Who is Minoru Yoneyama after whom one court at All England is always named?

One court at the All England in Birmingham is always named after Minoru Yoneyama, founder of the equipment major, Yonex, who passed away in 2019 at age 95, after setting up a thriving badminton racquets and shuttles business. His story arc gets remembered each year at the hallowed All England.
His Hory
The 1924-born from Niigata is said to have served in the Imperial Army during the terrible World War 2, and according to Nikkei Asian Review belonged to a ‘suicide unit tasked with ramming boats filled with explosives into American ships’. However, he was imprisoned before heading out on any mission, and endured confinement at the notorious Okinawa camp. After his release in 1946, he started making wooden floats for recreational fishing. A meticulous master of woodwork, Yoneyama suffered business collapses as plastic floats flooded markets, before starting to make badminton racquets in 1957.
‘Frustrated being pushed aside advancing technology, he vowed to never be technologically left behind and committed to constant innovation,’ Yonex writes.
Yoneyama’s growth
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He took up manufacturing under the Sanbata umbrella, but after his own factory burned down in 1963, Yoneyama put the facility back up in 3 days and took the destruction as a sign of expansion. In 1965, Yoneyama started making shuttlecocks, which remain the birds in use at all major badminton events. Yonex became the title sponsor of All England in 1984.
Some iconic advancements have taken place because Yoneyama insed
* The T-joint on the aluminium racquet that joins the shaft to the frame in 1968.* Tennis racquets started rolling out in 1969.* The first badminton racquets weighing under 100 gm were released in 1978* The square-shaped isometric tennis frame debuted in 1980* Isometric badminton racquets followed in 1995.* Graphite golf clubs and snowboards joined the repertoire.
The Big YY names
A host of badminton’s biggest names are under the Yonex umbrella, though Li Ning and Victor have snared some worthy stars and not quite allowed a monopoly. Still, badminton legend Rudy Hartono started using Yonex in 1978.
Tennis boasted of Tony Roche around the same time, though the women brought real firepower to the brand – Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis.Story continues below this ad
The big he of course was when Yonex struck a deal with the Chinese national team ahead of the last Olympics.
Madness at Minoru
Badminton courts are temporarily carved into indoor stadia and nets erected, but the Minoru at Birmingham is a show court of sorts. Nothing brought alive Yoneyama’s indefatigable spirit like a 2023 second-set rally between mixed doubles legends Zheng and Huang against little-known Indonesians Kusumawati and Kusharjanto. Their defeat was imminent, but in some complete mental retrieving Lisa Ayu Kusumawati, she was peppered the Chinese, while having stumbled on the floor and parried off 6 straight shelling returns raining down on her sitting duck position at incredible speed, before losing the rally. The ‘Madness at Minoru’ is a Youtube favourite from the All England since, celebrated for persence, just like that of the man the court space gets named after.