The final Super 1000 event of the season—the 2024 China Open—is underway. Let’s take a look at some of the past data from this tournament!
There are a total of 10 former champions competing in this year’s event.
One of them is Lee So-hee, who, alongside former partner Chang Ye-na, is one of only two non-Chinese pairs to have won the women’s doubles title in the past 32 years. The other pair is Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi.
Among the players participating in this year’s tournament, only Lee So-hee and the men’s doubles pair Liang Weikeng/Wang Chang have previously won the title as top seeds.
In 1995, the duo Huang Zhanzhong and Jiang Xin successfully defended their men’s doubles title. This year, Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang hope to follow in their footsteps and defend their title.
Men’s doubles is also the event where China has the fewest number of titles, with Indonesia holding the advantage in this category.
Men’s singles top seed Shi Yuqi is eager to make it to the finals; his best performance so far has been reaching the semifinals.
China is experiencing a title drought in the women’s singles category, with the last champion being Li Xuerui in 2015. Wang Zhiyi and Han Yue are strong contenders to break that streak this year.
If Viktor Axelsen wins this year, he will become the first European men’s singles player to defend the title.
Five teams have earned seed spots in events they have never won before—Thailand (men’s singles), Indonesia (women’s singles), Chinese Taipei (women’s singles and men’s doubles), Malaysia (women’s doubles), and Hong Kong (mixed doubles).
On September 4, 29-year-old Japanese badminton women’s doubles star Wakana Nagahara held a press conference in Akita City to announce that she will retire in March next year. Her partner, 28-year-old Mayu Matsumoto, will also leave the national team but may continue to compete with other players. The Japan Open in August this year marked the final stage for this pair to compete together.
In her retirement statement, Wakana Nagahara said, “As a member of the Japanese national badminton team for nine years, every day was busy, and there were some painful moments. Looking back now, there were also many happy times… I will participate in the upcoming Japan S/J Badminton League and officially retire in March next year.”
Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi became the first Japanese women’s doubles pair in history to reach world No. 1 in October 2014. They won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics, ushering in the golden era of Japanese women’s doubles. From 2017 to 2019, Japanese women’s doubles teams flourished, occupying half of the world’s top 10. Among them, the strongest pairs were Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi, Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota, and Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara.
Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota won silver at the World Championships in 2017, 2018, and 2019, while Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara made their breakthrough in 2018, emerging as dark horses to claim back-to-back World Championships titles in 2018 and 2019. They also reached the world No. 1 ranking for the first time in April 2019 and were once considered the successors to Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi. Japan even viewed the Tokyo Olympic women’s doubles gold medal as almost a certainty.
As Ayaka Takahashi retired due to injuries, Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota and Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara gradually became Japan’s main force in women’s doubles. Both pairs competed in the Tokyo Olympics, but Hirota suffered a knee injury just before the games and had to compete wearing a brace after choosing conservative treatment. Unfortunately, they were eliminated in the quarterfinals, and Matsumoto/Nagahara also fell at the same stage, putting a damper on Japan’s once-dominant women’s doubles.
Following their quarterfinal exit at the Tokyo Olympics, Matsumoto and Nagahara were disappointed and considered splitting up. However, they decided to continue partnering for the Paris Olympics. Although they were unable to achieve their ideal results in Paris, exiting in the group stage, they persevered until the end. Sayaka Hirota also suffered another devastating knee ligament tear just before the 2024 Olympics, ultimately missing this year’s games.
Now, with Wakana Nagahara’s retirement, the strongest generation of Japanese women’s doubles has officially come to an end. The rise of Chiharu Shida and Nami Matsuyama brings new hope to Japan’s women’s doubles, but compared to the glory achieved by their predecessors, they still have a long way to go in terms of personal strength and accomplishments, requiring more time to grow and mature.
Takahashi Reika (たかはし あやか, April 19, 1990), born in Kashihara City, Nara Prefecture, is a Japanese female badminton player and a former member of Japan’s national badminton team (Team A). Her sibling Sayaka Takahashi is also a badminton player. Her duo with Misaki Matsutomo debuted at No. 1 in the women’s doubles world rankings on October 30, 2014, becoming the first Japanese pair to reach No. 1 in the world rankings. The pair won the 2016 Olympic Games, defeating the Danish pair of Kristina Petersen/Camilla Rütter Juhl to win the title, earning Japan its first Olympic gold medal in badminton.The pair retired from the sport in August 2020 and moved on to coach the Japanese junior team.
In April 2009, Reika Takahashi played separately with Misaki Matsutomo in the Osaka Badminton International Challenge, defeating teammates Kaori Mori/Ikuma Wakizaka 2-1 (21-16, 16-21, 24-22) in the women’s doubles final to win her first international title.
In December 2009, she and Misaki Matsutomo played in the Indian Badminton Grand Prix and won their first international Grand Prix title by defeating Nadaya Melati/Devi Tika Pematasari of Indonesia 2-1 (21-14, 15-21, 21-15) in the women’s doubles final.
In September 2012, she and Misaki Matsutomo played in the Indonesia Badminton Golden Grand Prix, winning the women’s doubles final 2-1 (21-12, 12-21, 21-13) against the tournament’s No. 2 seeded team of Yim Hye-Won/Jang Ye-Na of South Korea.
In September 2014, Reika Takahashi represented Japan at the Asian Games badminton tournament in Incheon, South Korea, where the Japanese women’s team won the bronze medal in the first team event. She and Misaki Matsutomo played in the women’s doubles event. In the final, facing the tournament’s No. 7 seed, Indonesia’s Nitia Krishinda Maheswari/Gracia Poli, they were defeated in straight sets, 0-2 (15-21, 9-21), to win the runner-up spot in the women’s doubles at the Asian Games. In December of the same year, she and Misaki Matsutomo competed in the BWF Super Series Finals, finishing at the top of the group stage with a strong performance; in the final, they won their first ever women’s doubles title at the year-end finals, defeating China’s Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei in straight sets, 2-0 (21-17, 21-14).
In March 2016, Reika Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo played in the All England Badminton Premier Superseries, defeating China’s Tang Yuanli/Yu Yang again in the women’s doubles final, 2-0 (21-10, 21-12), as the pair won their first ever All-England title.
In August 2016, for the first time, she represented Japan in the women’s doubles event of the Olympic badminton tournament held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, playing with Misaki Matsutomo as the No. 1 seed. In the final, facing Denmark’s Kristina Petersen/Camilla Rütter Juhl, after a 3-set thriller, Reika Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo came back from a first-set loss to win 2-1 (18-21, 21-9, 21-19), winning Japan’s first badminton gold medal at the Olympics.
In April 2017, Takahashi and Matsutomo Misaki participated in the Asian Badminton Championships in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, and in the final, they welcomed the dark horse of the year, Kim Hye-lin/Yoo Hae-won of South Korea, and defeated their rivals in three sets, 2-1 (21-19, 16-21, 21-10), which was also the first Japanese team to achieve a second consecutive title in the event.
In January 2018, Reika Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo competed in the Indonesia Masters Badminton Championships, winning the women’s doubles final, defeating the tournament’s eighth seed and Indonesian powerhouse, Gracia Poli/Apriliani Rahayu, 2-0 (21-17, 21-12).
On August 19, 2020, she held a press conference to announce her official retirement from the sport as of September, and has been the coach of the Japan Junior Team since April.
