Japan’s Fujiwara upsets men’s No. 1 seed

Japan’s Keisuke Fujiwara yesterday upset men’s No. 1 seed Viren Nettasinghe of Sri Lanka in the Round of 16 of the Badminton World Federation Grade 3 International Challenge tournament—the Crowne Plaza Northern Marianas Open 2024—yesterday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

Fujiwara controlled the points throughout the match as all the 21-year-old Nettasinghe could do was play catchup. The upset was palpable after the first set was taken by Fujiwara, 21-17.

The upset then became inevitable after a laboring Nettasinghe trudged on in the second set. But with sheer willpower and some mistakes by Fujiwara, Nettasinghe managed to sneak his last few points in after Fujiwara created some unforced errors on his returns.

However, Fujiwara locked in after that and held down Nettasinghe, 21-16.

Then, just as the men’s matchup finished, the women’s singles between No. 1 Chinese Taipei’s Hsiang Ti Lin and teammate Yu Wei Peng raged on in its final points.

Lin battled her way past the second set as Peng flirted with a rally and a tie-breaking third set, but Lin wrapped it up with consecutive points, 21-18. Lin won the first set, 21-14.

At press time, not all matches are finished.

In singles match results, women’s No. 3 seed Kaoru Sugiyama bested Hsin-Pei Tsai, 21-16, 21-12; No. 5 seed Ching Ping Huang fell to unseeded Yue Yann Hooi, 18-21, 16-21; and No. 6 seed Akari Kurihara edged Siang Syuan Lin, 22-20, 21-7.

Unseeded Arena Samin won over No. 7 Riko Gunji via walkover; No. 8 Yu-Hsuan Lee lost to Mihane Endo, 10-21, 17-21; and No. 4 Asuka Takahashi fell to Sakura Masuki, 19-21, 18-21.

In the men’s singles, No. 2 Kuan Lin Kuo dominated Kwang Hee Heo, 21-8, 21-12; No. 4 seed Ryoma Muramoto won over Chen Jia Chu, 21-15, 21-13; No. 5 seed Justin Hoh beat Ping-Hsien Huang, 21-15, 21-17; No. 7 Yu Huang battled it out against Saran Jamsri, 19-21, 21-19, 21-18; Cheng Kai blasted past Wongsup Wongsup-In 21-5, 21-17; and Cheng-Han Tsai edged Pyeong Gang Choi, 23-21, 21-11.

For Fujiwara, he said he decided to “attack aggressively” and when he won and upset the tourney’s No. 1 seed, he was “relieved,” In his next match, he said, “I plan to approach it with a confident attitude.”

As for Hsiang Ti Lin, she said she didn’t feel like she played her best despite her win. On how she pushed through and got the win anyhow, she said that being left-handed is an advantage as the angle of her returns is different than right-handed players. For her next match, she hopes she is able to believe in herself and do her best to win again.