Once hailed as a badminton prodigy, Kento Momota faced challenges from ill-fated friendships and a tragic car accident. He plans to officially retire in February, following the conclusion of Japan’s S/J League. After his retirement, he is set to become a coach for the NTT East Japan badminton team.
The Thomas Cup in May marked Momota‘s farewell to international tournaments. He is now fully focused on domestic competitions in Japan, with the S/J League, which started on November 2, running until February next year. This league will mark the end of Momota‘s professional career.
Momota‘s father, Nobuhiro Momota, wanted his son to become “the strongest person in the world,” naming him after Clark Kent, Superman’s alter ego in American DC comics. In Japanese, “Kent” is pronounced as “Kento,” symbolizing his father’s aspirations. Momota has indeed led Japan to the peak of international badminton.
However, Kento Momota‘s career has been full of ups and downs. He achieved tremendous success, becoming the first Japanese men’s singles player to win the World Championships and reach world number one in 2018. His peak year was 2019, where he competed in 73 matches, winning 67 with only 6 losses—a remarkable win rate of 91.8%. That year, he claimed 11 titles, setting a Guinness World Record. His achievements included two Super 1000 tournaments: the All England Open and the China Open, as well as the BWF World Tour Finals. He also made history as the first Japanese men’s singles champion in the 121-year history of the All England Open.
If you’re a fan of badminton, you know it’s not just the game that’s exciting—there are also some seriously charismatic players on the court! Here, you’ll discover five of the most handsome and skilled male badminton players who blend athleticism with a dash of star quality. Whether it’s their focused intensity during a match or their confident charm off the court, these players are bound to catch your eye!
Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen is a true star, known for his powerful style and undeniable charisma. At 6’4” with an athletic build and intense blue eyes, Axelsen commands attention on the court. His dedication to the game has brought him countless victories, but it’s his composed demeanor and confidence that make fans around the world admire him even more.
Kento Momota from Japan brings elegance to the game like no other. His swift, calculated movements and sharp playing style show his mastery of badminton. With his sleek look and natural flair, Momota’s calm, understated charisma wins hearts both in Japan and internationally. You’ll find it hard not to root for him!
Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia has a playful smile and an electrifying style that make him an instant favorite. Known for his quick reflexes and strong smashes, he brings a certain energy to every match. His charming, down-to-earth personality off the court only adds to his appeal. If you’re looking for a player who combines athleticism with an approachable charm, Lee is your guy!
Anthony Ginting of Indonesia is not only incredibly talented but also has a warm, inviting smile that fans love. His agility and technique on the court make him a true powerhouse, while his friendly demeanor and easygoing style make him someone you can’t help but cheer for. Ginting’s balance of skill and charm make him a standout.
Last but certainly not least, Jonatan Christie from Indonesia has been a fan favorite for his powerful plays and charming looks. Known for his friendly personality, Jonatan’s cheerful energy lights up the court. He’s both fierce in his matches and effortlessly likable off the court, making him one of the most admired players today.
These five badminton stars bring not only their top-tier skills but also an undeniable presence that makes badminton even more exciting to watch. So, next time you tune in to a match, keep an eye out for these charismatic athletes—you might just find a new favorite player!
Europe’s campaign at the YONEX BWF World Junior Championships 2024 concluded after the quarterfinals. The top-seeded mixed doubles pair, Tom Lalot Trescarte and Elsa Jacob (FRA), were the last European hopes, making their way from the Round of 128 before bowing out in the quarters.
The duo has had an impressive year, securing several titles, including the FZ FORZA Alpes International U19 2024 and the senior-level VICTOR Latvia International 2023.
Though no European players took home a title this time, the growing talent pool across Europe shows a promising future for the continent’s badminton scene.
The final Super 1000 event of the 2024 BWF World Tour, the China Open, will kick off on September 17 in Changzhou, Jiangsu, coinciding with the Mid-Autumn Festival. According to the latest information from the Chinese Badminton Association on September 16, and the draw released by the event organizers, China’s top women’s singles player and Tokyo Olympic champion, Chen Yufei, as well as Paris Olympic mixed doubles champions, Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong, will not be participating in this tournament. While fans may be disappointed by their absence, China’s objective remains unchanged: to achieve strong results in all five events, reach the finals in each, and secure as many titles as possible on home soil.
Following the Thomas and Uber Cup, this is the second top-level badminton event held in China this year, and the last Super 1000 event of the 2024 BWF World Tour. The China Open has attracted more than 200 top athletes from 21 countries and regions, with a total prize pool of $2 million, and increased ranking points. Unfortunately, the Chinese Badminton Association’s latest entry list, released on September 16, confirms that newly crowned Olympic mixed doubles champions Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong will not participate, despite being listed as the top seeds on the initial draw just last week. Additionally, China’s top women’s singles player, Chen Yufei, will also be absent. Reports had suggested she would return at the China Open, but she has opted to protect her ranking after the Paris Olympics, and her participation was never confirmed. It is now official that Chen Yufei will continue to stay off the court.
