Nozomi Okuhara

Okuhara started playing badminton in 2002. Eight years later, in 2010, she joined the Japanese national team. The 2010 Osaka International Challenge became her international debut.

2010–2012

In 2010, Okuhara reached the final of Lao International which she lost to Nitchaon Jindapol. The 16-year-old Okuhara became the youngest women's singles champion ever at the Japanese National Championships in 2011. Additionally, she won the Austrian title by defeating her teammate Mayu Sekiya and a bronze medal at World Junior Championships.

Okuhara was a runner-up at the Asian Junior Championships, and helped her team in winning 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.

2013–2014

In 2013, while competing in her quarterfinal match against Saina Nehwal at Malaysia Open, she suffered a severe knee injury in the 3rd game and remained out of International circuit for almost an year. On her way to returning to elite competition, she participated in her first tournament in November since her last in January 2013 at the China Premier event.

In 2014, she won the New Zealand Open beating Kana Ito in final. She also won the Vietnam Open and Korean Grand Prix titles. She reached her first Superseries final at the Hong Kong Open in year end. On her way to the final, she defeated Reigning World Champion Carolina Marín in the semifinal in 2 very one-sided games. However, she finished second to Tai Tzu-ying in the finals.

2015

Okuhara won two Grand Prix Gold titles at Malaysia and United States. In both occasions, she got the better of her compatriots Sayaka Takahashi and Sayaka Sato respectively. She also won China International event. At the Malaysian Superseries event, she played the longest ever Women's singles match against Wang Shixian in quarterfinal which lasted for whopping 111 minutes. Okuhara lost that match and was cramping heavily at the end. Scorecard was 21–19, 15–21, 20–22 in favour of Shixian. She won her first Superseries title at Japan Open in the final defeating her colleague Akane Yamaguchi with score of 21–18, 21–12. At the World Championships in Jakarta seeded 9th, she failed to get past Thai Porntip Buranaprasertsuk in 1st round having lost to her twice before. Just like previous season, Okuhara again reached the final of Hong Kong Open. She lost a very difficult encounter to Carolina Marín there, a contest of 3 games with very tight scoreline. At the end of the 2015 BWF season, she won the Dubai World Superseries final. On her path through without dropping a single game, she defeated all of her opponents namely Saina Nehwal, Tai Tzu-ying and top seed Carolina Marín. She defeated Marín twice, first in the preliminary round and again in semifinals with very one-sided scores. In the final she beat Wang Yihan 22–20, 21–18.

2016–2017

In 2016, she won the prestigious All England Open on her Birthday 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 39 years since Hiroe Yuki's triumph back in 1977. She was seeded 6th for Rio Olympic Games. She defeated Akane Yamaguchi in quarterfinal 11–21, 21–17, 21–10 and reached the semis. Her opponent for semifinal was No. 9 seed P. V. Sindhu. Okuhara had no answers to Indian's attacking play and she went down in 2-straight games 19–21, 10–21. In the bronze medal match she was given walkover against Li Xuerui of China as her opponent was injured. In the process, she became Japan's first ever Badminton Women's singles player to win an Olympic medal. In the China Superseries in November, she developed shoulder issues which forced her to withdraw from Hong Kong Open and her chance of defending the Dubai Superseries Finals title was thwarted.

In 2017, Okuhara claimed her first ever Australian Open title with a win over Akane Yamaguchi. Continuing her good form, she participated at the World Championships seeded 7th. After defeating Canada's Rachel Honderich and teammate Aya Ohori, she had an uphill task against Carolina Marín of Spain in the quarterfinals. She beat Marín, the two-time reigning Champion in a gruelling battle of an hour and 33 minutes. She also claimed hard-fought victory over Saina Nehwal in the semifinals, having lost the opening game. For the final, she faced opposition from P. V. Sindhu. She managed to edge a 21–19, 20–22, 22–20 victory over the Indian in one of the classics of Badminton history. Match stretched for 1:50 hours, making it the 2nd longest match in Women's singles badminton ever. Ironically enough, the longest one was also played by Okuhara; in 2015 against Shixian at the Malaysian Superseries, which she lost. With Okuhara's victory, she became the first ever Japanese to win the World title since 1977. After her triumph at the World stage, she also reached the final of Korean Open Premier Superseries, in which P. V. Sindhu managed to beat Okuhara. However afterwards she suffered knee injury and her performance dipped. She opted not to participate at the Dubai Superseries Finals, so as not to aggravate her knee problems.

2018

In May, Okuhara helped Japan to win the Uber Cup again after 37 years. Japan beat Thailand by 3–0 in the final and Okuhara didn't lose any of her matches. She went to World Championships in Nanjing as defending champion but lost to the player she beat in the 2017 final, P. V. Sindhu, in 2 straight games in the quarterfinals. She won her first ever World Tour Title, the Thailand Open Super 500 by defeating P. V. Sindhu 21–15 and 18. In addition, she reached five more finals and won 2 of them in Korea and Hong Kong, both Super 500 events. Her final finishes were in Japan Super 750 (lost to Carolina Marín) Fuzhou Super 750 events (lost to Chen Yufei) and World Tour Finals in Guangzhou to P. V. Sindhu.

2019–20

Okuhara reached the final of Singapore Open, but lost it to Tai Tzu-ying. Also, she reached the final of Australia Open & Japan Open but lost to Chen Yufei and Akane Yamaguchi respectively. In the World Championships, she was seeded 3rd. She defeated He Bingjiao and Ratchanok Intanon; reached the final of this tournament once more and set her encounter with P. V. Sindhu. In a repeat clash of 2017 World Championships final, she was defeated 7–21, 7–21 by the Indian player, henceforth settled for the silver medal. 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, which 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 won 2020 Denmark Open tournament after surpassing 3rd seed Carolina Marín in 2 games with scores 21–19, 21–17. This was the first time in 2 years that she won a World Tour title since her last at Hong Kong Open in 2018.

2021

She won her second England Open title after her last in 2016 by beating Pornpawee Chochuwong from Thailand. She defeated her opponent in two games 21–12, 21–16.