Japan's Kento Momota. — IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star
PETALING JAYA: Badminton fans' hopes of seeing former world No. 1 men's singles star Kento Momota in action again was dashed after he was forced to withdraw from the Lin Dan Cup.
The Japanese ace was due to play in the tournament from July 25-27 in Xian, China but unfortunately had to pull out due to a back surgery, after being diagnosed with lumbar disc herniation, his management agency announced.
Chinese great Lin Dan, who founded the tournament which offers a lucrative total prize purse of 850,000 yuan (approximately RM500,000), delivered the news via his social media page.
"Momota had to withdraw from the Lin Dan Cup due to illness," said Lin Dan.
"I hope he can fully recover and return to court as soon as possible. I hope he can still come to Xian to meet the fans."
Momota's absence from the tourney is a blow as he was once one of most successful players in the world.
The 30-year-old remarkably won 11 titles in 2019 and suffered just six defeats out of 73 matches that year.
Momota also captured back-to-back world titles in 2018 (Nanjing) and 2019 (Basel).
However, his career took a downturn after a car accident in 2020 following his Malaysian Masters victory, which severely affected his performance.
Momota eventually made the difficult decision to retire in April last year.
In his absence, the foreign players due to compete in the tournament include Thailand's 2019 World Championship bronze medallist Kantaphon Wangcharoen, South Korea’s Cho Geon-yeop, Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen and Japan’s Riki Takei.
Malaysia will also be represented by Tan Jia Jie and Cheam June Wei.
