One of the Biggest Upsets at Tokyo Olympics 2020 as Badminton Top Seed Tumbles Out
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The Tokyo Olympics 2020 in Japan witnessed one of the biggest upsets of the tournament as world no. 1 Badminton star, Kento Momota, crashed out of the tournament. Momota, who was one of Japan’s biggest bids for a gold medal, bowed out to world no. 47 and unseeded Heo Kwang-Hee.
It was a rather underwhelming performance for the superstar player as his shots failed to find the range throughout the contest.
He exits the tournament in the first round and only in the second match. This was Momota’s first appearance at the Olympic stage, as he was banned for the Rio Olympics in 2016 after gambling at a casino months before the tournament.
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Badminton throws out a huge upset. 2x world champion Kento Momota just exited the Olympics in the group stage beaten by world number 47 Heo Kwang-hee.
— jonathan selvaraj (@jon_selvaraj) July 28, 2021
Momota was in fantastic form, heading into the Olympics. He had won a total of 11 titles last year. The Japanese star lost only 6 out of his 73 matches throughout the year.
However, his performance was quite bizarre today, to say the least. Momota had an ironic grin on his face as he continuously failed to place his shots at the desired targets.
He eventually succumbed to a straight-set defeat with the contest scored 21-15 and 21-19. It took Kwang-Hee only 52 minutes to make an easy work of the World No.1.
Kento Momota is the recent Japanese superstar to bow out of the Tokyo Olympics 2020
Superstars like Momota, Naomi Osaka, and Kohei Uchimura were some of Japan’s biggest hopes for the gold medal in the Summer Olympics.
However, all 3 of them have already crashed out of the tournament. ‘King Kohei’ didn’t manage to qualify for his gymnastic event after failing to reach the finals of the high bar.
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Osaka, the World No.2 and winner of 4 Grand Slam tournaments, suffered the same fate as well. Her exit was one of the biggest shocks of the tournament. Now, Momota is another monumental name to have an unexpected exit.
To add salt to the wounds of an early exit, the fact that the Olympic games are taking place on their home soil will make the athletes much more disappointed.
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They would have loved to put on a show in their native land. But, unfortunately, this was the end of the road for some of the biggest Japanese stars.