Despite these absences, China is still sending a strong lineup, determined to perform well at this important home tournament.
China’s men’s singles players are led by Paris Olympic participants Shi Yuqi and Li Shifeng, with Lu Guangzu, Weng Hongyang, and Lei Lanxi also competing. On the international front, nearly all the world’s top players have arrived in Changzhou, including Olympic gold, silver, and bronze medalists Viktor Axelsen, Kunlavut Vitidsarn, and Lee Zii Jia, as well as Kento Momota, Chou Tien-Chen, and others. It will be a tough battle for China to secure the men’s singles title.
In women’s singles, China’s Wang Zhiyi, Han Yue, Zhang Yiman, and Gao Fangjie are all placed in the top half of the draw, which is not an ideal situation. The top two seeds are Paris Olympic champion An Se-Young and Chinese Taipei’s veteran Tai Tzu-Ying, with Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi also in the mix. Apart from the injured Spanish player Carolina Marín and Chen Yufei, almost all of the world’s top female players are present.
In men’s doubles, all eyes are on the much-anticipated return of Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, the Paris Olympic silver medalists. The duo had missed the Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong Opens after the Olympics but are back on the court for this event, bolstering China’s hopes of claiming the men’s doubles title. They are also the reigning champions of this event and are aiming to defend their title. China’s other men’s doubles pairs include Xie Haonan/Zeng Weihang and Chen Boyang/Liu Yi.
In women’s doubles, the biggest change for China is the new pairing of Paris Olympic champion Jia Yifan with Zheng Yu. They are seeded fifth in this tournament, while Chen Qingchen is temporarily away from the team and will miss the event. On the morning of September 16, Jia Yifan and Zheng Yu began training to adapt to the court, and although this is their first time partnering, they are expected to improve their coordination as they go. Paris Olympic silver medalists Liu Shengshu/Tan Ning and the Chinese pair Li Yijing/Luo Xumin are also in the bottom half of the women’s doubles draw. Japan’s popular duo Chiharu Shida and Nami Matsuyama, bronze medalists at the Paris Olympics, will also be competing.
In mixed doubles, despite the absence of Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong, China still has a strong chance of winning this event. The team’s second pair, Feng Yanzhe/Huang Dongping, the newly crowned Hong Kong Open champions Jiang Zhenbang/Wei Yaxin, as well as Guo Xinwa/Chen Fanghui and Cheng Xing/Zhang Chi, all have great potential to contend for the title.
Kento Momota (Japanese: 桃田 賢斗／ももた けんと Momota Kento, September 1, 1994), born in Mitutoyo, Kagawa Prefecture, is a Japanese badminton player specializing in men’s singles, and is currently a mainstay of the Japan National Badminton Team (A Team). He is Japan’s first World Champion, defending World Badminton Champion and the world’s top-ranked men’s singles player.
Momota was born in Sanno-machi, Mitutoyo-gun (now Mitutoyo City), Kagawa Prefecture, and graduated from Mitutoyo City Yoshitsu Elementary School. At the age of 13, he went to Fukushima Prefecture, where he studied at Tomioka Daiichi Junior High School in Tomioka-machi, as well as Tomioka Senior High School, a leading badminton school in the area, and at the age of 15, he won the All-Japan Junior Badminton Championships, and reached the record for the youngest player to appear at the All-Japan Championships when he was in his third year of junior high school.
Kento Momota was the first Japanese player to win the World Junior Badminton Championships in 2012 after winning the National High School Combined Sports Championships, the Asian Youth Championships and the World Youth Championships at the same time.
In 2013, after graduating from high school, Kento Momota joined the NTT East Japan Badminton Team and was selected for the Japan National Team, and began playing in adult tournaments, winning his first All-Japan Staff Badminton Championships that year. In January of that year, Momota defeated Finland’s Etu Heino 2-1 (20-22, 21-15, 21-15) in the men’s singles final of the Estonian International to win his first adult international tournament, and then won two international challenge tournaments in Stockholm, Sweden, and Austria before advancing to his first ever semi-final in the Super Series at the Premier Premier Premier Tournament in China at the end of the year, where he was 1-2 (20-22, 21-9, 6-6) and won his first ever Super Series title. The team was defeated by China’s Wang Wiming 1-2 (20-22, 21-9, 6-21) in the semi-finals of the China Premier Super Series at the end of the year.
In 2014, Kento Momota represented Japan in the Thomas Cup men’s team competition, ultimately helping Japan win the Thomas Cup for the first time.
In April 2015, Kento Momota in the Singapore Super Tournament all the way to beat Hong Kong’s Wei Nan, Chinese Taipei’s Zhou Tiancheng and Indonesia’s Simon Santoso advanced to the final, and ultimately defeated Hong Kong’s Eddie Hu 2-1 (21-17, 16-21, 21-15) to reap the individual’s first Super Series men’s singles title. Then in June, Kento Momota moved on to the Indonesia Premier Super Series and advanced to the final by defeating Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki, Eddie Wu, Indonesia’s Anthony Ginting and India’s Kashyap Parupalli. In the final, he turned back defending champion and Danish star Jane O. Jorgensen 2-1 (16-21, 21-19, 21-7) to win the title and collect his second career Superseries title.
