With no tournaments to look forward to and time on his hands, Kento Momota spent some time with his fans in a recent live Instagram broadcast, and admitted his personal life is still vacant.

"No" was his brief response when asked if he had a girlfriend, but added "it’s easy to be lonely, and I hope to find someone who can tolerate me."

The Japanese world number one had just recently returned to training after undergoing an eye surgery for a car accident he was involved in Malaysia in January.

With the Badminton World Federation (BWF) postponing all their sanctioned events indefinitely due to the worsening COVID-19 pandemic, that triumph looked to be Momota’s last competitive action for some time.

But the two-time world champion was content to just be training again.

When asked how he deals with stress, Momota said: "I persecute myself through hard training. I like to do difficult things to eliminate tension. Because you have done so much, it will feel okay.

"Right now it's fulfilling just being back in training. I just want to spend everyday training without regret," he added.

At this stage, Momota can only compete in two events before the Tokyo Olympics, should it go ahead as scheduled from July 24 to August 9.

The Japanese is still favourite to clinch gold despite being inactive on the World Tour for three months.

But his dream of winning gold on home soil this year could be dampened, with the possibility of the Olympics being postponed to 2021 growing due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The New Zealand Open (April 28-May 3) became the latest event to be suspended by the BWF, after the world body had postponed the India Open, Malaysia Open, Singapore Open and Asian Individual Championships.