Rising Indian shuttler Ayush Shetty caused a major upset at the Hong Kong Open Super 500 badminton tournament on Thursday by getting the better of 2023 World Championships silver medallist Kodai Naraoka of Japan in a fiercely-contested three-game contest to reach the men's singles quarterfinals.
The 20-year-old from Karnataka, who had clinched the US Open Super 300 title in June, showcased his aggressive style and superior court coverage to outplay the former World No. 2 Japanese shuttler 21-19, 12-21, 21-14 in a 72-minute thriller. Ayush will face Lakshya Sen, his compatriot and companion at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, in the quarterfinals.
Also read: Ayush Shetty wins US Open title, Tanvi Sharma finishes runner-up
Earlier, Lakshya reached his first men's singles quarterfinals of a top BWF World Tour event in six months, while the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also advanced to the quarterfinals after edging out Thailand's Peeratchai Sukphun and Pakkapon Teeraratsakul 18-21 21-15 21-11. The former world Number 1 pair, seeded eighth, bounced back from a first-game loss to outplay the unseeded Thais. They will next face Malaysia's Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap.
In the other second round match, former World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya, ranked 20th, rallied past compatriot HS Prannoy 15-21 21-18 21-10. Lakshya (23), who finished fourth at the Paris Olympics, has battled injuries and patchy form this season. He last made it to the semifinals at the All England Super 1000 in March and also at the Macau Open Super 300 earlier.
On the other hand, Ayush, a bronze medallist at the 2023 BWF World Junior Championships, the same year Naraoka clinched silver at the senior Worlds, has been in fine form over the past year, having also reached the final of the 2023 Odisha Masters and finished runner-up at events in Bahrain and the Netherlands in 2023 and 2024.
Ayush went on a smash-hitting spree on Thursday to unsettle Naraoka. It was a see-saw battle in the opening game as Ayush trailed 2-5, 9-12 and 13-15, but kept applying pressure with his smashes, eventually taking the game 21-19. With Ayush briefly losing his momentum, Naraoka bounced back in the second game to level the match. However, Ayush regained his composure in the decider, attacking anything in his range with precision. With Naraoka hitting wide twice, Ayush earned eight match points. He squandered two before sealing the memorable win.
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