The Japanese favorites reached the quarterfinals of their domestic badminton tournament, the BWF Japan Open 2024with Naraoka-Kodai – Reviews (Men’s Singles) and Aya Ohori And Yamaguchi Akane (Women’s Singles) won in the second round on Thursday (22 August).
Their victories meant that three of the four Japanese seeds in the two singles draws advanced to the respective quarterfinals of the tournament. However, Okuhara Nozomi, the eighth seed in the women’s event, was defeated by fellow countrywoman Nidaira Natsuki without a fight.
Naraokawho had to play three games in the first round, also had to hold out until the end in the round of 16 match against the Malaysian. Leong Jun Hao in a marathon competition that took 85 minutes to decide.
Leong won the opening game 23-21, with both men exchanging the lead several times, and although Naraoka dominated the second game as the less experienced Malaysian appeared to tire, the decider was again close.
The Malaysian initially took the lead before Naraoka equalised at 11:11 and scored 10 of the last 14 points to secure the win with 21:23, 21:10 and 21:15.
Naraoka will next face Wang Tzu-wei of Chinese Taipei. The only other seed in the men’s singles is world number one Shi Yuqi (People’s Republic of China), which is located in the other half of Naraoka. Shi defeated Lin Chun-yi of Chinese Taipei 21-14, 21-17.
