Source:REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
[Saba Sports News] That year, Kento Momota stood on the year-end champion podium, with the Guinness World Record certification for “Most Tournament Wins in a Single Season” behind him. At that time, his eyes were shining with ambition. How formidable was Momota in 2018? To put it simply, the men’s singles circuit that year formed a unique “Momota ecosystem.” Behind his 11 titles that year was a web of dominance woven from 67 victories—a record that still glimmers coldly in the halls of history. Fate, however, loves to press pause at the peak. The car accident in Malaysia not only caused a fracture in Momota’s eye socket but also, bizarrely, led to the discovery of dysfunction in his right eye during a follow-up examination. He later said that for a period, he would see triple images of the high-speed shuttlecock. When you lose the ability to communicate with your own body, that despair is more crushing than any physical pain. Even more cruel was his positive COVID-19 test in January 2021 upon his return, causing him to miss the final adjustment period. The true difficulty is never leaving the peak, but learning to make peace with one’s ordinary self. Some always compare Kento Momota to Lin Dan. But in the eyes of some fans, Lin Dan is an eternally shining star, while Kento Momota is more like a meteor streaking across the night sky – precisely because it is brief, its brilliant burn is all the more memorable.