NEW DELHI: Ayush Shetty’s brilliant run at the $550,000 Badminton Asia Championships ended with a loss in the men’s singles final, earning the 20-year-old a well-deserved silver medal in Ningbo, China, on Sunday.
Shetty went down 8-21, 10-21 in 42 minutes as he proved no match for reigning world champion and home favourite Shi Yu Qi in the last match of the day.
On Saturday, the shuttler from Mangaluru became only the third Indian player or pair to reach the final of the prestigious continental championships.
Dinesh Khanna had won the men’s singles crown way back in 1965. India had to wait another 58 years before the ace pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty claimed the men’s doubles gold three years ago in Dubai.
The unheralded Shetty, who graduated to the senior circuit only two years ago, surprised one and all when she reached the summit clash overcoming some of the best shuttlers on the circuit. In the opening round, he beat reigning Asian Games gold medallist and local favourite Li Shi Feng before overcoming Chinese Taipei’s Chi Yu Jen.
He then ousted former All England champion Jonatan Christie of Indonesia from the quarter-finals before downing world No.1 and top seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand at the last four stage.
A product of the Centre of Badminton Excellence (CBE) (formerly Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy), Shetty’s earlier claim to fame was winning the bronze at the 2023 World Junior Championships.
At the senior level, Shetty reached the final of the 2023 Odisha Masters — a super 100 event — but his breakthrough came last year when he won the US Open — a Super 300 event — in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
This was Shi’s first Asian Championships crown. He has previously won a silver and two bronze medals.
