PETALING JAYA: Japanese teen sensation Tomoka Miyazaki (pic) showed that she could be the heir to Akane Yamaguchi’s throne one day after pulling off a sensational win over her senior teammate to storm into the final of the China Open.
2022 world junior champion Miyazaki continued her dream run in the tournament with a brilliant 22-20, 21-15 victory over Yamaguchi at the Olympic Center Gymnasium in Changzhou yesterday.
The 18-year-old is only competing in her second Super 1000 event after making her debut in the Indonesian Open in June but showed maturity beyond her years against her more illustrious teammate to come away with the biggest win of her career so far.
It was sweet revenge for world No. 21 Miyazaki after she came second best to world No. 8 Yamaguchi in the Singapore Open in May.
The teen has another tough task in the final today against home favourite and world No. 5 Wang Zhiyi.
Zhiyi prevented an all-Japanese final by beating world No. 9 Aya Ohori 21-15, 21-18.
It was Miyazaki though who stole the show in what has been a stunning year for the youngster so far.
She captured the Orleans Masters title and toppled the likes to India’s 2019 world champion P. V. Sindhu and Ohori en-route to the semi-final of the Swiss Open in March.
Miyazaki also stunned Thailand’s 2013 world title winner Ratchanok Intanon to reach the last four of the Hong Kong Open last week.
She has been steadily climbing up the rankings this year and is currently the fourth ranked Japanese player in the women’s singles behind only Yamaguchi, Ohori and world No. 15 Nozomi Okuhara.
