Toma Junior Popov Badminton
2026 Results, Match by Match

Japan Open 2026

Super 750・Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium

🔻He entered both the men's singles and the men's doubles, and lost both first-round matches on 15 July. In the singles he lost 17-21, 13-21 in 46 minutes to the 3rd seed, Anders Antonsen (DEN). In the doubles, partnering Christo Popov, they lost 19-21, 13-21 in 35 minutes to the 2nd seeds, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri (INA). ⚡The Indonesians went on to win the men's doubles, and the men's singles was won by his doubles partner, Christo Popov.
🆕Added on 18 September 2026: neither match was on any of our pages. The official BWF day data and the draw on English Wikipedia agree on both.

China Open 2026

Super 1000・Changzhou, China

🥈He was the men's singles runner-up. We hold every match from the first round to the final. In the first round on 22 July he beat LEE Chia Hao (TPE) 21-14, 15-21, 21-17 in 68 minutes. In the second round on 23 July he beat Rasmus Gemke (DEN) 21-10, 21-19 in 51 minutes; Gemke had knocked out the 2nd seed, Kunlavut Vitidsarn (THA), the day before. In the quarter-final on 24 July he beat Nhat Nguyen (IRL) 12-21, 21-10, 21-15 in 64 minutes; in the semi-final on 25 July he beat Victor Lai (CAN, 8th seed) 14-21, 21-12, 21-15 in 73 minutes — both times after losing the opening game. In the final on 26 July he lost 15-21, 21-7, 13-21 in 64 minutes to Chou Tien-chen (TPE, 6th seed); our tournament page writes it from the winner's side as 21-15, 7-21, 21-13. ⚡When he won that semi-final, our tournament page recorded it as the first Super 1000 singles final reached by a French player.
👬He also played the men's doubles here with Christo Popov: on 22 July they lost the first round 12-21, 23-25 in 38 minutes to 🇯🇵Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi (JPN, 8th seeds). Our tournament page writes that from the winners' side as 21-12, 25-23.
🔴Corrected on 8 September 2026: we had first written the quarter-final as "21-12, 10-21, 21-15". The first two games were the wrong way round. We checked it against the official BWF day data and the draw on English Wikipedia, and we have corrected our tournament page too. 🆕Added on 17 September 2026: the second round against Gemke was already on our page for Rasmus Gemke but missing from this one. We confirmed it against the official BWF day data and the draw on English Wikipedia. On the same day we also added the first round against LEE Chia Hao, which was on none of our pages, after the same two sources agreed.

BWF World Championships 2026

World Championships・New Delhi, India

In men's singles he was the 15th seed and reached the last 16. He beat Dominik KWINTA (POL) 21-19, 21-13 in 39 minutes in the first round on 17 August and Hein HTUT (MYA) 21-13, 21-11 in 38 minutes in the second round on 19 August, then lost the third round on 20 August 17-21, 21-17, 14-21 in 78 minutes to Anders Antonsen (DEN, 4th seed) — the longest match we hold for him.
👬He also played the men's doubles with Christo Popov and went out in the first round. On 17 August they lost 13-21, 17-21 in 39 minutes to 🇯🇵Yuichi Shimogami and Takumi Nomura. Our tournament page writes it from the Japanese side as 21-13, 21-17. That Japanese pair had only moved up from the reserve list on 24 July, and before the event our page had called the draw hard on them, describing their opponents as the European Championships silver medallists, the Popov brothers. 🆕Added on 17 September 2026: his three men's singles matches were on none of our pages, tournament or player. The official BWF day data and the draw on English Wikipedia agree on all three.

China Masters 2026

Super 750・Shenzhen, China

🔁In the first round he beat the player who had beaten him in the China Open final in July. On 2 September he beat Chou Tien-chen (TPE, 4th seed) 22-20, 21-15 in 48 minutes. Our tournament page writes it from Chou's side as 20-22, 15-21 and records the 4th seed going out. It came 38 days after that final (see 38 days later). In the second round on 3 September he lost 19-21, 22-24 in 56 minutes to Lee Cheuk Yiu (HKG), who went on to finish runner-up. 🆕Added on 17 September 2026: that match was already on our Lee Cheuk Yiu page but missing from this one; the official BWF day data and the draw on English Wikipedia agree on it.
👬He also played the men's doubles here with Christo Popov: on 2 September they beat LEE Fang-Chih and LEE Fang-Jen (TPE) 21-18, 21-7 in 32 minutes, and on 3 September they lost the second round 17-21, 24-22, 9-21 in 69 minutes to Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (IND, 4th seeds), who went on to win the title. ⚡On 2 and 3 September he played twice a day, singles and doubles: he won both on the 2nd and lost both on the 3rd. 🆕Added on 17 September 2026: these two doubles matches were on none of our pages; the official BWF day data and the draw on English Wikipedia agree on both.