In December 2015, Momota became the first Japanese badminton player to win the men’s singles title at the year-end finals when he defeated Denmark’s Anselmo Ansalon 2-0 (21-15, 21-12) in the Super Series Finals.
On April 7, 2016, Kento Momota, who was playing in the premier Malaysian badminton super tournament, abstained from the tournament and immediately left Malaysia because he was suspected of entering and exiting an illegal casino and was required to return to Japan to undergo a police investigation.On April 8, Momota and his predecessor, Kenichi Tien-er, held an apology press conference in Tokyo. Momota confessed that in Tian’s introduction, in October 2014 to January 2015, six times in Tokyo Sumida Ward illegal casinos to participate in DB, bets from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yen ranging from a total loss of more than 500,000 yen. April 10, the Japan Badminton Association convened an emergency council for Momota Kendo to formally deal with the issue. The association ultimately decided that he would not be recommended as a representative of the Japanese national team for the Rio Olympics, and that he would be expelled from the national team and banned indefinitely.On May 4, Momota was removed from the BWF world rankings.
After a ban that lasted more than a year, the Badminton Association of Japan decided to lift the penalty of the ban on May 15, 2017, based on a report from the NTT East Japan Badminton Team, to which Kento Momota belongs, that he had performed well.
In late April 2018, Kento Momota appeared at the Badminton Asia Championships in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, where he faced the tournament’s No. 3 seed and defending champion Chen Long of China in the final, defeating his opponent in 2 sets (21-17, 21-13) to become the first Japanese player to win the men’s singles title at the Asian Championships.
After climbing to sixth in the world rankings, Kento Momota entered the men’s singles event at the World Badminton Championships in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, in late July 2018 as the sixth seed, and ended up becoming the first men’s singles champion from Japan in the 41-year history of the World Badminton Championships tournament, defeating China’s Shi Yuqi in the final in straight sets (21-11, 21-13) once again.
In the second half of 2018, Kento Momota became the first player from his home country to win the men’s singles title by winning the Japan Open in his hometown, and also advanced to the final of the China Open the following week, where he lost to Indonesia’s Kim Ting in straight sets (21-23, 19-21), but still reached the world No. 1 spot in the world rankings on September 27, 2018 with the points from the event, making him the first Japanese to achieve such a feat. He is the first Japanese men’s singles player to achieve this feat. In addition, Momota won the Super 750 Denmark Open and China Fuzhou Open twice and reached the semifinals twice (France, Hong Kong). With his excellent performance throughout the year, Momota surpassed the 100,000 world ranking points mark on November 15, becoming the third player to do so after Lee Chong Wei and Chen Long, and was seeded No. 2 for the BWF World Tour Finals in Guangzhou, China, where he was defeated by China’s Shi Yuqi by a 0-2 (12-21, 11-21) margin in the final, and was denied a second Finals title.
In 2019, Kento Momota won a total of 11 tournaments including the All England Badminton Open, Japan Badminton Open, World Badminton Championships, China Badminton Open, Korea Badminton Open, and Badminton World Federation Tour Finals. With his outstanding play, Kento Momota broke the badminton record of ten titles in a single season, previously held by Lee Chong Wei, and was selected as the 2019 WBF Male Athlete of the Year as well as being certified by Guinness World Records.
2020: After winning the 2020 Malaysian Badminton Masters on 12 January, Momota suffered head injuries in a car accident on Lombok Boulevard on the 13th before returning from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang District, Selangor, while the driver of the vehicle in which he was travelling died on the spot.
On 3 January 2021, Momota was diagnosed with COVID-19, and was expected to fly to Thailand to prepare for the Thailand Open, which began on the 12th, as his diagnosis also led to the cancellation of the entire team’s expedition.In 2021, he competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where he was accidentally eliminated by Koh Kwan Hee during group qualifying for the men’s singles event.On 21 November, Kendo Momota was defeated in the men’s singles final of the Indonesia Badminton Masters, 2-0 ( 21-17, 21-11) over Anders Andonsson to collect his first title in 2021 and end a 22-month title drought.
At the 2023 Korea Badminton Masters, Kento Momota defeated China’s Lei Lanxi 2-0 (21:10 21:19) in the semi-finals to reach the final of the Superseries tournament after the Malaysia Open last July. He succeeded in winning the title after picking off teammate Hang Gui Watanabe 2-0 (21:16 21:15) in two sets in the final, breaking his 24-month long title drought on the BWF Tour following the Indonesia Masters in November 2021.
On 18 April 2024, Japanese star Kento Momota announced at a press conference in Tokyo that he would officially retire from international competition after the Tangyu Cup, and that his last match for Japan would be the Tangyu Cup Finals in Chengdu on 27 April.
