Akane Yamaguchi

Yamaguchi won Japan's National Junior Championship in 2010. She first competed professionally at the Osaka International in 2012. In July 2012, she represented Japan at the Asian Junior Championships in Gimcheon, South Korea. She reached the women's singles semi-finals, winning bronze after a 19–21, 9–21 loss to Nozomi Okuhara. She was also part of Japan's national junior team that won the country's first junior mixed team title. Yamaguchi reached the World Junior Championships final, losing to Okuhara again and finishing as runner-up.

In April 2013, Yamaguchi finished second to Kaori Imabeppu at the Osaka International in the women's singles event with a score of 20–22, 16–21. She was the women's singles runner-up in the New Zealand Open, a Grand Prix tournament. She participated in the Japan Open, unseeded. She defeated P. V. Sindhu, the bronze medalist from the 2013 world championships in two straight games in round sixteen. She also defeated seeded player Tai Tzu-ying in a semi-final, leading to her match-up with her compatriot Shizuka Uchida, whom she beat in the final to become the youngest player to win the BWF Superseries tournament, aged only 16. This was also Japan's first ever victory at the home event since 1981.

One year after losing the final at the world juniors competition, Yamaguchi won the title by beating her teammate Aya Ohori. While in high school, Yamaguchi won the national badminton competition, competing in the women's singles event. At the 2nd Asian Youth Games held in Nanjing, China in August 2013, where she represented Fukushima Prefectural Tomioka High School, she won the gold medal in mixed doubles. In October, she represented Japan at the East Asian Games held in Tianjin, China, where she finished third in the women's singles event, losing in three sets to Wang Shixian. After graduating from high school, she joined the Saishunkan Pharmaceutical badminton team.

Yamaguchi was named the Most Promising Player of the Year by the Badminton World Federation in late 2013 and 2014.

At the Malaysian Open in January, Yamaguchi defeated reigning world champion Ratchanok Intanon in the first round in three games. In February, still a teenager, Yamaguchi entered the 2014 Asian Junior Championships as the fourth seed. She won the title by defeating Chen Yufei from China. She competed at the All England Open in March. She defended her World Junior crown, winning against Chinese player He Bingjiao in the final round.

She was part of the Japanese team that won the silver medal at the 2014 Uber Cup. On 16 August, Yamaguchi served as the flag-bearer for the Japanese team at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China. She was the number one seed in the women's singles event, eventually winning the silver medal.

At the China Open in November, Yamaguchi defeated top ranked players in two straight games, Wang Shixian, Sun Yu, Bae Yeon-ju and reached the final. She finished as runner-up in the tournament after losing to Saina Nehwal. She then won the All Japan General Championships in December. At 17 years of age, she was the second-youngest player to win the tournament.

She qualified for participation in the end-of-year championships, the Superseries Finals tournament held in December. She won all of her group matches, against (former champion) Wang Yihan, Ratchanok Intanon and Tai Tzu-ying. She lost in the semi-final against Korean player Sung Ji-hyun.

In 2015, Yamaguchi beat the reigning Olympic champion Li Xuerui in the second round of the Indonesian Open. She finished as the runner-up at the Japan Open, losing to Nozomi Okuhara, and won the Bitburger Open title.

In 2016, Yamaguchi competed at the Summer Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, where she was eliminated in the quarter-finals by compatriot Nozomi Okuhara. That year, she also won two Superseries titles: the Korea Open, defeating Sung Ji-hyun in the final, and the Denmark Open, where she defeated teammate Okuhara in the quarter-finals, Olympic gold medalist Carolina Marín in the semi-finals, and Tai Tzu-ying in the final.

Yamaguchi was also a member of the Japanese teams that won a silver medal at the 2015 Sudirman Cup in Dongguan and a bronze medal at the 2016 Uber Cup in Kunshan.

