Akane Yamaguchi defeated teammate Nozomi Okuhara in the tiebreaker to reach the quarterfinals of the 2025 Malaysia Badminton Masters

Japan's two famous players Akane Yamaguchi and Nozomi Okuhara faced off at the Super 500 Series 2025 Malaysia Badminton Masters on the 22nd local time, and Akane Yamaguchi resolved 5 points of Okuhara Hope in the second game, and beat his teammates in the deciding game, and finally won 18:21, 26:24, 21:3 and advanced to the top 8 of women's singles.

Akane Yamaguchi

Akane Yamaguchi, ranked No. 4 in the world, and Nozomi Okuhara, ranked No. 40 in the world, have been world football queens in the past, but Akane Yamaguchi still maintains a certain degree of competitiveness, while Nozomi Okuhara has suffered from injuries and has rarely played well in recent years.

Nozomi Okuhara and Akane Yamaguchi have played each other 19 times in international competitions in their careers, and Nozomi Okuhara has won 11 times, and now the two are facing each other for the 20th time, and it is also the first time in 6 years that they have met strongly. Okuhara hoped to fall behind 14:17 in the first game, played a wave of 7:1 offensive to take the lead, and in the second game, he was the first to lead 20:17, but he couldn't win the key points, but let Akane Yamaguchi come back to equalize.

Okuhara, who failed to win in straight games, wanted to run out of energy in the deciding game, and only scored 3 points in the whole game, and finally Akane Yamaguchi completed the reversal.