Ayush Shetty stole the spotlight in India’s final group-stage game in the Thomas Cup on Wednesday, April 29. Playing against China, Shetty grabbed a comeback win over World No. 15 Weng Hong Yang in a game that lasted an hour and 10 minutes.
Shetty’s 17-21, 21-13, 21-15 win once again reaffirmed the skillset of this prodigiously talented youngster, who has been touted as the next big thing in Indian badminton this season. Shetty’s victory looked even more impressive, considering he came out on court after Lakshya Sen and Satwik-Chirag’s losses. Both Lakshya and Sat-Chi played well today in phases, but lacked the clinical edge to seal their respective games.
When Ayush walked onto the court, India were staring at a 3-0 collapse against the Chinese, which could have marked a sorry end to the team’s group-stage campaign. It definitely looked like a possibility when Ayush lost the first game of the tie 17-21, but he ended up making a comeback to win 21-13, 21-15 in a show of incredible speed and shot-making.
Earlier in the tie, Lakshya Sen went down 19-21, 21-8, 12-21 against former All England champion Li Shi Feng, while Satwik-Chirag saved five match points before going down 13-21, 21-13, 24-26 against Liang Wei Kang and Wang Chang.
Lakshya was sensational in phases, but his old problem of losing steam in the final game caught up with him again. Lakshya, who has changed his playstyle to focus on long rallies recently, was not able to counter Li Shi Feng’s incredible intensity in the final game, which ended with him losing the decider by a big margin.
Satwik-Chirag were perhaps guilty of the same. The former World No. 1 doubles pairing played an intelligent game against China’s Liang Wei Kang and Wang Chang. Sat-Chi found spaces in the forecourt and forced the Chinese into errors, stretching the game into the decider.
In the final game, Wang Chang really lifted his service game, putting top-spin and tumble into his serves. Sat-Chi did not have any reply to that and ended up conceding the match in one hour and seven minutes.
Ayush’s victory against Hong Yang came after the Sat-Chi match, but India’s hope lasted very little time as the second men’s doubles pairing of Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun could not build on the momentum and went down 17-21, 13-21 against He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu to end India’s chances of topping the group.
However, the team walked off the court on a high when HS Prannoy ended the day on a winning note for India by beating Lu Guang Zu 20-22, 21-19, 21-11.
With the 2-3 loss against China, India finished the group in second spot and now await their opponents in the quarter-final of the tournament.
