On Thursday, Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus had to face Kento Momota, the current number one in the world, in the second round of the Fuzhou China Open 2018.
The match between the Dane and the Japanese lasted 36 minutes in total. The result: Vittinghus had to accept a defeat against Momota. He lost after two straight games, 13-21 and 15-21.
- I am not too happy about my performance, as my control today was a bit off. The shuttles were very fast, compared to the match on Tuesday, and I did not handle that very well, Vittinghus summarizes the match.
- I was making too many mistakes on my lifts. But I tried hard to make things work, but he did not give anything away today. That is how it is to play a guy at his level.
Eliminating the world-ranked number 18
At the moment, Vittinghus is the current number 30 in Men’s Singles.
Before facing Momota on court on Thursday, he was able to eliminate Kanta Tsuneyama, who is currently world-ranked number 18, after two straight games in the first round of the tournament.
Five matches, four defeats
The match in Fuzhou on Thursday, was the fifth duel between Vittinghus and Momota. Thereby, the Dane lost the last four matches in a row to the current number one in the world. Just in 2014, Vittinghus was able to win against his Japanese opponent.
- He is not the same player, as he was in 2014. So, I cannot really use anything from back then to beat him now, Vittinghus said.
- I need to be patient, have good control and take my chances, when they are there to beat him. That sounds simple, but it is extremely demanding both mentally and physically.
All matches in two games
Thereby, all the previous matches between Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus and Kento Momota ended after two games.
- There is no particular reason that all our matches, so far, have been finished after two games. Right now, it just reflects the difference in level between us. But maybe the next time, there will be three games, who knows.