P. V. Sindhu
In 2017, okuhara claimed her first ever Australian Open title with a win over Akane Yamaguchi. Continuing her good form, she participated at the World Championships seeded 7th. After defeating Canada's Rachel Honderich and teammate Aya Ohori, she had an uphill task against Carolina Marín of Spain in quarters. She beat Marín, the two-time reigning Champion in a gruelling battle of an hour and 33 minutes. She also claimed hard-fought victory over Saina Nehwal in semis, having lost the opening game. For the final, she faced opposition from P. V. Sindhu. She managed to edge a 21–19, 20–22, 22–20 victory over the Indian; in one of the classics of Badminton history. Match stretched for 1:50 hours, making it the 2nd longest match in Women's singles badminton ever. Ironically enough, the longest one was also played by Okuhara; in 2015 against Shixian at the Malaysian Superseries, which she lost. With Okuhara's victory, she became the first ever Japanese to win the World title since 1977. After her triumph at the World stage, she also reached the final of Korean Open Premier Superseries, in which P. V. Sindhu managed to beat Okuhara. However afterwards she suffered knee injury and her performance dipped. She opted not to participate at the Dubai Superseries Finals, as not to aggravate her knee problems.