Kie Nakanishi (中西 貴映, Nakanishi Kie, born 24 December 1995) is a Japanese badminton player affiliated with the Biprogy team.[1] She won the silver medal at the 2022 Asian Championships with her partner Rin Iwanaga. The duo reached a career-high ranking of world number 5 on 5 November 2024. Kie was part of the Japanese women's team that won the bronze medal at the 2024 Asia Team Championships.
Career
2023–2024
At the start of 2024, Nakanishi and Iwanaga reached a career-high ranking of 15th in the world. This achievement followed a productive end to 2023, when the pair reached the semi-finals of the Arctic Open and the Denmark Open.[2] They won their first title together at the Syed Modi India International in November.[3] The pair carried their momentum into 2024, where they made another breakthrough at the Malaysia Open. They defeated the tournament's third seeds, Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong, to secure a spot in the quarter-finals. This is the first time they have reached the quarter-finals of a Super 1000 tournament, a testament to their growing strength as a pair. Looking ahead, Iwanaga and Nakanishi have set their goals for the rest of the year. They aim to finish in the top eight of the world rankings and qualify for the BWF World Tour Finals.[4]
Nakanishi and Iwanaga won the women's doubles title at the 2024 Denmark Open. It was their first Super 750 title and their fifth consecutive tournament final win of the year. They maintained a perfect record at finals in 2024, having won the 2024 Spain Masters,[5]Malaysia Masters,[6]U.S. Open,[7] and Canada Open.[8] In the semi-finals, they defeated Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee after a 95-minute battle for their first win in seven matches against the pair.[9] In the final, they beat the Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalists and newly crowned world No. 1 pair Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning in straight games 21–18, 21–14. This win solidified their position as the second-ranked pair in the BWF World Tour Finals rankings, and it was their second win over Liu and Tan in three encounters. This win was particularly significant as Nakanishi and Iwanaga became the second non-Chinese pair to defeat Liu and Tan since the Paris Olympics, the other being Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan.[10]
The BWF World Tour, which was announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018,[11] is a series of elite badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Tour is divided into levels of World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300 (part of the HSBC World Tour), and the BWF Tour Super 100.[12]
^Sukumar, Dev (10 January 2018). "Action-Packed Season Ahead!". Badminton World Federation. Archived from the original on 13 January 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
