A 39-shot rally, where Ayush Shetty playing against the inimitable Chou Tien Chen who never gives up, saw the Indian 20-year-old match the Taiwanese on the biggest un-calculable metric - heart. It helped the 6 feet-4 Shetty, make finals of the Super 300 Open after a 20-22, 21-15, 21-14 win, where he plays the hyper-glider Bryan Yang for the title later on Sunday. With finalists in both men's and women's singles - Tanvi Sharma,16 stomped on to set up a clash against Beiwen Zhang, 34 - India was on a resurgence at this American outpost, somewhere in mid central US, at Council Bluffs in Iowa. But at 4-3 in the decider, Shetty truly brought alive the slowly building crowd at a sleepy venue on a Saturday night. It was two men known for their sprawling defense, and there were at least 8 low pick ups inches off the floor in that rally in the third, after a set apiece. A fast paced rally where both Shetty and Tien Chen ended up bouncing off the floor - it had everything: the taut midcourt battle, steep down shots, drops defended by sliding on knees, returns on the reflex while getting up and recovery returns after being on all fours. It would end with Shetty levelling at 4-4, a symbolic catching up with the legend, as the comms guffawed and all they could say wisely was 'Still going." Shetty seemed to have broken Tien Chen's resolve thereafter, as he raced to take the second and third sets 21-15, 21-14. But well before that, the Indian fourth seed playing the top seed, had frittered a 6-point lead at 17-11 in the opener and contrived to go down 20-22, after being 19-15 up. But that's just how the Taiwanese plays - he can assail any deficits and simply never gives in. "Ayush kept his composure after losing that 6 point lead and the set," coach Sagar Chopda said, adding his ward had been pulling out some tricky wins this whole week. This included Magnus Johannesen where Shetty won in straight sets after being 14-4 down, and then against former world junior champ, Kuo Kuan Lin, now 21. In the second he had gotten past fellow Indian talent Tharun Mannepalli. "Ayush messed up a big lead today but proved he can come back and pull through from trailing by huge margins too against Magnus (who was coming off a title). Tharun had a good win against Frenchman Arnaud Merkle and Ayush had to play well. And he also won playing from the tougher side (faster)," Chopda said. Shetty had been 18-20 down before picking the first and sauntering to the second. Botching good leads however seems to inflict Indians of all levels - Shetty is World No 34 now. His coaches believe he's yet to learn the tricks of the trade - taking breaks at the right moments, and visibly rushing through points. But despite Tien Chen galloping from behind to take opener, Shetty did well to stay calm and impose the game that had originally given him the lead. What to expect in final Brian Yang, the Canadian is lined up next at 1 a.m IST in a reversal of the order from Taipei Open earlier this year, where Shetty had beaten Yang in semis and lost to CTC in the final. The US Open semis win was a sort of revenge extracted, but Yang despite being 0-2 in H2H is a tricky opponent. He crowds though he plays simple length badminton. But what the jack-in-the-box loves doing is jumping around court, sending down smashes at a fast clip. They aren't necessarily very incisive, but the volume can be a headache. He sprays them plenty from the overhead cross side but the sheer number of them can be extremely daunting to deal with. At Taiwan, Shetty had simply defended with patience and drawn out errors arising from the frenzy. But Yang also didn't have answers back then to Shetty's down the line attack which proved decisive. Yang can unleash body smashes that could get awkward for the Indian, but he has the answers at the net with dribbles.
