Badminton: Akane Yamaguchi becomes Japan's 1st world No. 1 singles player

Akane Yamaguchi will become the first Japanese badminton player to top the world singles rankings on Thursday, when the new rankings will be released.According to a source Tuesday, the 20-year-old Yamaguchi, who reached the quarterfinals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, will move up one place to No. 1 in the new women's rankings. She followed her first badminton Superseries Finals victory last year with strong performances in March.Last month, Yamaguchi won the German Open and was runner-up in the prestigious All England Open. She joins Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo as the only o…READ FULL ARTICLE