Rio Olympic gold medal-winning pair Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo came from behind to retain their national badminton title in women's doubles Sunday, defeating Koharu Yonemoto and Shiho Tanaka 16-21, 21-19, 21-14 in the final for their fifth overall win.
"In the end we came to realize we couldn't lose here," said Takahashi, with the pair's sights firmly set on the Super Series finals starting Dec. 14 in Dubai. "We're nowhere near the condition we were in at the Olympics. We'll try to have good practice over the next week."
Takahashi and Matsutomo took their first two matches in the tournament at Yoyogi No. 2 Gymnasium with straight-game wins, but had to come from behind to beat Naru Shinoya and Chisato Hoshi in the quarterfinals and shrug off Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota 21-16, 17-21, 21-17 in the semis.
In the women's singles, 2012 London Olympian Sayaka Sato defeated Akane Yamaguchi, who reached the last eight at the Rio Games in August, 21-18, 21-17 for her first national title.
"I believe I'm still behind Yamaguchi and (Rio bronze medalist Nozomi) Okuhara," said Sato, who did not compete in Rio de Janeiro. "I'll brush up on both my technique and mentality and hope to compete at the (2020) Tokyo Games."
In the men's singles, Kenta Nishimoto edged Kazumasa Sakamoto in full sets for his maiden title. Keigo Sonoda and Takeshi Nakamura won their second straight championship beating Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe in men's doubles.