Nozomi Okuhara

In 2011, the 16-year-old Okuhara became the youngest women's singles champion ever at the Japanese National Badminton Championships.

Okuhara was a runner-up at the Asian Junior Championships, and helps the team won the mixed team title. She later clinched the gold medal at the World Junior Championships, having won bronze one year earlier at the 2011 BWF World Junior Championships. In July, she won her first Grand Prix title at the Canada Open.

In 2013, she suffered a severe knee injury and was absent from an international tournament for 1 year.

In 2015, Okuhara won first Superseries title at Japan Open in the final defeating her great colleague Akane Yamaguchi with a score of 21–18, 21–12. At the end of the 2015 BWF season, she won the Dubai Superseries final where in the preliminary round and semifinals she succeeded in defeating world number 1 player Carolina Marin and in the final she beat Wang Yihan with a score of 22–20, 21–18.

In 2016, she won the prestigious All England Open after defeating Wang Shixian in the final with score 21–11, 16–21, 21–19, and thereby became the first Japanese women's singles player to lift this title in the past 39 years.[3] She won the bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She lost to P.V. Sindhu in the semi-finals, but won the bronze medal match against Li Xuerui of China in a walkover.

At the 2017 BWF World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, Okuhara reached the finals after back-to-back wins against both finalists from the 2015 BWF World Championships, Carolina Marín of Spain and Saina Nehwal of India. In a hard-fought final, featuring the longest match of the entire tournament, Okuhara then defeated P. V. Sindhu, winning by 21–19, 20–22, 22–20 in almost 2 hours.[4]

Okuhara started the year after coming back from knee injury. She reached the quarterfinals of All England Open but was defeated by her long-time rival P. V. Sindhu of India in three games.

In May, Okuhara helped Japan to win the Uber Cup after Japan beat Thailand by 3–0 in the final. Okuhara didn't lose any of her match in Uber cup.

Okuhara went to World Championships in Nanjing as defending champion but could not defend her title of 2017 after she lost to the player she beat in 2017 final P. V. Sindhu in 2 straight games in quarterfinals.

At that year, she reached five finals and won 3 among them: Thailand, Korea, and Hong Kong Opens. She completed the year ranked as number 2 in race to Guangzhou rankings and qualified for World Tour Finals. At the 2018 BWF World Tour Finals in Tianhe, Guangzhou, China, Okuhara reached the finals but lost in straight games, 19–21, 17–21, to P. V. Sindhu of India.[5]

In August, Okuhara had to settle for a silver medal at the 2019 BWF World Championships held in Basel, Switzerland after losing the World title to P.V. Sindhu of India with a score of 7–21, 7–21 in 36 minutes of the match. She succeeded in occupying the Ranking 1 of the world shifting Tai Tzu-ying on 29 October 2019.

She also contested the Denmark Open final, where she lost to Tai Tzu-ying with 17–21, 14–21 scores. She was the runner-up in 6th straight tournament, after her defeat in the hands of Chen Yufei in Fuzhou China Open with the scores 21–9, 12–21, 18–21. She took part in World Tour Finals in Guangzhou where she had best of starts; defeating all her opponents of group stage. But in semi finals, she was beaten by Tai Tzu-ying whom she has beaten in group stage earlier.

Okuhara started the season as the quarter-finalists in Malaysia Masters after getting unexpected defeat from Chinese He Bingjiao 17–21, 10–21.[6] Competed as the third seeds at the Indonesia Masters, she suffered an early upset had beaten by Carolina Marín in the second round with a score of 13–21, 15–21.[7] In March, she stopped in the semi-finals of All England Open to world number 1 Chen Yufei in a close straight games.[8]

Women's singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
2016	Riocentro – Pavilion 4, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Li Xuerui	Walkover	Bronze

Women's singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
2019	St. Jakobshalle, Basel, Switzerland	P. V. Sindhu	7–21, 7–21	Silver
2017	Emirates Arena, Glasgow, Scotland	P. V. Sindhu	21–19, 20–22, 22–20	Gold

