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.
Matsutomo Misaki (Japanese:まつとも みさき, February 8, 1992), born in Ranzumachi, Itano-gun, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, is a Japanese women’s badminton player, and an active member of the Japan national badminton team (A team). Her duo with Reika Takahashi debuted at No. 1 in the women’s doubles world rankings on October 30, 2014, becoming the first Japanese duo to reach No. 1 in the world rankings, and were dubbed the “Twinkie Duo” by the media and fans. The pair won the 2016 Olympic Games, defeating the Danish pair of Kristina Petersen/Camilla Rütter Juhl, winning Japan’s first Olympic gold medal in badminton.
Misaki Matsutomo, who had already fallen in love with badminton at an early age by her mother, began competing in badminton at the age of six, winning several women’s singles titles at national competitions during her elementary and junior high school years. After graduating from Tokushima City Tokushima Junior High School, Matsutomo moved to St. Ursula’s College Eiji High School in Miyagi Prefecture, where she helped her school win the girls’ singles, girls’ doubles, and team championships at the National High School Competition in her second year.
Misaki Matsutomo began playing with fellow senior Reika Takahashi in her freshman year of high school, and the pair made their debut in the adult category at the 2008 All-Japan Badminton Championships, where they reached the semifinals and won third place, and then went on to win their first adult event, the Osaka International Challenge in April 2009, defeating the two national pairs of Shizuka Matsuo / Makoto Naito and Ruihei Fujii / Rinka Gaki in the rounds of eight and semifinals. Rinka Iwaki, winning their first adult international title. In the same year, Misaki Matsutomo made her debut as a national player, playing in the Belgium International Badminton Championships, where she was runner-up in the women’s singles and won the women’s doubles title.
In the same year, Misaki Matsutomo failed to defend her women’s singles title at the National High School Championships, but reached the women’s singles semifinals of the All-Japan Badminton Championships in December, losing only to Eriko Hirose, the Olympic representative of the national team, and finishing third.
In 2010, Misaki Matsutomo and Reika Takahashi were both selected for the Japan National Badminton Team, and after graduating from high school, they joined the Unisys Badminton Team. They won the Women’s Doubles title at the All Japan Socialist Badminton Championships and placed third at the All Japan Comprehensive Badminton Championships, and reached the quarterfinals of the Korean Badminton Premier Tournament in the same year.
In April 2010, Misaki Matsutomo competed in the World Junior Badminton Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she lost 1-2 (13-21, 21-16, 10-21) in the women’s singles final against Thailand’s Rachano Indanon.
In 2011, Misaki Matsutomo decided to give up singles and concentrate on doubles in order to qualify for the following year’s Olympic Games in London. However, her results in this year were mediocre, and she only reached the final of the Russian Grand Prix of Badminton with Regina Takahashi, losing to the Russian team of Valeria Sorokina and Nina Veslova 0-2 (20-22, 18-21) and coming in second place.
In August of the same year, Misaki Matsutomo participated in the Women’s Doubles event at the World Badminton Championships in London, England. She and Takahashi were seeded 15th, but lost to Japanese teammates Misun Maeda / Satoko Suezuna, seeded 3rd, 1-2 (21-18, 15-21, 17-21) in the round of 16. In December of the same year, they won their first ever Women’s Doubles title at the All Japan Integrated Badminton Championships.
In 2012, Misaki Matsutomo and Reika Takahashi made a big breakthrough in the international arena, winning the US Grand Prix Gold, the Canadian Grand Prix and the Indonesian Grand Prix Gold, and helping their national team to a third place finish in the Uber Cup in Wuhan. However, they were unable to qualify for the London Olympics due to national quota restrictions.
Misaki Matsutomo and Reika Takahashi reached a new high of No. 2 in the world rankings on March 20, 2013; they reached the quarterfinals of several Super Series events during the year, including India, Japan, Denmark, and Hong Kong, and were runners-up in Malaysia and Singapore.
In June 2014, Misaki Matsutomo competed in the Japan Badminton Superseries with Reika Takahashi and Kenichi Hayakawa, respectively, and won the first Superseries women’s doubles title of her badminton career by defeating the tournament’s No. 4 seeds and teammates, Rinka Kakiiwa/Misun Maeda, 2-0 (21-13, 21-14) in the women’s doubles final, while the mixed doubles semifinalists fell to the tournament’s top seed, China’s Zhang Nan, 0-2 (14-21, 13-21) in the mixed doubles quasi-finals. top seeds, Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei of China.
In December 2014, Misaki Matsutomo and Reika Takahashi played in the BWF Super Series Finals, and in the final, they played very well, sweeping China’s Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei in straight sets, 2-0 (21-17, 21-14), to win their first women’s doubles title in the BWF Year-End Finals, and also the first Japanese duo to win the event.
In March 2016, Misaki Matsutomo and Reika Takahashi competed in the All England Badminton Premier Superseries, defeating the tournament’s No. 6 seed Tang Yuanli/Yu Yang of China 2-0 (21-10, 21-12) in the women’s doubles final to win their first All England Women’s Doubles Championships title, and the first Japanese women’s doubles pair to win the event. In April of the same year, she competed in the Asian Badminton Championships in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, with Reika Takahashi. In the final, she defeated teammate Shoko Fukumi/Yutaka Walnut in straight sets, 2-0 (21-13, 21-15), to win the Asian Championships women’s doubles title for the first time, and was the first Japanese women’s doubles team to win the event.
In August 2016, Misaki Matsutomo represented Japan for the first time in the women’s doubles event at the Olympic Games badminton tournament held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, playing with Reika Takahashi as the No. 1 seed. In the final, facing Denmark’s Kristina Petersen/Camilla Rütter Juhl, after a 3-set thriller, Misaki Matsutomo and Reika Takahashi recovered two consecutive sets after falling in the first set to win 2-1 (18-21, 21-9, 21-19) and win the first badminton gold medal for Japan at the Olympics.
In April 2017, Misaki Matsutomo and Reika Takahashi participated in the Asian Badminton Championships held in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, and in the final, they welcomed the current dark horse, Hye-Rin Kim/Hae-Won Ryu of South Korea, and defeated their opponents 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, Misaki Matsutomo and Reika Takahashi competed in the Indonesia Masters Badminton Championships and won the women’s doubles final, defeating the tournament’s eighth seed and Indonesian powerhouse, Gracia Poli/Apriliani Rahayu, 2-0 (21-17, 21-12).