The sixteen matches we recorded for Toma Junior Popov in 2026 up to the China Masters in September are eight wins and eight losses. Split by event, the two halves look nothing alike: 7-4 in men's singles and 1-4 in the men's doubles he plays with Christo Popov.

• ✅Seven of the eight wins came in men's singles: the China Open first round (LEE Chia Hao, 21-14, 15-21, 21-17), second round (Rasmus Gemke, 21-10, 21-19), quarter-final (Nhat Nguyen, 12-21, 21-10, 21-15) and semi-final (Victor Lai, 14-21, 21-12, 21-15); the World Championships first round (Dominik KWINTA, 21-19, 21-13) and second round (Hein HTUT, 21-13, 21-11); and the China Masters first round (Chou Tien-chen, 22-20, 21-15). The other was the China Masters men's doubles first round (LEE Fang-Chih and LEE Fang-Jen, 21-18, 21-7).
• 🔁Four of his five China Open matches, first round to final, went the distance. The quarter-final and the semi-final both started with a lost opening game. The only straight-games match there was the second round against Gemke (51 minutes).
• 🔻The four singles defeats: the Japan Open first round (Anders Antonsen, 3rd seed, 17-21, 13-21), the China Open final (Chou Tien-chen, 15-21, 21-7, 13-21), the World Championships third round (Antonsen again, 4th seed, 17-21, 21-17, 14-21) and the China Masters second round (Lee Cheuk Yiu, 19-21, 22-24). Two of the four were against Antonsen, and the 78-minute World Championships match is the longest we hold for him.
• 🔻His men's doubles, all with Christo Popov, is one win and four losses: a first-round defeat at the Japan Open to the 2nd seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri (INA), 19-21, 13-21 in 35 minutes; first-round defeats at the China Open against 🇯🇵Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi, 12-21, 23-25; at the World Championships against 🇯🇵Yuichi Shimogami and Takumi Nomura, 13-21, 17-21, both to Japanese pairs — three events, three first-round exits; then a first-round win at the China Masters and a second-round defeat there, 17-21, 24-22, 9-21 in 69 minutes, to Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (IND, 4th seeds).

Everything above comes from our own tournament and player pages, and we do not explain why any of it happened. 🆕Seven of these matches were added on 17 September 2026: the China Open first round, his three World Championships singles matches, the China Masters singles second round (until then only our Lee Cheuk Yiu page held that one) and his two China Masters doubles matches. 🆕His two Japan Open matches, the singles and the doubles first rounds, were added on 18 September 2026. The official BWF day data and the draw on English Wikipedia agree on every one of them. ⚠️Every match the official BWF day data holds for him at the Japan Open, the China Open, the World Championships and the China Masters is now here, but this is still not his full 2026.

Two of the sixteen results are against the same opponent, Chou Tien-chen of Chinese Taipei. The first was a final, the second a first round, and the winner changed.

• 🥈26 July, China Open (Super 1000) final: lost 15-21, 21-7, 13-21 in 64 minutes to Chou Tien-chen (6th seed) and finished runner-up. He took the second game 21-7.
• ✅2 September, China Masters (Super 750) first round: beat the same player, by then the 4th seed, 22-20, 21-15 in 48 minutes — 38 days later.

⚡Read from the other side, the same two results reverse. On our page for Chou Tien-chen, 26 July is his second Super 1000 title, seven years after the first, and 2 September is the day that opponent beat him back.

We do not rank players against each other. Everything above is the score and the date as our tournament pages record them; we do not hold a career head-to-head.

⚠️Two players called Popov appear on our 2026 tournament pages. This page is about Toma Junior Popov.

