Ayush Shetty stuns World No. 1 to storm into Badminton Asia Championships final

Ayush Shetty stunned World No. 1 Kunlavut Vitidsarn 10-21, 21-19, 21-17 to enter the Badminton Asia Championships final in Ningbo. The 20-year-old becomes only the second Indian to reach the men’s singles final in the continental event.

Hyderabad: Ayush Shetty moved one step closer to making history as he shocked World No. 1 Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand 10-21, 21-19, 21-17 to enter the men’s singles final of the Badminton Asia Championship in Ningbo (China) on Saturday.

With this stunning performance, the 20-year-old Ayush, who is mentored by Vimal Kumar and has been having a dream run in this championship shocking many higher rated players, has now become only the second Indian ever to reach the men’s singles final at the continental event.

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The other Indians who made it to the final were Dinesh Khanna who won the gold in the 1965 edition, Prakash Padukone in 1976, Pullela Gopichand (2000), Anup Sridhar (2007) and HS Prannoy (2018).

In the semifinal that lasted 75 minutes, Ayush showed remarkable fighting qualities to rally from a first-game deficit to outsmart the famed opponent.

The Indian shuttler from Karnataka, who won a bronze in the 2023 World junior championship, will now face the winner of the other semifinal between second-seeded Chinese Shi Yu Qi or the fourth-seeded Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.