JAKARTA, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Japan confirmed three final berths in 2018 Indonesia Open international badminton championship after its men's singles shuttler Kento Momota outclassed Malaysian ace Lee Chong Wei in the semifinal match here on Saturday.
The tournament's 2015 champion Momota stopped the six-time Indonesia Open champion in a 2-game match lasted 52 minutes, ending with scores of 23-21 and 21-12.
Kento's win in the last semifinal match has wrapped Japan's success to place three final berths after his compatriots reached finals in men's doubles and women's doubles earlier.
Momota would take on the No. 1 Danish shuttler Viktor Axelsen in the final of the tournament, which is entitled HSBC BWF World Tour Super 1000 that offers a total prize of 1.25 million U.S. dollars.
Japanese No. 7 shuttlers Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko would vie against the No. 1 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo from Indonesia, who defeated the Japan's duo in Japan Open last year.
"If we were allowed to choose, we want to compete against Marcus and Kevin. In Japan we were defeated by them. In Indonesia Open final, who knows we can defeat them in their own country," Inoue said.
Spoke highly to his opponents in the final match, Inoue said that Marcus and Kevin have almost perfect power, speed and skills to play the game.
The Indonesian mixed doubles players have set a BWF record to win seven of its super series tournaments last year, an unprecedented phenomenon in BWF history.
In women's doubles, Japan would see all-Japan final match-up this year, reinstating their domination in category after its win in Uber Cup championship in May this year.
The 2016 Rio Olympics gold medalists shuttlers Misaki Matsumoto and Ayaka Takahashi will play against their compatriots Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in the final match slated for Sunday.
The No. 5 Japanese pairing of Matsumoto and Takahashi were the winners of Indonesia Masters international badminton tournament, where they defeated another Japan's pair Greysa Polii and Apriyani Rahayu here in January this year. Enditem
