Kento Momota (top left) during the game. Momota Kento lost again! On April 27, local time, in the first round of the Badminton Asian Championships, Japanese badminton superstar Kento Momota, who dominated the world men's singles two and a half years ago, lost 1:2 to Indonesian no

Momota Kento (top left) during the game.

Momota Kento lost again! On April 27, local time, in the first round of the Badminton Asian Championships, Japanese badminton superstar Kento Momota, who dominated the world men's singles two and a half years ago, lost 1:2 to Indonesian non-main player Waduyu, and once again suffered a "first round trip". ".

"One-round tour" has become the norm

Although Kento Momota is no longer the Kento Momota of 2019, everyone still lists him as the most powerful contender for the men's singles championship in this week's Badminton Asian Championships. Not only because he is the top seed in men's singles, but also because no one knows whether the former king will make a comeback this time. After all, he still seems to have the strength.

But reality once again cruelly proves that the current Kento Momota is really no longer the Kento Momota in 2019. 21:17, 17:21, 7:21, this is a score that the former Momota Kento is unlikely to see, even against Axelsen, Chen Long, Shi Yuqi and other world-class players, but such a score , really appeared on Momota Kento, and the opponent was just an unknown person who couldn't even be ranked among the main players in Indonesia.

We can no longer use words like "upset" and "shocked" to describe Momota Kento's defeat, because "one round trip" has even become his normal performance this year - the three stops he participated in In the competition, except for losing to the Malaysian brother Li Zijia in the quarter-finals of the All England Open, the German Open and the Asian Championships both lost in the first round. It seems that after seeing it so much, it is not surprising.

was knocked down by a car accident and the new crown

After winning the World Championships in 2018, Momota Kento became the darling of men's singles in the world. In 2019, he broke the previous record of 10 championships set by Lee Chong Wei with 11 championships in the season. Under the sun, everyone is saying: The era of Momota Kento has arrived!

But after this era came briefly, it passed even faster. Everything stems from the car accident at the beginning of 2020. After reaching the Malaysian Masters championship podium, Momota was involved in a car accident on the way to the airport. Although his life was safe, he suffered multiple contusions on his face and a broken nose. After returning to Japan, he was diagnosed with a fractured eye socket. At the same time, the world badminton world has come to a halt due to the new crown epidemic.

Everything was looking up. Momota was going to return to the competition in early 2021, but he was found to be infected with the new coronavirus during an airport test before going to Thailand to compete, and his comeback was stalled again. He made a hasty comeback at the All England in March of that year and failed in the quarter-finals. Then at the Tokyo Olympics, he lost to the little-known South Korean player Heo Gong-hee at home and failed to qualify in the group.

If it was the car accident and the new crown that prevented Momota Kento from soaring into the Tokyo Olympics, would it be better to start over in the new Paris cycle? Disappointingly, they lost to Li Zijia and Shi Yuqi in the semi-finals and finals of the Soviet Union Cup, and lost to Xu Qianxi again in the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup. Kento Momota is no longer the strongest scoring weapon of the Japanese team, and the Denmark Open failed. The enemy Axelsen won the runner-up, and the new king of the world's men's singles has already changed hands in Tokyo.

Although the 2021 Indonesia Masters championship allowed Momota to break the 22-month championship drought, his "eureka" performance could not make Momota turn around. After that, he still missed the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Open. In addition, With even worse results in the three races this year, Momota seems to be unable to return to his peak.

Psychological trauma is difficult to heal

For Momota Kento, in addition to the physical trauma, the subsequent psychological trauma may have a longer-lasting impact on him, and the blow of the Tokyo Olympics has become another factor that overwhelms Momota Kento. Straw.

If he can quickly regain his form and get results after his return, then the rapid accumulation of confidence will help Momota Kento regain his previous form, but unfortunately it has not worked out, and the results have not been satisfactory to all parties. Kento Momota could only lose more and more confidence as he fought. Losing to Axelsen and Zijia Li was reasonable, but he frequently lost to second- and third-rate players, which made Momota feel uncomfortable.

In addition, as age increases, physical ability inevitably declines. Faced with the offensive style of play that is now popular in the world, Momota Kento is unable to resist. In the past, commendable defense required strong physical fitness as support, but now, His physical ability is no longer enough to support his defense, and he does not have good scoring methods offensively, so it is not surprising that he appears to be stretched thin in the game.

Momota Kento said that if the ideal state is 100, he only has 50 now, but now it seems that he has not reached 50. He also admitted that the main problem now is his mentality. If he wants to find confidence as soon as possible, winning is the fastest way, but where is victory?