4 min learnMar 22, 2026 10:02 PM IST
For former world No 1 Nozomi Okuhara, the previous few years haven’t been simple. Having to cope with a number of accidents and lack of kind, her rating dipped to No 63 on this planet in the course of 2025. However on Sunday, on the finish of a fantastic week on the Orleans Masters Tremendous 300, she stood on the high of the rostrum with a beaming smile and a long-awaited trophy. The final time she had gained a Tremendous 300 title – the fourth rung on the BWF World Tour – was in India on the backend of 2023 at Syed Modi Worldwide in Lucknow. She has needed to slug it out on the tour, having to contest in a wide range of Tremendous 100 occasions to attempt to earn some factors to construct her rating up. And this should have felt like vindication for her onerous work throughout robust instances.
Much more impressively, Okuhara gained the Orleans Masters title after beating two youngsters over the weekend. And each in straight video games. Badminton, particularly ladies’s singles, is commonly partial in the direction of youthful legs. However Okuhara turned again the clock to get the higher of 17-year-old Tanvi Sharma with consummate ease, 21-9 21-16 in simply 35 minutes, handing out a lesson or two to the Indian rising star within the strategy of a masterclass. She needed to work tougher on Sunday, however was nonetheless in a position to see off the problem from 19-year-old Thai sensation Pitchamon ‘Pink’ Opatniputh, profitable 21-15, 21-15 in 47 minutes.
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Let’s present 30 isn’t slowing us down💪 https://t.co/BM97MkPPxA— Okuhara Nozomi 奥原 希望 バドミントン選手 (@nozomi_o11) March 22, 2026
Okuhara, now 31, is part of the ladies’s singles golden technology over the previous decade and extra, having tasted success early of their careers alongside the likes of PV Sindhu and Ratchanok Intanon, each of whom are on the opposite facet of 30 now. Reacting to a put up about how they proceed to grind it out on the tour in opposition to a lot youthful stars, Sindhu posted on X – tagging her two mates – on Sunday: “We’re simply attempting to maintain up with the younger women and revel in each match alongside the way in which! These women appear to return completely every thing we throw at them. Although I need to admit restoration takes a tad bit longer now haha, and people ice baths appear to final without end!”
Becoming a member of in on the banter, Okuhara wrote: “Let’s present 30 isn’t slowing us down,” with a bicep flex. And Intanon added: “You making me snort lady. We’re nonetheless right here for our desires and nonetheless loving to play, solely age catching our physique simply just a bit. Want extra time for every thing to heal properly.” And added her congratulations to Okuhara.
“It’s actually good that while you speak about enjoying a decade in the past with the identical set of gamers, and we’re nonetheless competing,” PV Sindhu – an integral a part of that period – had advised this day by day in January this yr, when requested about her Intanon’s success in 2025 when she certified for the BWF World Tour Finals as one of many high eight shuttlers within the calendar yr. “It positively motivates you. ‘They’re enjoying properly, why not me?’ It’s good to have buddies and opponents on the identical circuit.”
And requested what it takes for a bunch of 30-plus ladies to push the youthful crop, Intanon quipped throughout India Open: “We’ve to indicate the younger gamers that we’re nonetheless right here, and we don’t need you to win in opposition to us simply.”
Girls’s singles is likely to be more and more robust on the our bodies of those legends, however they proceed to grind it out with the younger brigade, and Okuhara’s title in Orleans is one other signal that they don’t go mild into that good evening
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