Ayush Shetty underlines status as Indian badminton’s next big thing, with biggest win of his career yet to reach Asian C’ships semis

It’s a fairly simple thing to thwack a smash from his 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 read 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.

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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, which went long. But here’s where the power game, 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, which Jojo ended up parrying clumsily as the shuttle went wide.

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 had enough of it. At 13-9 came the soft concession 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 the 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.

When the 20-year-old was tiring, he also took a good break at 17-18, which shows he is in the big league. Top players tend to know these things, Vimal added. “Asian Championships are as good as the Worlds,” he would say, adding that these were good results with wins over Christie and Li Shifeng in a week.

The path to the top of the podium (no Indian has won the men’s singles gold at the Asians since Dinesh Khanna in 1965) only gets tougher as he faces world No 1 Kunlavut Vitidsarn next. They have met once previously, and the Thai star had prevailed 21-15, 21-16 at the Arctic Open last year.