s Singles.