5 min readUpdated: Apr 10, 2026 12:55 PM IST
Jonatan Christie just couldn’t shake off Ayush Shetty. It’s one thing to have an annoying little bee buzzing in your ear, but quite another for an elephant to be stomping his feet all around you, like the 6-foot-4 Ayush with the persistence of a pecking bird did. The World No 4 from Indonesia was brought down, one rally at a time, as the 25th ranked Indian reached the semifinals of his first Badminton Asia Championship 23-21, 21-17 at Ningbo, China.
Ayush trailed Jojo Christie right until 18-18 in the opening set. But every time, the 28-year-old former Asian Games champion compiled a 3-point lead, Ayush would start snapping at his heels and never stop pursuing. What makes the tall Mangalorean, still only 20 the biggest talent for the future – and the future is here clearly – is how he easily erased three set points, to sneak in a 23-21 first set lead. His bulking smashes nearly saw him through the second – in much the ‘here comes the cavalry’ fashion. But winning that first set, needed painstaking effort which Ayush was ready to put in.
It’s a fairly simple thing to thwack a smash from a 6-ft-7 vantage with outstretched limbs and racquet. But the first set was about drawing out trap-plans and ambushes. This Ayush achieved with pin-pricks – lobs going over and behind Jojo, smashes into the Indonesian’s body that even an agile defender like him couldn’t evade and they sailed wide. That’s how Ayush arrived at 18-all; the series – 7-10, 11-11, 11-14, 13-14, 13-16, 15-16. Jojo was prevailing in fast parallel exchanges and drawing out smashing errors into the net by pushing the Indian back.
Perhaps the canniest of Ayush’s plans, thanks to Jojo’s former coach and father figure Irwansyah, was baiting the Indonesian to go for the lines and corners where he is strong. But when you tunnel him into exchanges that are skimming that airspace over the line, the 4th effort after three accurate ones, is bound to sail wide. Ayush lured Jojo to that thin red line, and teased out wide errors.
Jojo still led 19-18 counter-baiting Ayush into wildly swinging racquet evasively on body shots. And the Indonesian had the set point after Ayush was left with no choice but to send his backhand lift to the backline – it went long. But here’s where the powergame, that’s been the staple of a PV Sindhu or HS Prannoy came into play. Ayush sent a scorching cross court smash to get to 19-20. Under pressure now, Jojo netted the next one, 20-all. Jojo was chasing now, as he levelled at 21-21 with a straight smash. But the quaking racquet grip sent the next into the net giving Ayush his second set point.
For a power-player with a sledgehammer, gritting out these points is like threading a needle. But the Mangalorean wasn’t averse to the hard work. The first set came not from an expansive smash, but a pointed attack on the body, that Jojo ended up parrying clumsily as the shuttle went wide.
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With the first set pocketed, Ayush was riding the confidence wave, and then rolled in the heavy materials. Half a dozen big statement smashes. He entertained resistance from Jojo till 9-9 and then hah had enough of it. At 13-9 came the soft-conceding by Christie. Like all ageing, slightly jaded players (he won Asian Games in 2018 at age 20), he allowed a shuttle on the backline to drop – not because it was going out, but he hoped it would. Bang on the line. At 15-12, Ayush prevailed in a long rally. And though Jojo came within 16-17 of the Indian’s advantage, Ayush always had the A-Smash to nose ahead.
A terribly poor lift from Jojo – his shuttle and length control is considered amongst best in men’s singles – saw Ayush swatting at it for 19-17. And two errors – long and wide followed, as the great Indonesian was overcome in 54 prophetic minutes.
Ayush leads Jojo 1-1 in head to head now.
He awaits the winner of Kunlavut Vitidsarn and Weng Hong Yang on the semis.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
