is a Japanese

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

player. He graduated from the

Saitama Sakae High School Saitama Sakae High School, also commonly known as Sakae High, is a private junior and senior high school located in Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture. The school is known for its sports activities and its wide range of studies. Among the sports ...

, and was part of the BIPROGY team since 2017. Watanabe has won a Super 500 title at the Canada Open and was the runner-up in the Super 750 at the Denmark Open.

Career

Watanabe started his badminton career when he was four years old, entered the badminton club under the influence of his sister. He later concentrate his badminton career in the kindergarten, and when he was in the elementary school, he won the Saitama school championships in third consecutive years. Watanabe entered the Saitamasakaechugakko Koto school, and won the singles title at the national junior championships, also placed third in the doubles event. He was part of the national junior team that competed at the 2015 and 2016

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and World Junior Championships, winning the World boys' singles bronze medal in 2015, he also helped the national team win the 2015, 2016 Asian, also 2016 World Junior bronze medals. In 2018, Watanabe became the runner-up at the BWF Super 100 tournament Russian Open.

2024: Canada Open winner

Watanabe won his first Super 500 title at the Canada Open. This victory was described as fulfilling a long-held dream for him. In the final, he faced

Alex Lanier Alex Lanier (born 26 January 2005) is a French badminton player. He was a gold medalist in the 2025 European Championships. He became the first ever French player to win a BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament. In the juniors, Lanier was a boys' ...

, the defending champion from

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

. Watanabe won the third game 21–6; Lanier stated he ran out of energy, which allowed Watanabe to dominate the game and secure the title.

Awards and nominations

Achievements

BWF World Junior Championships

''Boys' singles''

BWF World Tour (3 titles, 3 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 The Badminton World Federation, aka BWF, is the international governing body for the sport of badminton approved by the International Olympic Committee. It was founded on 5 July 1934 as the International Badminton Federation with nine member ...

(BWF). The BWF World Tour is divided into levels of World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300, and the BWF Tour Super 100. ''Men's singles''

BWF International Challenge/Series (2 titles)

''Men's singles'' :

BWF International Challenge The BWF International Challenge is a grade 3 and level 1 tournament part of Continental Circuit of BWF tournaments along with International Series (level 2) and Future Series (level 3), sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007. ...

tournament

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Watanabe, Koki 1999 births Living people Badminton players from Saitama Prefecture Japanese male badminton players Badminton players at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan Asian Games medalists in badminton Medalists at the 2022 Asian Games 21st-century Japanese sportsmen