The series of All England 2021 final has been completed on Sunday (21/3/2021). As a result, Japanese representatives dominated. They collect champions in four different numbers, namely women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
In the midst of Japan’s dominance in the All England 2021, one of their badminton players, Yuta Watanabe, became a star. Yuta Watanabe won championships in two different numbers, namely the men’s doubles and mixed doubles.
Yuta Watanabe also made a record thanks to this achievement. Launching by Badminton Talk, Yuta Watanabe became the first male player to win the men’s doubles and mixed doubles titles in one edition of the All England since 2000. Before Yuta Watanabe, the last male player to set a similar record was Kim Dong Moon.
In the All England 2021, Yuta Watanabe and Hiroyuki Endo won the men’s doubles after defeating fellow Japanese representatives, Takeshi Kamura / Keigo Sonoda. The duel between the Japanese men’s doubles team went so fiercely that it had to be determined through a rubber game.
After wading through a 1 hour 8 minute duel, Hiroyuki Endo / Yuta Watanabe finally defeated Takeshi Kamura / Keigo Sonoda with a score of 21-15, 17-21, and 21-11. With this win, Hiro Endo / Yuta Watanabe officially became the first Japanese men’s doubles to successfully defend the All England title. They are now in the same level with some of the best men’s doubles in the world, including Marcus Fernaldi Gideon / Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.
Currently, Endo / Watanabe and Marcus / Kevin have both won the All England title in two consecutive years. Endo / Watanabe won the All England championship in 2020 and 2021, while Marcus / Kevin won the championship in 2017 and 2018.
After winning the men’s doubles, Yuta Watanabe made a similar achievement when appearing with Arisa Higashino in the mixed doubles. At the peak of the match, Yuta Watanabe / Arisa Higashino defeated fellow Japanese representatives, Yuki Kaneko / Misaki Matsutomo, through straight games.
Following are the full results of All England 2021:
Men’s Singles
Lee Zii Jia (Malaysia) vs Viktor Axelsen (Denmark): 30-29, 20-22, 21-9
Women’s Singles
Pornpawee Chochuwong (Thailand) vs Nozomi Okuhara (Japan): 12-21 , 16-21
Men’s Doubles
Takeshi Kamura / Keigo Sonoda (Japan) vs Hiroyuki Endo / Yuta Watanabe (Japan): 15-21, 21-17, 11-21
Women’s Doubles
Yuki Fukushima / Sayaka Hirota (Japan) vs Mayu Matsumoto / Wakana Nagahara (Japan): 18-21, 16-21
Mixed Doubles
Yuki Kaneko / Misaki Matsutomo (Japan) vs Yuta Watanabe / Arisa Higashino (Japan): 14-21, 13-21
