Indian Open 2023 results: Including Kento Momota, 3 former world champions from Japan lifting baggage

Posted On: March 3, 2023

COMPAS.com – The first day of the Indian Open 2023, Tuesday (17/1/2023), brought many surprises.

In total, three former world champions from Japan were immediately eliminated in the first round or in the top 32 of the Indi Open 2023.

They are Kento Momota, Nozomi Okuhara and Takuro Hoki Kobayashi.

Kento Momota, who appeared first, couldn’t do much against Denmark’s men’s singles, Rasmus Gemke.

Competing at KD Jadhhav Indoor Haal, New Delhi, India, Kento Momota lost in two consecutive matches with a final score of 15-21, 11-21.

The loss to Rasmus Gemke further exacerbated the performance trend for Kento Momota, who finally returned to the BWF tournament after nearly six months away.

Cited by the BWF, the former 2018 and 2019 world champion has been knocked out seven times in the first round in his last 10 BWF tournaments.

These stats further reinforce the idea that Kento Momota is still struggling to get up and get back to his best performance after being in a car accident in January 2020.

More recently, Kento Momota has also just recovered from a cold which forced him to miss the Malaysian Open 2023 last week.

Regarding his current condition, Kento Momota admits that he will work very hard throughout this year to get his physical appearance back to normal.

“I find it hard to control him,” Momota said after the loss to Rasmus Gemke as quoted by the BWF.

“I recovered from the flu; physically I feel good. I just need to work harder for the rest of the year,” said the 28-year-old.

Shortly after Kento Momota lost to Rasmus Gemke, Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi also had to pick up the suitcase.

Hockey/Kobayashi fell after losing back-to-back matches to South Korean men’s doubles Kang Min Hyuk/Seo Seung Jae.

The final match score for both pairs was 21-13 and 21-18 for Kang/Seo victory.

This result is certainly surprising given that Hoki/Kobayashi are the former 2021 men’s doubles champions.

Not only that, Hoki/Kobayashi also holds the 1st seeded status in men’s doubles at India Open 2023.

Last week, Hoki/Kobayashi were also eliminated in the first round of the Malaysian Open 2023 after losing to Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medalists Lee Yang/Wang Chi-lin.

Meanwhile, Nozomi Okuhara is the third former Japanese world champion to have had to carry a suitcase in the first round of Indian Open 2023.

Nozomi Okuhara was eliminated this time after losing in a direct match against Carolina Marin (Spain) with a score of 13-21, 18-21.

Just like Hoki/Kobayashi, Nozomi Okuhara also fell fast in the first round of the Malaysian Open 2023 last week.

Nozomi Okuhara at this time couldn’t do much and gave up via straight match defeating Chen Yu Fei (China).

After losing to Carolin Marin, Nozomi Okuhara mentioned the condition of her knee.

Nozomi Okuhara said the condition of her knee, which had been “touched up” several times on the operating table, continued to improve.

However, the former 2015 women’s singles world champion admitted that her current fitness is still not 100%.

“This year I was an underdog, so the first game was last week and this week was tough, against tough opponents,” Nozomi said as quoted by BWF.

“My condition is not perfect. Last week against Chen Yu Fei, I couldn’t really get into the rally,” the 27-year-old said.

“However, today (against Carolina Marin) I was able to play a few rallies. So I feel like I’m better,” Nozomi said.

“My knee is fine, but my physical condition is not good enough to challenge the best players,” said the Rio 2016 Olympics bronze medalist.

“I need more time to get back to my best condition,” added Nozomi Okuhara.

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