Yuta Watanabe

Yuta Watanabe (渡辺 勇大, Watanabe Yūta, born 13 June 1997) is a Japanese badminton player. He is a member of the Nihon Unisys team, and national team A representative. He is known for his quick and explosive movements with his signature drop shot. Watanabe has collected three bronze medals at the World Junior Championships, and also four bronze at the Asian Junior Championships. Watanabe was selected to join the Japanese mixed team compete at the 2017 Sudirman Cup in Gold Coast, Australia, winning a gold medal in the qualification to Gold Coast at the 2017 Asia Mixed Team Championships in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and the team finished in the semi-final round, took the bronze medal. The left-handed Watanabe has won the maiden Super 1000 tournament a total of four times, the first ever male player from Japan to win an All England Open title. First at the 2018 All England Open in the mixed doubles event partnered with Arisa Higashino, then in the 2020 All England Open in the men's doubles event with Hiroyuki Endo, and in both men's and mixed doubles in the 2021 All England Open, defending his men's doubles title with Hiroyuki Endo and winning the mixed doubles category with once again, Arisa Higashino. He won a mixed doubles bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Watanabe started his career in badminton when he join the Kodaira junior club in Tokyo in 2005. He had shown his talent in badminton when he won some national event when he was in the elementary school. He made a partnership with Arisa Higashino as his senior in Tomioka Dai-ichi Junior High School in 2012.

Watanabe was selected to join national junior team competed at the 2014 Asian Junior Championships, and helps the team won the mixed team bronze medal. He also settled for another bronze medal in the boys' doubles event partnered with Kenya Mitsuhashi. At the World Junior Championships in Alor Setar, Malaysia, he won the bronze medals in the mixed doubles event with Arisa Higashino and in the mixed team event. In June 2014, he made his first appearance in the senior international event at the Japan Open, competed in the mixed doubles with Higashino, but the duo was defeated in the first round. He captured two titles at the 2014 Korea Junior Open in the boys' and mixed doubles event teamed-up with Mitsuhashi and Chiharu Shida respectively.

Watanabe started the 2015 season, by winning the boys' doubles title at the Dutch Junior tournament with Kenya Mitsuhashi, and finished as the semifinalist in the mixed doubles with Chiharu Shida, and later won the mixed doubles title in German Junior tournament. In July, he competed at the Asian Junior Championships, clinched the bronze medals in the boys' singles and mixed team events. He reached his first final in the senior international event at the 2015 Russian Open a BWF Grand Prix tournament. At the Danish Junior Cup, he clinched two titles by winning the boys' singles and doubles events. In November, he won the boys' doubles bronze medal at the World Junior Championships in Lima, Peru.

Watanabe won his first senior international tournament at the Vietnam International Challenge in the mixed doubles event with Arisa Higashino, and also became the runner-up in the men's doubles event. Together with Higashino, they reaching the 2018 All England Open final beat three top seeding, and clinched the title after beating the fifth seeded pair from China Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong in the rubber game.

2021

In March, Watanabe won both the men's and mixed doubles disciplines in the All England Open with Hiroyuki Endo and Arisa Higashino. They are the first players in over 19 years to accomplish such a feat. In July, he competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the men's doubles partnering Endo, and in the mixed doubles with Higashino. Watanabe and Endo pace was stopped in the quarter-finals to Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin, while in the mixed doubles, Watanabe and Higashino clinched a bronze medal after winning the match against Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet in straight games.

Olympic Games

Mixed doubles

BWF World Championships

Mixed doubles

Asian Championships

Men's doubles

BWF World Junior Championships

Boys' doubles

Mixed doubles

Asian Junior Championships

Boys' singles

Boys' doubles

BWF World Tour (11 titles, 7 runners-up)

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

Men's doubles

Year	Tournament	Level	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2018	Malaysia Open	Super 750	Hiroyuki Endo	Takeshi Kamura Keigo Sonoda	8–21, 10–21	Runner-up
2018	Thailand Open	Super 500	Hiroyuki Endo	Takeshi Kamura Keigo Sonoda	17–21, 19–21	Runner-up
2018	Korea Open	Super 500	Hiroyuki Endo	Takuro Hoki Yugo Kobayashi	9–21, 21–15, 21–10	Winner
2018	BWF World Tour Finals	World Tour Finals	Hiroyuki Endo	Li Junhui Liu Yuchen	15–21, 11–21	Runner-up
2019	German Open	Super 300	Hiroyuki Endo	Takeshi Kamura Keigo Sonoda	15–21, 21–11, 21–12	Winner
2019	New Zealand Open	Super 300	Hiroyuki Endo	Mohammad Ahsan Hendra Setiawan	22–20, 15–21, 17–21	Runner-up
2019	BWF World Tour Finals	World Tour Finals	Hiroyuki Endo	Mohammad Ahsan Hendra Setiawan	22–24, 19–21	Runner-up
2020	All England Open	Super 1000	Hiroyuki Endo	Marcus Fernaldi Gideon Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo	21–18, 12–21, 21–19	Winner
2021	All England Open	Super 1000	Hiroyuki Endo	Takeshi Kamura Keigo Sonoda	21–15, 17–21, 21–11	Winner

Mixed doubles

Year	Tournament	Level	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2018	All England Open	Super 1000	Arisa Higashino	Zheng Siwei Huang Yaqiong	15–21, 22–20, 21–16	Winner
2018	Hong Kong Open	Super 500	Arisa Higashino	Wang Yilyu Huang Dongping	21–18, 21–14	Winner
2019	Malaysia Masters	Super 500	Arisa Higashino	Dechapol Puavaranukroh Sapsiree Taerattanachai	21–18, 21–18	Winner
2019	All England Open	Super 1000	Arisa Higashino	Zheng Siwei Huang Yaqiong	17–21, 20–22	Runner-up
2019	ThailandOpen	Super 500	Arisa Higashino	Wang Yilyu Huang Dongping	22–24, 21–23	Runner-up
2019	Hong Kong Open	Super 500	Arisa Higashino	He Jiting Du Yue	22–20, 21–16	Winner
2021	All England Open	Super 1000	Arisa Higashino	Yuki Kaneko Misaki Matsutomo	21–14, 21–13	Winner
2021	Denmark Open	Super 1000	Arisa Higashino	Dechapol Puavaranukroh Sapsiree Taerattanachai	21–18, 21–9	Winner
2021	French Open	Super 750	Arisa Higashino	Mathias Christiansen Alexandra Bøje	21–8, 21–17	Winner

BWF Grand Prix (1 runner-up)

The BWF Grand Prix had two levels, the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It was a series of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and played between 2007 and 2017.

Mixed doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2015	Russian Open	Arisa Higashino	Chan Peng Soon Goh Liu Ying	13–21, 21–23	Runner-up

  BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament

  BWF Grand Prix tournament

BWF International Challenge/Series (1 title, 2 runners-up)

Men's doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2016	Austrian Open	Kenya Mitsuhashi	Marcus Ellis Chris Langridge	14–21, 16–21	Runner-up
2016	Vietnam International	Kenya Mitsuhashi	Ong Yew Sin Teo Ee Yi	19–21, 14–21	Runner-up

Mixed doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2016	Vietnam International	Arisa Higashino	Tinn Isriyanet Pacharapun Chochuwong	21–16, 21–14	Winner

  BWF International Challenge tournament

  BWF International Series tournament