Momota clinches Japan Open title

TOKYO: Japan’s Kento Momota outgunned Thai rival Khosit Phetpradab 21-14, 21-11 in a onesided final to capture the Japan Open badminton title on Sunday.

The 24-year-old sank to his knees after a towering smash completed a comfortable win, kissing the Japanese badge on his shirt as he took another step towards redemption following a gambling scandal that threatened to ruin his career.

“I was just so overwhelmed at winning and the sense of what I achieved,” said Momota after becoming the first Japanese player to win the men’s singles crown. Momota, who was booted off the Japanese team for the 2016 Rio Olympics and banned for over a year for visiting an illegal casino, had been furious with himself after crashing out of the Asian Games at the semi-final stage last month.

Carolina Marin retained her Japan Open women’s singles title by beating Nozomi Okuhara 21-19, 17-21, 21-11.

GOLOVKIN SUFFERS FIRST PRO CAREER LOSS

LAS VEGAS: Gennady Golovkin suffered the first loss of his professional career when Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvares won an epic middleweight world title fight in Las Vegas on Saturday.

A year after their first fight ended in a controversial draw, Alvares clinched a points decision that again divided experts in what many thought could have gone the other way.

Two judges gave it 115-113 for Alvares, while the other had it a 114-114 draw. The fightin front of a sellout, celebrity-studded crowd, lived up to its billing as the best two pound-for-pound fighters in the world.