BWF Japan Open 2024: Home favourites Yamaguchi, Naraoka through; Antonsen and Loh out
Women's second seed Yamaguchi Akane and men's eighth seed Naraoka Kodai are through to the second round in Yokohama, but both Denmark's Anders Antonsen and Singapore's Loh Kean Yew exited at the first stage.
Badminton
Japan's hopes of seeing their shuttlers clinch their home badminton tournament, the BWF Japan Open 2024, received a boost on Wednesday (21 August) as their biggest stars made it through the first round while other seeds faltered.
Women's singles second seed Yamaguchi Akane enjoyed a straight-games 21-14, 21-18 win over Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong to book a second-round meeting with Denmark's Line Højmark Kjærsfeldt, who saw off Zhang Yiman from People's Republic of China in a three-game thriller.
With unseeded Suzu Manami also progressing against Chinese Taipei's Hsu Wen-Chi, it means there are five Japanese shuttlers in the last 16 of the women's singles draw in Yokohama, including all three seeds: Yamaguchi, sixth-seeded Ohori Aya, and eighth-seeded Ozuhara Nozomi.
In men's singles, Naraoka Kodai, the eighth seed, needed to come from behind against Hong Kong China's Lee Cheuk Yiu, but the Japanese player secured his progress to round two with an 18-21, 21-9, 21-19 victory.
His path to the final in his half of the draw now appears unobstructed by other seeds after third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark retired injured at 1-6 down in the opening game of his clash against Indian Sathish Kumar Karunakaran.
Naraoka, who is also one of five Japanese men in the last 16, next plays Malaysia's Leong Jun Hao.
Compatriot Tsuneyama Kanta will play Chinese Taipei's Wang Tzu-Wei after Wang scored a victory over Singapore's 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew.
Loh, coming off a quarter-final appearance at the Olympic Games in Paris, found himself on the wrong end of a close 18-21, 16-21 defeat.