PETALING JAYA: Watch out for little pocket dynamite Kodai Naraoka (pic) to make a bigger impression next season.
Yesterday, the 21-year-old promising star from Japan exited from the World Tour Finals with his head held high after giving world No. 1 and Olympic Games champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark a worthy fight before losing in the semi-finals 23-21, 19-21, 18-21 in one hour and 22 minutes in Bangkok.
Naraoka got off to an explosive start by taking the opener to make Axelsen sweat but the Dane pulled off an incredible comeback in the second game to level the score.
In the decider, Axelsen had to battle for every point to beat the gritty Japanese to set up a final showdown against Indonesia’s Anthony Ginting.
For Naraoka, it was a better showing compared to his straight-game 5-21, 15-21 defeat to Axelsen in the group match a few days ago. He also went down with a meek 12-21, 8-21 defeat in his first encounter against the Dane at the French Open in Paris in October.
With his first semi-final appearance in the Finals, Naraoka will end the season with his best career year and is likely to take over the No. 1 position from Kento Momota when the new year begins.
The world No. 14 is expected to break into the top 10 following the semi-final finish and eventually, overtake world No. 9 Momota, who is on a break to recover from his slump in form.
In fact, thanks to a good run this year, the talented Naraoka has dislodged his seniors Kanta Tsuneyama and Kenta Nishimoto in the world ranking as the country’s second ranked player behind Momota.
Tsuneyama is lying at the 16th spot while Nishimoto is at the 20th position.
This year, Naraoka lifted the Vietnam Open title and took the runners-up spot in the Singapore and Taiwan Opens.
