Alex Lanier, 19-year-old Men's Singles New Star

JAKARTA The French men's singles badminton player, Alex Lanier, who has long been predicted to be the star of the future of badminton, managed to show his roto on the Japanese Open 2024 stage.

The BWF Super 750 level tournament, which was held at the Yokohama Arena, was completed on Sunday, August 25, 2024, at noon WIB. The new 19-year-old senior has also successfully locked the title in the men's singles sector.

His journey to the podium is full of tough challenges because a number of seeds must be his opponent. However, he managed to get through everything and came out to be the best.

His journey began with repatriating the sixth seed from Malaysia, Lee Zii Jia, in the first round of the tournament. At the clashes, he appeared so dominant to win the first competitive meeting with Lee.

The next seed he successfully ran aground was Shi Yuqi when they met in the semifinals. The men's singles from China are the number one badminton players in the world today as well as the first seeds in the event.

Before repatriating Shi Yuqi, he first stopped the experienced Indonesian player, Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo, in the second half and the world number 11 player belonging to the host who won the Japan Open 2022, Kenta Nishimoto, in the quarter-finals.

The match against Shi was the only toughest duel faced by Lanier. He lost first in the first game before rising with the parkasa in two games afterwards.

"Shi played very well in the first game. In the second game, I tried to keep pressing him. As a result, he lost the quality of attack. That made me sure that I was doing the right thing," he said after winning over Shi quoted on the BWF website.

Another win was won by Lanier in the final against veteran player from China Taipei, Chou Tien Chen. The result made him the first French player to win the Japan Open as well as the Super 750 level tournament.

Profile Of Alex Lanier

Alex Lanier was born in Caen, France, on January 26, 2005. At a young age, a series of important achievements have been made. At the junior level, he is a gold medalist at the 2022 European Badminton Championships and a bronze medal at the 2023 Badminton World Championships.

Prior to his notes at the Japan Open 2024, he had become the center of attention at a number of BWF World Tours. One of them is the Canadian Open 2022 title. He also stepped up the finals this year in the same tournament, whose level has gone up to Super 500.

Unfortunately, he had to settle for being a runner-up after losing against Japan's representatives, Koki Watanabe, in the final with a score of 22-20, 17-21, and 6-21.

The achievement chart then rose sharply at the Japan Open 2024. It was his first title in the Super 750 level BWF tournament while asserting that he would now be a threat to the world's top singles.

Lanier saat ini menduduki peringkat ke-29 BWF dan akan turun di Korea Open 2024 yang berlangsung pekan ini. Jika ia bisa kembali mendapat hasil bagus lagi maka peringkatnya akan naik cepat.