is a Japanese

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

player. A former World's number 1 in the BWF rankings for the women's singles, she is well known for her speed, agility and endurance. She won a bronze at the 2016 Summer Olympics, and gold medal at the 2017 World Championships.

Career

Okuhara started playing badminton since 2002. Eight years later, precisely 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 Nitchaon Jindapol ( th, ณิชชาอร จินดาพล; born 31 March 1991) is a Thai badminton singles player. She was a member of the national women's team which finished as runners-up at the 2010 Asian Games. She graduated at the ...

. 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 The 2011 BWF World Junior Championships is the thirteenth tournament of the BWF World Junior Championships. This tournament was held in Taoyuan, Taiwan, Taoyuan, Taiwan at Taoyuan Arena from October 28 to November 6, 2011. Host city In June 200 ...

. In July, she won her first Grand Prix title at the

Canada Open The Canada Open (french: Open du Canada) in badminton is an international open held in Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northwar ...

2013–2014

In 2013, while competing in her quarterfinal match against

Saina Nehwal Saina Nehwal (; born 17 March 1990) is an Indian professional badminton player. A former world no. 1, she has won 24 international titles, which includes ten Superseries titles. Although she reached the world's 2nd in 2009, it was only in 2015 ...

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 comeback in elite level of competition, she participated in first tournament in November since her last in January 2013 at the China Premier event. In 2014, she won New Zealand Open beating Kana Ito in final. She also won

Vietnam Open The Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open (known as the ''Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open'' for sponsorship reasons) was a professional men's tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was part of the International Series of the ATP Tour. It ...

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 Carolina María Marín Martín (born 15 June 1993) is a Spanish professional badminton player. She is an Olympic Champion, three-time World Champion, six-time European Champion, and the former World's No. 1 in BWF rankings for the women's si ...

in semifinal in 2 very one-sided games. However, she finished second best to

Tai Tzu-ying Tai Tzu-ying (; born 20 June 1994) is a Taiwanese badminton player. At the age of 22, she became world No. 1 in the women's singles in December 2016, and she is the women's singles player who has held that title for the longest in BWF hist ...

in the final contest.

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 is a retired Japanese badminton player who was a singles specialist. She was the bronze medalist at the 2013 and 2014 Asian Championships. Takahashi reached a career high as world number 10 in the BWF World Ranking in February 2019. Personal ...

and

Sayaka Sato is a Japanese badminton player. She competed for Japan at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Achievements BWF World Junior Championships ''Girls' singles'' BWF Superseries The BWF Superseries, launched on 14 December 2006 and implemented in 200 ...

respectively. She also won China International Challenge event. At the Malaysian Superseries event, she played the longest ever Women's singles match against

Wang Shixian Wang Shixian (; ; born 13 February 1990) is a retired Chinese professional badminton player. She is a former World No. 1 in women's singles. Career Wang Shixian was admitted into Chinese Junior National Team in 2005 and was soon promoted t ...

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 Porntip Buranaprasertsuk ( th, พรทิพย์ บูรณะประเสริฐสุข; born 24 October 1991) is a Thai badminton player. Buranaprasertsuk won her first Superseries title in 2011 India Open on 1 May 2011, becoming ...

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 Wang Yihan (born 18 January 1988) is a retired Chinese professional badminton player and former women's singles world champion and Olympic silver medalist. Wang started her career with her coach Wang Pengren at only nine years of age. She was ...

22–20, 21–18.

2016–2017

In 2016, she won the prestigious All England Open on her Birthday after defeating

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 Li Xuerui (born 24 January 1991) is a retired Chinese professional badminton player. She is one of the most successful players of her time. She was a gold medalist at 2012 London Olympics in the women's singles event and was the silver medalists ...

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 A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

seeded 7th. After defeating Canada's

Rachel Honderich Rachel Honderich (born 21 April 1996) is a Canadian badminton player from Toronto, Ontario. She has been one of the top ranked women's individual and doubles player on the continent and a contender in major international competitions. She is a vi ...

and teammate Aya Ohori, she had an uphill task against

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

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 The Uber Cup, sometimes called the World Women's Team Championships, is a major international badminton competition contested by women's national badminton teams. First held in 1956–1957 and contested at three year intervals, it has been contes ...

