BWF World Championships 2022: Nishimoto sends Antonsen packing
Nishimoto Kenta upended Anders Antonsen in an hour-long slugfest, 21-15, 21-19, to register one of the few upsets in the TotalEnergies BWF World Championships 2022 men’s singles first round.
This is the Japenese’s second career victory over the third ranked shuttler. His first win against the Dane was at the French Open in 2017.
The 27-year-old from Mie Prefecture strung together six points to take the lead in the second game, 7-4. Antonsen then retook the advantage, 14-13.
This was short lived though, as Nishimoto had a 6-1 run to send the game to match point. He is set to encounter Swedish stalwart Felix Burestedt, who defeated Adham Hatem Elgamal of Egypt, 21-9, 21-9.
Over in women’s singles, Kim Ga-eun of Korea beat Line Højmark Kjærsfeldt of Denmark, 21-13, 21-7.
In the first game, Kim never looked back after grabbing the upper hand from a 7-all deadlock. The victor then put the game away after notching seven consecutive points, 19-6, in the last game.
The Uber Cup Finals 2022 champion will be facing Takahashi Sayaka of Japan next.
Meanwhile, two Japanese men’s doubles teams stepped onto the second round after defeating their respective opponents.
Okamura Hiroki and Onodera Masayuki went past Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy of India, 21-11, 19-21, 21-15. Next on their schedule are Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia.
Matsui Keiichiro and Takeuchi Yoshinori had the better of Kang Min-hyuk and Kim Jae-hwan of Korea, 21-12, 21-7. They will clash against Koga Akira and Saito Taichi in the succeeding phase.
In women’s doubles, Vivian Hoo and Lim Chiew Sien find themselves skipping to the third round as 16th seeds Rachel Honderich and Kristen Tsai sat out the tournament. Before this, the Malaysians first dealt with Linda Efler and Isabel Lohau of Germany on the first round, 21-17, 21-15.
Finally, Chen Tang Jie and Peck Yen Wei of Malaysia had their first round match cut short with Mathew Fogarty and Isabel Zhong of the United States retiring on the second game. The score was at 19-2 in favor of the former.
Awaiting Chen and Peck on the following round are fourth ranked Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping of China.
Author Details
JP is an all-around sportswriter who covered the Bingo Bonanza Philippine Gold Grand Prix 2009. Aside from BWF badminton he follows football, basketball, and pro wrestling.
