1. Kento Momota is a former Japanese badminton player.
33 Facts About Kento Momota
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Kento Momota has won several major badminton tournaments including two World Championships titles, two Asian Championships titles, and one All England title.
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Kento Momota is known to be one of the top badminton players of all time.
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Kento Momota was born in Mitoyo, Kagawa Prefecture, and started playing badminton in the second grade of elementary school.
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Kento Momota entered junior high school in Fukushima Prefecture, and during his third year, he won the All Japan Junior High School Championship.
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Kento Momota has often cited his idols in badminton to be Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei whilst growing up and during training.
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Kento Momota gained more visibility when he took part in a bigger competition, the 2011 World Junior Championships held in Taipei, Taiwan.
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Towards the end of 2011, Kento Momota began to compete with his seniors in the All Japan Badminton Championship.
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Kento Momota joined the Japanese national team and was expected to become a future star.
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Kento Momota participated in the 2012 Asian Junior Championships held in Gimcheon, South Korea.
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Kento Momota's promising prospects attracted the attention of the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation.
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Kento Momota got used to dividing his time between work, practicing with the Japanese national team, and being active in his club.
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In 2013, having started in youth competition, Kento Momota was sent to compete at the International Challenge level.
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Kento Momota achieved satisfactory results in the International Challenge tournaments in Europe, emerging as champion in Estonia, Sweden and Austria.
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Kento Momota won all his matches during Japan's maiden Thomas Cup victory in 2014, playing second men's singles behind Kenichi Tago.
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Kento Momota made history at the 2015 BWF World Championships held in Jakarta.
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Kento Momota became the first Japanese player to win a medal in the men's singles event of the prestigious tournament.
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Kento Momota made it to the semi-finals before losing to Chen Long in straight games.
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Kento Momota competed at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, as well as the 2016 Badminton Asia Team Championships in Hyderabad, India.
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Kento Momota returned to the Japanese national team at the end of 2017.
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Kento Momota won 4 BWF World Tour titles: Indonesia Open, Japan Open, Denmark Open and Fuzhou China Open.
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Kento Momota became the first Japanese men's singles player to reach World number 1 in the BWF World rankings on 27 September 2018.
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Kento Momota started the 2019 season by competing at the Malaysia Masters as the first seed, but his run was stopped by Kenta Nishimoto in the first round.
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Kento Momota then reached the final of the Indonesia Masters but lost to Anders Antonsen of Denmark.
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Kento Momota claimed his first title in 2019 by winning the German Open, a Super 300 tournament.
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In doing so, Kento Momota became only the fourth player to win back-to-back titles, joining a short, all-Chinese list that includes Yang Yang, Lin Dan and Chen Long.
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Kento Momota was nominated as Best Male Athlete by the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive.
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Kento Momota began the 2020 season as the men's singles world number 1.
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Kento Momota was initially reported to have suffered a broken nose and injuries to his lips and face.
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At the Malaysia Open, Kento Momota made it through to his first final since winning the 2021 Indonesia Masters Super 750 event in November.
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Kento Momota received 2 walkovers: one against Kantaphon Wangcharoen and another when his opponent, Shesar Hiren Rhustavito, retired mid-match due to injury.
32.
On 7 April 2016, Kento Momota admitted visiting an illegal casino in Tokyo after casino staff reported him gambling there "frequently".
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Kento Momota was banned from playing until late 2017 for this.