In February, Yamaguchi contributed to Japan's first Asia Mixed Team Championships title and won the German Open via walkover against Carolina Marín. In April, she was the runner-up at the Asian Championships in Wuhan, losing to Tai Tzu-ying. In August, at the World Championships in Glasgow, despite being the top seed, she was eliminated in the third round by Chen Yufei. She also reached the finals at the Australian Open (losing to Nozomi Okuhara), the Denmark Open (losing to Ratchanok Intanon), and the French Open (losing to Tai Tzu-ying). In November, she claimed her first title of the year at the China Open, defeating China's Gao Fangjie. She concluded the year by winning the Dubai World Superseries Finals in December, defeating P. V. Sindhu in the final. Yamaguchi ended the year as the highest-earning player, collecting US$261,363 from 15 tournaments.

In March, Yamaguchi won the German Open (Super 300), defeating Chen Yufei in the final. She then reached her first final at the All England Open (Super 1000), finishing as runner-up to Tai Tzu-ying. In April, 20-year-old Yamaguchi became World No. 1, dethroning Tai Tzu-ying. In May, she contributed to Japan's gold medal win in the Uber Cup, first title for the country in 37 years. In July, at the World Championships in Nanjing, Yamaguchi earned a bronze medal in the women's singles, reaching the semi-finals before losing to P. V. Sindhu. In August, at the Asian Games in Jakarta, she was part of the gold medal-winning women's team and also secured a bronze medal in women's singles, losing in the semi-finals to P. V. Sindhu. To cap off the year, she won the French Open (Super 750) in October, defeating Tai Tzu-ying in the final.

In February 2019, Yamaguchi won the German Open (Super 300) title, defeating the No. 3 seed Ratchanok Intanon in the final. In April, she was the runner-up at the Malaysia Open (Super 750), losing to Tai Tzu-ying in the final. She then won the Asian Championships, defeating top seed Chen Yufei in the semi-final and He Bingjiao in the final; this was her first Asian Championships title, she became the first Japanese women's singles player to achieve this. In July, she won the Japan Open for the second time, her previous win being six years prior in 2013. That same month, Yamaguchi secured her first Indonesia Open title (Super 1000), reaching the final by defeating world No. 1 Tai Tzu-ying and winning the title by defeating P. V. Sindhu. However, in August, she was defeated in the second round of the World Championships in Basel, Switzerland, losing to Yeo Jia Min of Singapore. She later qualified for the World Tour Finals in Guangzhou, and reaching the semi-finals where she was defeated by Chen Yufei.

In 2020, Yamaguchi won her first title of the year at the Thailand Masters, defeating An Se-young in straight games. She was part of the Japanese team that won the Asian Women's team championship. In 2021, Yamaguchi competed at the Tokyo Olympics (held in 2021) as the number four seed, where she was defeated in the quarter-finals by P. V. Sindhu. She won the Denmark Open for the second time, defeating An Se-young after An retired. This was her second Super 1000 title. She won her second consecutive title by winning the French Open (Super 750) against Sayaka Takahashi. At the Indonesia Masters final, she again faced An Se-young, losing in two games. Yamaguchi ended the year by winning the World Championships (held in Huelva, Spain), defeating Tai Tzu-ying in the final. This made her the second Japanese women's singles player to win the World Championships after Nozomi Okuhara.

At the All England Open, Yamaguchi defeated An Se-young of South Korea (21–15, 21–15) to win the women's singles title for the first time. She became the fourth Japanese women's singles player to win the All England Championship following Hiroe Yuki, Etsuko Takenaka and Nozomi Okuhara. In April, at the Asian Championships, Yamaguchi lost the final to Wang Zhiyi of China (21–15, 13–21, 19–21). On 28 August 2022, Yamaguchi defeated Chen Yufei of China (21–12, 10–21, 21–14) in the women's singles final of the World Championships, securing her second consecutive world champion title. This made her the first Japanese women's singles player to successfully defend the world title. Yamaguchi was also named the 2022 BWF Female Player of the Year. In December, she won BWF World Tour Final in Bangkok, Thailand, defeating Tai Tzu-ying (21–18, 22–20).