Christo Popov delivered a near-flawless performance to claim the DAIHATSU Japan Open 2026 to earn a morale-boosting title win ahead of the BWF World Championships next month.

Koki Watanabe had had a draining three-game match against Yushi Tanaka in the semifinals, but to his credit, the home hope didn’t make it easy for the Frenchman, particularly in the second game. Watanabe had his chances in the second, but Popov’s greater sharpness and ability to last the rallies helped him nudge the tape, 21-11 21-19, for his third title of the year.

“This means a lot… it’s confirmation of what I was talking about for the last few months or weeks,” said Popov. “For me, it’s a very big achievement. Most of all, I like to play in Japan. I’m very happy to bring the title this year.

“It’s three times in a row with a Frenchman in the final (in Japan), with Alex (Lanier) playing the last two and me, so that’s great statistics for France here. Most of all, I’m proud of the team. We came here as a very big team here with two medical staff — one physical, one medical, and dad as coach.  And it was great, I would say we had a great bubble-like atmosphere for a week with a lot of confidence that made me perform as well as I can.

“Koki is a very skilful player, and he managed to make me work hard through the whole second game. We had some very long rallies, very difficult rallies, and hopefully I won them with some more physical freshness, as he played more three games, very long matches, especially yesterday again against Yushi Tanaka, so those little details were very crucial today.”

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