Girls' singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
2012	Chiba Port Arena, Chiba, Japan	Akane Yamaguchi	21–12, 21–9	Gold
2011	Taoyuan Arena, Taoyuan& Taipei, Chinese Taipei	Ratchanok Inthanon	16–21, 16–21	Bronze

Girls' singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
2012	Gimcheon Indoor Stadium, Gimcheon, South Korea	P. V. Sindhu	21–18, 17–21, 20–22	Silver

The BWF World Tour, announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018,[9] is a series of elite badminton tournaments, sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Tour are divided into six levels, namely World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300 (part of the HSBC World Tour), and the BWF Tour Super 100.[10]

Women's singles

Year	Tournament	Level	Opponent	Score	Result
2019	Fuzhou China Open	Super 750	Chen Yufei	21–9, 12–21, 18–21	Runner-up
2019	Denmark Open	Super 750	Tai Tzu-ying	17–21, 14–21	Runner-up
2019	Japan Open	Super 750	Akane Yamaguchi	13–21, 15–21	Runner-up
2019	Australian Open	Super 300	Chen Yufei	15–21, 3–21	Runner-up
2019	Singapore Open	Super 500	Tai Tzu-ying	19–21, 15–21	Runner-up
2018	BWF World Tour Finals	World Tour Finals	P. V. Sindhu	19–21, 17–21	Runner-up
2018	Hong Kong Open	Super 500	Ratchanok Intanon	21–19, 24–22	Winner
2018	Fuzhou China Open	Super 750	Chen Yufei	10–21, 16–21	Runner-up
2018	Korea Open	Super 500	Zhang Beiwen	21–10, 17–21, 21–16	Winner
2018	Japan Open	Super 750	Carolina Marín	19–21, 21–17, 11–21	Runner-up
2018	Thailand Open	Super 500	P. V. Sindhu	21–15, 21–18	Winner

The BWF Superseries, launched on 14 December 2006 and implemented in 2007, is a series of elite badminton tournaments, sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). BWF Superseries has two levels: Superseries and Superseries Premier. A season of Superseries features twelve tournaments around the world, which introduced since 2011, with successful players invited to the Superseries Finals held at the year end.

Women's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
2017	Korea Open	P. V. Sindhu	22–20, 11–21, 21–18	Runner-up
2017	Australian Open	Akane Yamaguchi	21–12, 21–23, 21–17	Winner
2016	All England Open	Wang Shixian	21–11, 16–21, 21–19	Winner
2015	World Superseries Finals	Wang Yihan	22–20, 21–18	Winner
2015	Hong Kong Open	Carolina Marín	17–21, 21–18, 20–22	Runner-up
2015	Japan Open	Akane Yamaguchi	21–18, 21–12	Winner
2014	Hong Kong Open	Tai Tzu-ying	19–21, 11–21	Runner-up

     BWF Superseries Finals tournament

     BWF Superseries Premier tournament

     BWF Superseries tournament

The BWF Grand Prix has two levels, the BWF Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It is a series of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007.

Women's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
2015	U.S. Open	Sayaka Sato	21–16, 21–14	Winner
2015	Malaysia Masters	Sayaka Takahashi	21–13, 21–17	Winner
2014	Korea Masters	Sayaka Sato	21–17, 21–13	Winner
2014	Vietnam Open	Aya Ohori	21–15, 21–11	Winner
2014	New Zealand Open	Kana Ito	21–15, 21–3	Winner
2012	Canada Open	Sayaka Takahashi	21–8, 21–16	Winner

     BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament

     BWF Grand Prix tournament

Women's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
2015	China International	Chen Yufei	21–19, 21–16	Winner
2011	Austrian International	Mayu Sekiya	21–6, 21–16	Winner
2010	Lao International	Nitchaon Jindapol	16–21, 17–21	Runner-up

     BWF International Challenge tournament