18, two-time World Championship champion Momota Kento lost to Chinese player Zhao Junpeng 0:2 and missed the second round of men's singles at the 2022 Thailand Badminton Open. We are already embarrassed to use words like "upset" and "shocked" to describe Momota Kento's defeat, because "a bad start" and "a round trip" have become his normal performance this season. Kento Momota has participated in four competitions so far this year. In addition to reaching the top 8 of the All England , German Open, , Asian Championships and this Thailand Open were all eliminated in the first round. In the Thomas Cup that ended last week, the results of the Japanese team led by Momota Kento were not much better. They were only qualified in the semi-finals. This was inconsistent with Momota’s vow to win the first place in team history before the game. The goal of the second crown is far away. Momota did not shoulder the important task of leading the team well in the Thomas Cup . In the group stage, he competed with Malaysia for the top spot, and when he faced Indonesia in the semi-finals, he was defeated by Li Zijia and Jin Ting respectively. photographed. Regarding the Thomas Cup result that the team got, Momota felt that he had tried his best. After all, "I gave everything I had."
At his peak, Momota was good at playing protracted games, with a combination of golf intelligence, physical fitness and explosive power.
Looking back on how prosperous Momota Kento was in 2019, he rewrote the previous record of 10 championships set by Lee Chong Wei with 11 championships in the season. Momota, who had already won, announced to the world that his time had come. But later it was proved that this era had come, but it was very short-lived. The car accident in early 2020 became the trigger of this incident.
Japanese media are also not very optimistic about Momota's future prospects
The 27-year-old was almost forced to retire after suffering an orbital floor fracture in a car accident. Momota said he had a "near mental breakdown" as he tried to recover from the accident. However, after a period of adjustment after surgery, Momota fully recovered and participated in the Tokyo Olympics held on home soil last July as a gold medal favorite. But his Olympic dreams were shattered when he was eliminated in the group stage, with Momota admitting his killer instinct had deserted him and blaming his shock exit on his "weaknesses". In fact, not only because of his weakness, the infection with and new crown in January 2021 also disrupted his rhythm of returning to the game to a certain extent.
Momota is currently ranked second in the world. After falling from the altar, it seems that he can no longer find the sunny avenue full of flowers and applause.
Of course, the story that happened to Momota was not just collapse and failure, but also scandal and backlash. In April 2016, he admitted gambling in an illegal casino with a companion and was removed from the Japanese Olympic Corps and sentenced to an indefinite ban. A year later, Momota returned to the competition and began to make up for lost time, defeating then Rio Olympic champion Chen Long to win the Asian championship in April 2018, and then worked hard to regain his ranking. In 2019, Momota's comeback reached a climax when he won a record-breaking 11 championships, including the World Championship, , Asian Championship and the All England Open. The left-handed player lost just six of 73 games that year and admitted that his form surprised even himself.
In November 2021, winning the Indonesian Masters championship may become the last good memory of Momota's career.
The last time Momota won the men's singles championship was back in the Indonesia Masters in November 2021, when he broke the 22-month championship drought. But this kind of "eureka" performance is no longer enough to support his inclusion among the top men's singles players in today's world badminton. Moreover, with the increase of age, the decline of physical function, and the gradual growth of opponents, the current Momota has no signs of a comeback. In fact, Momota himself knew this well. In April of this year, before going overseas to participate in the BWF World Tour, Momota analyzed himself: "I never hit a ball with confidence. The most important thing is to see that 'the condition seems to be bad' or 'the former Momota has returned. Comments like 'I'm not coming' are very sad and I just try not to take them too seriously."
