Ken’ichi Tago

Template: Infobox Badminton Player / Maintenance / English

Ken'ichi Tago (Japanese田 児 贤 一, Tago Ken'ichi, born 16 July 1989 in Saitama Prefecture ) is a badminton player from Japan. He plays for the works team of NTT East.

Career

Tago, the son of badminton player Yoshiko Tago, 2008 won his first title at the Japanese national championships in men's singles. 2009 and 2010 he defended that title. In the junior age he had already attracted international attention when he was 2006 Junior Asian champions.

In 2010 he caused a sensation when he pushed forward since Masao Akiyama became the first Japanese 1966 to the final of the All England. On the way, he defeated successively Joachim Persson, Chen Jin and Bao Chunlai. In the final, he lost narrowly to the reigning world No. 1 ranking, Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, with 19:21 and 19:21. The year before he was eliminated in round 1 against Chen Jin. The same fate had overtaken him already at the Swiss Open Super Series 2009, the Singapore Super Series 2008 and the Japan Super Series 2007. He was more successful in 2007 in Scotland and 2008 in Belgium. Both tournaments he won. In the Badminton World Championships 2009 he was able to advance to the knockout round. 2012 and 2013 he won the Japanese badminton championship.