Two identical sets in Japan
Christo Popov has played his first match on tour as the world’s top-ranked men’s singles player, and it went about as smoothly as he could have hoped. The Frenchman beat Japan’s Minoru Koga 21-14, 21-14 in the first round of the Kumamoto Masters, a Super 500 event, on Wednesday.
Koga sits 48th in the rankings, so the gap on paper was huge. Popov never let it narrow. Two games, the same scoreline in both, and no real moment of danger against a home player.
The ranking itself is barely two weeks old. Popov climbed to No 1 after winning the French Open in Paris in late October, a title he collected in front of his own fans. The reigning European champion became one of only a handful of French players ever to top a world singles ranking in a racket sport.
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A rematch with Ubaidillah next
The second round looks very different. Popov meets Indonesia’s Mohamed Ubaidillah again, the young player he beat in that French Open final a little over three weeks ago. That final was a proper fight, and Ubaidillah had already knocked out France’s Alex Lanier in the semi-finals before running into Popov.
So the No 1 gets a real test on day two, against an opponent who has seen him up close very recently and will have a fair idea of what to fix.
Brother Toma also through
It was a good day for the family. Toma Junior Popov, ranked 12th, won his singles opener 21-15, 21-11 against Su Li Yang of Taiwan, ranked 41st. Another Taiwanese player, world No 40 Wang Po-Wei, waits in the last 16.
The brothers still have doubles work ahead. Their first-round draw is about as hard as it gets: South Korea’s Kim and Seo, the No 1 pair in the world.
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