Kie Nakanishi

Nakanishi began playing badminton in elementary school and won prefectural tournaments during her junior high years. At Omiya Higashi High School, she began to specialize in doubles. In 2012, she partnered with her senior Nozomi Okuhara to win the National Sports Festival junior women's doubles title.^[3]

After high school, Nakanishi attended Waseda University, where she studied in the Faculty of Sport Sciences and later captained the badminton team.^[4][5] In 2017, she won the women's singles title at the All Japan Student Championships (Inter-Collegiate) and the mixed doubles title at the All Japan Student Mixed Doubles Tournament with Minoru Koga.^[6][7] That same year, she won the Japan Ranking Circuit in mixed doubles with Yuki Kaneko.^[8] For these collegiate achievements, she received the Azusa Ono Memorial Sports Award and the Sports Honorary Award.^[5][9] Nakanishi graduated from Waseda in March 2018 and began her professional career the following month by joining the Nihon Unisys team, now known as BIPROGY.^[3]

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

In 2018, Nakanishi partnered with Chisato Hoshi to win her first international title at the Austrian International.^[10] The pair later won their first BWF World Tour title at the Super 100 Russian Open.^[11] That year, she also partnered with Arisa Higashino, reaching the semifinals of the Super 300 New Zealand Open and finishing as a runner-up at the All Japan Members Championships.

Nakanishi formed a new women's doubles partnership with Rin Iwanaga. They won two titles that year: the South Australia International and the Dubai International.^[12][13] The duo also finished as runners-up at the Super 100 Dutch Open and reached the semifinals of the Finnish Open and the Sydney International.^[14]

Nakanishi and Iwanaga's season was limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Competing only in domestic tournaments, they reached the quarterfinals at the All Japan Championships, where they were defeated by eventual champions Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota.

In 2021, Nakanishi and Iwanaga reached their first Super 500 final at the Hylo Open, finishing as runners-up to compatriots Chisato Hoshi and Aoi Matsuda.^[15] Earlier that year, the pair won the Belgian International.^[16] They also competed in the Indonesia Masters and the Indonesia Open at the Indonesia Badminton Festival in Bali but were eliminated in the early rounds of both tournaments. In December, they made their World Championship debut held in Huelva, reaching the quarterfinals. By the end of the year, they entered the top 30 world rankings, reaching world No. 26.

Nakanishi and Iwanaga won a silver medal at the Asian Championships in Manila, losing to the then-World No. 1 pair Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan of China.^[2] In August, they participated in the World Championships in Tokyo, where they were eliminated in the third round. Throughout their 2022 World Tour campaign, Nakanishi and Iwanaga lost in the early rounds of each tournament they entered. They reached a new career-high ranking of world No. 15 as of 24 October.

In 2023, Nakanishi and Iwanaga won their first BWF World Tour title at the Super 300 Syed Modi International.^[17] They also reached the semifinals of the Arctic Open and the Denmark Open. At the Denmark Open, they defeated two Chinese pairs—Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning, and Zhang Shuxian and Zheng Yu—before losing to Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan.^[18] Additionally, they reached the quarterfinals in five other tournaments: the India Open, the Thailand Open, the Singapore Open, the Korea Open, and the Australia Open.

Nakanishi and Iwanaga began the year by reaching their first Super 1000 quarterfinal at the Malaysia Open, defeating third seeds Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong.^[19] Later in the season, they won five consecutive titles, which included their first Super 750 title at the Denmark Open. This undefeated run in finals also included victories at the Spain Masters,^[20] Malaysia Masters,^[21] U.S. Open,^[22] and Canada Open.^[23] En route to the Denmark Open title, they defeated Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee in the semifinals, achieving their first win against that pair.^[24] In the final, they beat the Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalists and then-world No. 1 pair Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning.^[25] They competed in the BWF World Tour Finals but were eliminated in the round-robin stage. They reached a new career-high ranking of world No. 5 as of 4 November.

Nakanishi's 2025 season began while her partner Iwanaga was recovering from injuries sustained in late 2024.^[26] The pair won the bronze medal at the World Championships in Paris, losing in the semifinals to the eventual gold medalists Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning.^[27] On the BWF World Tour, the duo reached three finals, finishing as runners-up at the Super 750 Singapore Open, Super 500 Hong Kong Open, and Super 500 Korea Open.^[28][29][30] They also reached the quarterfinals at the All England Open, the Asian Championships, and the Indonesia Open.^[31] Nakanishi and Iwanaga achieved a new career-high ranking of World No. 4 on 11 March. In team competitions, Nakanishi contributed to Japan's bronze medal finishes at the Asia Mixed Team Championships and the Sudirman Cup.^[32][33]