The men's singles badminton tournament at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

took place from 24 July to 2 August 2021 at the

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. A total of 41 players from 36 nations actually competed at the tournament.

Viktor Axelsen Viktor Axelsen (born 4 January 1994) is a Danish badminton player. He is the 2017 and 2022 World champion and the 2020 Olympic champion. He won the 2010 World Junior Championships, beating South Korea's Kang Ji-wook in the final to become the ...

of Denmark won his first Olympic gold, defeating defending Olympic champion

Chen Long Chen Long (; ; born 18 January 1989), is a Chinese former professional badminton player. He is the 2016 Badminton at the Summer Olympics, Olympic champion, two-time BWF World Championships, World champion, and an Badminton Asia Championships, ...

from China. He became the first non-Asian — specifically Danish — to win Olympic badminton men's singles since

Poul-Erik Høyer Larsen Poul-Erik Høyer Larsen (born 20 September 1965) is the current President of the Badminton World Federation and a retired Danish badminton player who won major international singles titles in the 1990s, and ranks among Denmark's badminton greats. ...

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Anthony Sinisuka Ginting Anthony Sinisuka Ginting (; born October 20, 1996) is an Indonesian badminton player. He first rose to prominence when he won the bronze medal at the 2018 Asian Games. At the 2020 Olympics, he won bronze in the men's singles event. He became t ...

of Indonesia won bronze by defeating four-time Olympian

Kevin Cordón Kevin Haroldo Cordón Buezo (born November 28, 1986) is a Guatemalan badminton player. He won two men's singles title at the Pan American Games, four title at the Pan Am Championships (3 in singles and 1 in doubles), and six title at the Centr ...

of Guatemala. He became the first Youth Olympic badminton medalist to win a medal at the Olympics, having also won bronze in

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Background

This was the 8th appearance of the event as a full medal event. Badminton was introduced as a demonstration sport in 1972, held again as an exhibition sport in 1988, and added to the full programme in 1992; the men's singles tournament had been held since. The reigning champion was

of China, who also won bronze in 2012. 2016 bronze medalist

of Denmark also qualified. The top-ranked qualifier was

Kento Momota is a Japanese badminton player. He is known to have a skillful and relentless play style on court. He has won several major badminton tournaments including two World Championships titles, two Asian Championships titles, and one All England ...

of Japan who was also the reigning world champion.

Qualification

The badminton qualification system was designed to ensure that 86 men and 86 women receive quota spots; the size of the men's singles field adjusts to hit that target quota. Following revisions due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the qualifying periods were set on 29 April 2019 to 15 March 2020 and 4 January to 13 June 2021, with the ranking list of 15 June 2021 deciding qualification. There were 38 initial quota places for the men's singles: 34 from the ranking list, 3 from Tripartite Commission invitations, and 1 host nation place. Nations with multiple players in the top 16 of the ranking list could earn 2 quota places; all others were limited to 1. Players were taken from the ranking list in order, respecting the national limits, until the places were filled. Each continent was guaranteed one spot, either through the invitational spots or by replacing the lowest-ranked player if necessary. The host nation spot was unused since Japan qualified two players through the ranking list and was reallocated to the ranking list. Additional places beyond 38 were added where players qualified in both the men's singles and one of the doubles events. This resulted in 3 additional places added to the ranking list. One place was also given to a member of the Refugee Team, Aram Mahmoud. The total of qualified players was thus 42.

Competition format

The tournament started with a group phase round-robin followed by a knockout stage. For the group stage, the players were divided into between 12 and 16 groups of between 3 and 4 players each. Each group played a round-robin. The top player in each group advanced to the knockout rounds. The knockout stage was a four-round single elimination tournament with a bronze medal match. If there were fewer than 16 groups in the group stage, some players received a bye in the round of 16. Matches were played best-of-three games. Each game was played to 21, except that a player must win by 2 unless the score reaches 30–29.

Schedule

The tournament was held over a 10-day period, with 9 competition days and 1 open day.

Seeds

A total of 14 players were given seeds. # ''(group stage)'' # ''(quarter-finals)'' # ''(quarter-finals)'' # (gold medalist) # (bronze medalist) # (silver medalist) # ''(round of 16)''

''(group stage)''
''(round of 16)''
''(round of 16)''
''(quarter-finals)''
''(round of 16)''
''(group stage)''
''(group stage)''

Group stage

The group stage was played from 24 to 28 July. The winner of each group advanced to the knockout rounds.

Group A

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Group I

Group J

Group K

Group L

Group M

Group N

Group P

Finals

The knockout stage was played from 29 July to 2 August. One round was held per day, with a day off on 30 July. This stage was a single-elimination tournament with a bronze medal match.

References

External links

Group play
{{DEFAULTSORT:Badminton at the 2020 Summer Olympics - Men's singles Badminton at the 2020 Summer Olympics Men's events at the 2020 Summer Olympics