Endo won the 1st point in the Thomas Cup finals with Kenichi Hayakawa beating Tan Boon Heong and Hoon Thien How and led the momentum for the Japanese team to claim the Thomas Cup for the first time, being the fourth nation to win the Thomas cup after Indonesia, China and Malaysia. Known for his defensive skills alongside his knowledge of the game, Endo has reached the finals of the All England Open tournament a total of 5 times, being the runner-up three times with his then partner, Kenichi Hayakawa and winning back to back titles, defending his 2020 All England Open title in 2021 with his current partner, Yuta Watanabe.
In July 2021, Endo competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the men's doubles partnering Yuta Watanabe. They were stopped in the quarter-finals, losing to Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin, the eventual champions, in straight games.[5]
Retirement
At the beginning of September 2021 Hiroyuki Endo, at that time World No. 5 together with Yuta Watanabe, decided to resign from the Japanese National badminton team. This announcement just after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was made together with the announcement of retirements of men's doubles compatriots Keigo Sonoda and Takeshi Kamura.[6] Endo, already 34 at the time of his retirement, wanted his partner Yuta Watanabe to fully concentrate on playing men's doubles with him and stop playing mixed doubles for some time. When he could not come to an agreement with Watanabe, he chose to retire. Meanwhile, Yuta, because he won the mixed doubles bronze medal in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, still wanted to play both disciplines.[7]"Thank you for your hard work as a National representative! You stayed as an A team member for 13 years. You piled up the endurance day by day. I guess you could do it because you hate to lose. I know you have been going through a lot of things, but you are amazing!" wrote Endo's wife on twitter. Endo became coach of his badminton club Nihon Unisys in Japan after his retirement.
The BWF World Tour, which was announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018,[8] 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.[9]
The BWF Superseries, which was launched on 14 December 2006 and implemented in 2007,[10] was a series of elite badminton tournaments, sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). BWF Superseries levels were Superseries and Superseries Premier. A season of Superseries consisted of twelve tournaments around the world that had been introduced since 2011.[11] Successful players were invited to the Superseries Finals, which were held at the end of each year.
^Sukumar, Dev (10 January 2018). "Action-Packed Season Ahead!". Badminton World Federation. Archived from the original on 13 January 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
