Kenichi Tago - Wikiwand (2025)

Kenichi Tago (田児賢一, Tago Ken'ichi, born 16 July 1989) is a Japanese former professional badminton player. He is the son of former badminton player Yoshiko Yonekura. In 2010, he reached the final of the All England Open Badminton Championships. En route to the final, he beat three seeded players, including Nguyễn Tiến Minh, Chen Jin and Bao Chunlai. In the final, Tago lost to the first seed and reigning World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei from Malaysia with a score of 21–19 and 21–19,^[1] following an incorrect line call in Lee Chong Wei's favour at match point.^[2] In 2012, he competed at the London 2012 Summer Olympics in the men's singles event, but did not advance to the knock-out stage after being defeated by Niluka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka with a score of 18–21, 16–21.^[3] In 2014, he reached the Indonesia Open final after a shocking win over Lee Chong Wei in the semifinal but could not keep up his good form and went on to lose by straight games in the final to Jan Ø. Jørgensen of Denmark. He competed at the 2010 and 2014 Asian Games.

Includes results against Olympic quarterfinals, Worlds semifinalists, and Super Series finalists, as well as all Olympic opponents.^[6]

In October 2015, Tago was removed from Japan's national team by head coach Park Joo-bong due to indiscipline, after he repeatedly missed training sessions and was proving to be a bad influence to other players.^[7] On 8 April 2016, Tago admitted to squandering 10 million Japanese yen over a period of 2 years after making over 60 visits to illegal casinos alongside other professional players, including countryman Kento Momota, who was banned from competition until late 2017 and forced to miss the Olympic Games as a result.^[8] Gambling in Japan is illegal, with frequent gambling punishable with imprisonment of up to 3 years.^[9]