Twenty-year-old Ayush Shetty might’ve lost to Chinese World No 1 and World champion Shi Yuqi at the Malaysian Open, 21-18, 18-21, 21-12. But the young Indian gave enough glimpses of an ability to trouble the absolute top hierarchy of men’s singles badminton in the 70 minutes wringer he put the Chinese through to start the 2026 season.
A word of appreciation from Shi Yuqi post the match and getting the Malaysian home crowd behind him, as the Chinese “Jiayou” chants peaked sensing trouble for their champ, hinted at Ayush’ steadily rising acknowledgment by fans.
The areas of improvement are fairly clear: finishing – those last 5 points to wrap up a set after being even till 16; transitioning from defense to offense in longish rallies after he’s done the retrieving hardwork; and most importantly, body language, when a top opponent wrests back advantage as he would be expected to. But those could be remedied in the course of time. It was in what the World No 32 did right that raised hopes of an exciting season ahead.
For one, the Indian stayed in the game for the first two sets, keeping the Chinese guessing, hopping and forced to catch his breath, gather his wits. This, he did by dispersing the shuttle with a mix of length variations and yo-yoing the masterful Chinese back and forth by lobbing the shuttle to the back lines and leaving Yuqi short while scrambling to the net. Plenty of short, aggressive downs gave Ayush the 9-6 lead, after the Indian set the early terms by aiming for the corners. The Chinese was left gritting and chattering his teeth, as Ayush’s natural deception literally managed to wrong foot the top-ranked shuttler, who fell back 8-11.
Where Ayush left the door ajar for the Chinese to stomp right back was whenever he went parking himself at midcourt, feet wide apart in a squat, that made him a humongous target for Yuqi to go body-smashing, restricting his easy movement on the court. Ayush has a diligent defense, and even for his 6’4″ frame, can dive about and chase the shuttle around to diagonal corners. What he perhaps lacked was in switching from defense to offense mid-rally, allowing Yuqi to dominate those positions.
Power, precision and timely execution.
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But there was little doubt the Chinese wasn’t exactly reading Ayush straightaway, or taking his time, at the least. It meant Tuqi levelled at 12-12 in the opener, and even if a wee bit rattled enough to fault on his serve, was in the hunt at 17-17. The rally for 17-18 saw Ayush defend stoutly, keeping a low centre of gravity while picking shuttles from inches off the floor, but all that perseverance didn’t amount to a point as the Chinese regained the lead. Ayush, after having Yuqi on the tenterhooks, had to cede the opening set lead.
But he stayed undaunted in the second. The big Ayush-smash, a down the line ripper, fetched up only at 9-9 in the second. to equalise where he caught up after being two points adrift. Ayush stepped up a gear with a signature net followup attack. Taking the mid-set lead, the Indian seized the net control and twice left Yuqi clasping for air as he was in two minds of where to head, in the aftermath of that big smash to the back. He built up a nice 15-11 lead, and kept Yuqi at bay till the world champion reduced the gap to 16-15.
Ayush showed great temperament to pull away again to 19-15, by finding the blend to accuracy and aggression. He pushed a decider with a classic ‘jhatka shot’, a Bangalore–Hyderabad net trick where the racquet was pulled back and the shuttle dropped way shorter than where the Chinese thought it would fly.
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His diving about also cost him a few sore nicks as he was landing awkwardly on the flanks, but it earned him medical breaks to patch up the wounds. However, his third set fitness clearly wasn’t up to scratch, and he fell back 7-13 pretty quickly, turning the decider into an inevitable fading off. Yuqi who started floating and hopping around the court, attacking the shuttle early,
What kept jarring was his body-language, whenever the Chinese visibly amped up his effectiveness. A No 1 will do No 1 things, and increasing pace and intensity to finish off sets, is to be expected. Ayush will need to learn pretty early that a face that doesn’t betray emotions and non-wringing hands (he kept tapping the racquet against the ground after missing to reach a return narrowly) are massively prized in badminton, and top names set a lot of store on not giving away emotions and letting opponents know you are fraying. By the third set, it was apparent Ayush had lost steam, and the game was coming apart, in the mind and the limbs.
But the towering youngster did enough to sound out a warning of his ability to faze the big names, if not entirely rattle them.
Lakshya fritters a 20-16 lead
Lakshya Sen, playing the dangerous Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong, botched a well-earned 20-16 lead, as he imploded to lose the opener 22-20, and went on to exit the match after a 22-20, 21-15 loss.
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It was a clear case of impetuosity getting the better if him as what needed a cool, clinical stubbing off the circuit’s most combustible shuttler, ended with Sen finding 6 different ways to lose points. While the priority remains next week’s India Open, Sen had a good grip on the opener that could’ve given him a Super 1000 quarterfinal.
But Lee is masterful in counterpunching and used unalloyed attack with speed to hassle the Indian at the crunch. In the battle of tattoos (both sport inked sleeved arms and play with as much adventure), the Hong Kong player upended the 8-11 trailing score in the second, at will, to race to a finish after his heist in the opener.
There’s not much of a ranking difference in the two, Sen at 13, Lee at 18. But the 29-year-old can create a ruckus with his fast movements and prickly attacks, and ensured he crowded Sen into submission.
