JAPAN OPEN 2019 Day 1 – Rio champion’s Olympic rehearsal cut short

World #17 Kanta Tsuneyama, in the opening match of the 2019 Japan Open, cut short Rio Olympic gold medallist Chen Long’s last appearance here before the Tokyo Olympics.

By Miyuki Komiya, Badzine Correspondent live in Tokyo.  Photos: Yves Lacroix / Badmintonphoto(live)

The Japan Open got underway on July 23 at Musashino Forest Sport Plaza in Tokyo, in a slight change for this tournament, which is usually held in September.  Players are taking advantage of the opportunity to test the Olympic venue at roughly the same temperature as during the Tokyo Olympics next year.  But men’s singles world #2 and #3 were forced to withdraw and reigning Olympic champion Chen Long is probably feeling that he too would have liked to test these courts out a lot more, as he went out on the first day of competition.

The opening match of this tournament was men’s singles between Chen Long of China and Japan’s own Kanta Tsuneyama (pictured).  Tsuneyama led from the beginning of the first game with his pace and got the opening game easily 21-14.

Olympic champion Chen Long (pictured right) was able to reverse his ill fortunes and took a good lead at the beginning of second game, going up 8-3, but Tuneyama played patiently and caught the Chinese star at 10-all.

Soon after the interval Tsuneyama found his pace and rattled off 7 consecutive points.  Chen didn’t give up, but it was too late to catch his opponent.  The Japanese 23-year-old got his first ever win from the world #5 and two-time World Champion Chen Long 21-14, 21-17.

“I’m very happy to win against Chen Long because he is a great player,” Tsuneyama said after the match.  “The shuttle was not slow like last year.  I could adapt to the court and performed very well.  Also, I was able to maintain my pace throughout the match patiently.

“I can’t really control what happens with the points for the Olympic qualification.  What I have to do is just to do my best performance in every rally.”

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