New Delhi, Aug 18:
Giant-killer Ayush Shetty produced the biggest upset of the BWF World Championships, stunning world No. 1 Shi Yu Qi of China in a thrilling battle to seal a memorable win and storm into the men’s singles second round, while PV Sindhu also advanced comfortably in the women’s singles here on Monday.
Shetty, who became India’s first men’s singles finalist at the Badminton Asia Championships since 1965, continued his giant-killing run by adding Shi to his list of high-profile victims. The 21-year-old had defeated Li Shi Feng, Jonatan Christie and Kunlavut Vitidsarn en route to a silver medal at the continental championships in April.
Shetty, who won the 2025 US Open Super 300, defeated Shi 21-14 13-21 21-19 in a gripping first round contest that went down to the wire with the Chinese giving a fight till the last moment.
The Karnataka shuttler was quick to get off the blocks and race to a 11-5 lead in the first game pumped up by the home support.
Shetty’s court coverage, retrievals and smashes were perfect as Shi found it difficult to counter his less fancied opponent, who pocketed the first game. The Indian was also helped by the Chinese’s unforced errors as he either found the net or sent the shuttle wide on numerous occasions in the opening game.
But Shi was in no mood to give up without a fight and used his experience to great effect to tire out Shetty with long rallies as errors crept up in the Indian’s game with defending champion forcing a decider.
Shetty was clever in the final game, and got the momentum back by just trying to keep the shuttle inside the court and drawing errors from his opponent, which did happen as he raced to 11-5 lead at the final break of the match.
He extended his lead to 15-5 before Shi made a remarkable comeback to narrow the margin 20-15 with Ayush committing unnecessary errors.Shi pocketed four straight points to reduce the margin to 20-19 before Shetty holding his nerves to pocket the match and register the biggest win of his nascent career.