Men's world No. 2 Kento Momota suffered an upset in the second-round of the men's singles competition at the BWF World Championships on Wednesday, losing for the first time in nine career matches against India's H.S. Prannoy.
Ranked 18th in the world, Prannoy defeated Momota 21-17, 21-16 in 54 minutes on the third day of the event at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. Momota has not advanced past the second round since his back-to-back world championships in 2018 and 2019.
"I got nervous and I played cautiously," Momota said. "I shriveled up at the thought of making mistakes and was unable to do the things that got me here."
Kodai Naraoka also crashed out in men's singles, losing 21-18, 21-11 to Kunlavut Vitidsarn. The Thai 16th seed will face Kenta Nishimoto in the third round.
Nishimoto, the last Japanese in the men's singles draw, came from behind to beat Sweden's Felix Burestedt 14-21, 21-7, 21-13.
No. 3 seeded pair Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino defeated Scotland's Alexander Dunn and Ciara Torrance 21-12, 21-7 in mixed doubles, while 12th-seeded duo Yuki Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo lost 19-21, 21-11, 21-17 to Singapore's Terry Hee Yong Kai and Jessica Tan Wei Han.
No. 2 seeds Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota withdrew from their women's doubles match after Fukushima suffered a calf-muscle strain.
In men's doubles, 16th seeds Akira Koga and Taichi Saito needed three games to beat compatriots Keiichiro Matsui and Yoshinori Takeuchi 21-17, 19-21, 21-15.