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

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 He Bingjiao (; Mandarin pronunciation: ; born 21 March 1997) is a Chinese badminton player. She began to receive intensive badminton training at the Suzhou Junior Sports School, when she was 7 years old. Five years later, she was sent to study in ...

and

Ratchanok Intanon Ratchanok Intanon ( th, รัชนก อินทนนท์, , ; born 5 February 1995) is a Thai badminton player who became the first Thai to become No.1 in women's singles. She is known for her relaxed hitting motion and light footwork, w ...

; 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

on 29 October 2019. She also contested the

Denmark Open The Denmark Open, or formerly known as Danish Open, is an annual badminton tournament held in Denmark and organized by Badminton Denmark. The Denmark Open was part of the BWF Super Series Premier from 2011 to 2017. BWF categorised it as one o ...

final, which she lost to

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 The England Open is a darts tournament that has been held annually since 1995. List of tournaments Men's Women's Youth's Girls Tournament records * Most wins 3: Ted Hankey, Wesley Harms. * Most Finals 5: Ted Hankey. * Most Semi Finals ...

title after her last in 2016 by beating

Pornpawee Chochuwong Pornpawee Chochuwong ( th, พรปวีณ์ ช่อชูวงศ์; born 22 January 1998) is a Thai badminton player. She was the girls' singles silver medalist at the 2015 Asian and 2016 World Junior Championships. She was also part ...

from Thailand. She defeated her opponent in two games 21–12, 21–16.

Achievements

Olympic Games

''Women's singles''

BWF World Championships

''Women's singles''

BWF World Junior Championships

''Girls' singles''

Asian Junior Championships

''Girls' singles''

BWF World Tour (5 titles, 8 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. ''Women's singles''

BWF Superseries (4 titles, 3 runners-up)

The BWF Superseries, which was launched on 14 December 2006 and implemented in 2007, was a series of elite badminton tournaments, sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). BWF Superseries levels were Superseries and Superseries Premier. A season of Superseries consisted of twelve tournaments around the world that had been introduced since 2011. Successful players were invited to the Superseries Finals, which were held at the end of each year. ''Women's singles'' :

BWF Superseries Finals The BWF Super Series Finals (named as BWF Super Series Masters Finals until 2009) was an annual badminton tournament held at the end of the year where the players with the most points from that calendar year's twelve events of the BWF Super Series c ...

tournament : BWF Superseries Premier tournament :

BWF Superseries The BWF Super Series was a series of Grade 2 badminton tournaments, sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). It was launched on December 14, 2006 and implemented in 2007. Since 2011, the Super Series includes two levels of tournament, ...

tournament

BWF Grand Prix (6 titles)

The BWF Grand Prix had two levels, the

BWF Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold BWF may refer to: Sports organisations Badminton * Badminton World Federation, an international governing body for badminton Professional wrestling * Brazilian Wrestling Federation, a Brazilian Professional wrestling promotion. * British Wrestling ...

. It was a series of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) which was held from 2007 to 2017. ''Women's singles'' : BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament : BWF Grand Prix tournament

BWF International Challenge/Series (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

''Women's singles'' : BWF International Challenge tournament

Performance timeline

Career overview

National team

Junior level

Senior level

Individual competitions

Junior level

''Girls' singles'' ''Girls' doubles''

Senior level

= Women's singles

= Mixed doubles

Record against selected opponents

Record against Year-end Finals finalists, World Championships semi-finalists, and Olympic quarter-finalists. Accurate as of 6 November 2022.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Okuhara, Nozomi 1995 births Living people Sportspeople from Nagano Prefecture Japanese female badminton players Badminton players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Badminton players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic badminton players of Japan Olympic bronze medalists for Japan Olympic medalists in badminton Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Badminton players at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Asian Games medalists in badminton Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games World No. 1 badminton players 21st-century Japanese women