Dubai: It was a day in the sun for the Land of the Rising Sun. Japan's twin representatives in the stellar singles events of the BWF World Superseries Finals reigned supreme at the Hamdan Sports Complex, with left-handed Kento Momota proving too strokeful and accurate for Denmark's nervous and erratic Viktor Axelsen, and Nozomi Okuhara running China's 2011 world champion Wang Yihan ragged, leaving her breathless and stunned at 20-22, 18-21.


Kento Momota. Pic/AFP

Few could have predicted the 38-minute, 15-21, 12-21 capitulation by the willowy Dane, who had produced such a command performance in the semi-finals against China's world champion Chen Long only the previous day. At the time, even the 4-1 head-to-head record that Momota holds against Axelsen appeared beside the point, so perfectly did the Dane play against the redoubtable Chen.