• 🇫🇷Toma Junior Popov (this page): world No. 15 in men's singles as of 13 October 2026, and runner-up at the China Open (Super 1000) in July.
• 🇫🇷Christo Popov: world No. 3 on the same list, champion at the Japan Open in July and the 5th seed in men's singles at the World Championships in August.
• 👬The two also play men's doubles together. Our tournament pages call them the Popov brothers. The doubles results we hold are five matches, one win and four losses: a first-round defeat at the Japan Open to the Indonesian pair who went on to win it, first-round defeats to Japanese pairs at the China Open and the World Championships, then a first-round win and a second-round defeat at the China Masters.

Which match belongs to which player follows our tournament pages. We do not publish a family relationship or an age order that our sources do not state.

• 2026 — China Open — men's singles runner-up (Super 1000)
  Changzhou, 26 July. He lost the final 15-21, 21-7, 13-21 in 64 minutes to Chou Tien-chen (TPE, 6th seed). Our China Open 2026 page, the official BWF day data and the draw on English Wikipedia agree point for point, and our page records the run as the first Super 1000 singles final reached by a French player.
• 2026 — European Men's Team Championships — gold with France
  Istanbul, February. BWF's official report of 16 February 2026 says France ended Denmark's unbroken run of titles, that Popov won his singles, and that he then won the deciding fifth rubber in men's doubles with Thom Gicquel, 21-19, 21-12. English Wikipedia's medal table records the same gold.
• 2026 — European Championships — men's doubles runner-up
  In the men's doubles with Christo Popov. Our 2026 World Championships page describes the pair Yuichi Shimogami and Takumi Nomura drew in round one as the European Championships silver medallists, the Popov brothers, which matches English Wikipedia's medal table (Huelva 2026, men's doubles silver).
• 2026 — Thomas Cup — silver with France
  Our 2026 World Championships page records the BWF's own note that France were Thomas Cup runners-up. English Wikipedia's medal table lists Toma Junior Popov in that men's team silver at Horsens 2026.

📅The most recent matches on our tournament pages are from the Denmark Open 2026, which is under way (just below). The sixteen matches on this page run up to the China Masters 2026, which finished on 6 September.

🏸At the Arctic Open 2026 (6 to 11 October, Vantaa, Finland) he was the 7th seed in men's singles and lost the second round on 8 October to Yushi Tanaka 10-21, 19-21 (38 minutes). We have not recorded his first-round match. At the Denmark Open 2026 (13 to 18 October, Odense, Super 750) he had lost in the first round of both events as of 15 October: in men's doubles with Christo Popov on 13 October to Kakeru Kumagai / Hiroki Nishi 14-21, 18-21, and in men's singles on 14 October to Yudai Okimoto 10-21, 12-21. ⚠️These three matches are not in the sixteen-match count above (scores from Toma Junior Popov's side).

Next comes the French Open from 20 to 25 October near Paris (Super 750) — a home tournament for a French player. The season ends with the BWF World Tour Finals in December.

⚠️ The French Open 2026 draw came out on 15 October, but our tournament page lists only the Japanese entries' first-round matches, so we have not recorded his place in the draw. No entry list has been published for the events after it, and we do not guess at who will play. Our full 2026 calendar is on the badminton schedule page.

"Eight wins and eight losses" is not one story. Split by event it is 7-4 in singles and 1-4 in doubles — two different shapes. The total hides the difference. (The count here is the sixteen matches up to the China Masters in September.)

🔴A page about a player from another country has more holes than a page about a Japanese player. Until 17 September 2026 this one was missing the first round of the China Open, all of his World Championships men's singles, and both the singles second round and the men's doubles at the China Masters; until 18 September it was missing both of his Japan Open matches. We say what we do not have.

🔍The same results can still be read from both sides. On Chou Tien-chen's page, 26 July is a title and 2 September is a defeat. On the pages for Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi and Yuichi Shimogami, the two doubles results are wins; on Anders Antonsen's page the Japan Open first round and the World Championships third round are wins, on Lee Cheuk Yiu's page so is the China Masters second round, and on the page for Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri so is the Japan Open men's doubles first round. The points are the same; only the direction changes.

Badsheet records your own matches point by point, builds an official-style scoresheet and charts win rate and shot placement.

📮 Corrections and removal. This is an unofficial summary built from published information. If anything here is factually wrong, or if the player or their team would like this page taken down, please contact us and we will correct or remove it promptly. We do not publish anything about injuries, health or private life.