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Eager to prove opener victory no fluke
Japanese Sayaka Sato, 61st in the women's single badminton world ranking, had set a modest target of "just playing my best" when she stepped onto the court Wednesday to face world No
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J
apanese Sayaka Sato, 61st in the women's single badminton world ranking, had set a modest target of "just playing my best" when she stepped onto the court Wednesday to face world No. 2 Zhou Mi of Hong Kong.
And that was exactly what she did, causing one of the first surprises at the Djarum Indonesia Open Super Series, when she came out winning a grueling battle 21-11, 16-21, 21-19 in 43 minutes.
Now, Sato is determined to keep the "miracle" alive as she seeks to brush off notions that she had just been lucky.
The 18-year-old, who now says winning the tournament is feasible, said: "I don't want today's victory to end up as merely a miracle. I want to show the public what kind of a player I am.
"I realized it's hard. So I'm going to attempt this step-by-step," said Sato, who relies heavily on her powerful smashes to crush her opponents.
Seeded fourth in the tournament, Sato has already taken out two Indonesian shuttlers - Fransiska Ratnasari and Aprilia Yuswandari - since Tuesday's qualification round.
This is Sato's third Super Series tournament and she is the only shuttler representing Japan.
Born March 29, 1991, Sato started playing badminton nine years ago in kindergarten before joining the Japanese national team in January. Her most impressive feat so far was finishing as runner-up in the World Junior Badminton Championship in India last year.
Before the Indonesian Open, the other super series she took part in were the ones in Korea and Singapore. But she lost in the qualifying games.
Also a sports university student in the Japanese prefecture of Kanagawa, Sato's next challenge is to play South Korean Kim Moon-hi, whom she lost to at the qualification round of the Singapore Open last week.
"I will, again, try to play my best," she said.
Realizing home-crowd support was crucial for athletes, Sato said she was grateful for the support she received from the Indonesian audience, even when she was playing Indonesian shuttlers.
"The Indonesian audience has always cheered me up in all my matches in the past two days.
