In the Badminton Asia Championships, India`s star shuttler Ayush Shetty secured a dominating victory against Jonathan Christie of Indonesia in the quarterfinals of the tournament on Friday.
The Indian, who is ranked 25th, defeated Christie by 23-21, 21-17 in the fierce face-off. With this, Shetty has sealed the semi-final berth in the men`s singles category.
This was also the first meeting between Christie and Shetty in the ongoing event. The Indonesian had clinched a gold medal in the Asian Games and Asian Championships, and was also part of the national team that managed to win the Thomas Cup in 2020.
Earlier, the 20-year-old Shetty, who is the reigning US Open Super 300 champion, defeated the 20th-ranked Chinese Taipei`s Chi Yu Jen in the round of 16 on Thursday. He defeated Yu Jen by 21-16, 21-12.
On the other hand, India`s badminton star PV Sindhu was eliminated from the women`s event. She suffered a defeat by 18-21, 8-21 against second seed Wang Zhiyi of China in a 46-minute last-16 stage match.
HS Prannoy, too, had a rough outing in the event. Making his appearance after recovering from a shoulder injury, he failed to secure a victory as he lost by 12-21, 19-21 against China`s Weng Hong Yang.
In mixed doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto bowed out after a 13-21, 14-21 defeat to fourth-seeded Malaysians Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei. Unnati Hooda lost to World No. 9 Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan 17-21, 9-21 in women`s singles, while the women`s doubles pair of Priya Konjengbam and Shruti Mishra went down 10-21, 13-21 to the Japanese duo of Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto.
Badminton Asia Championship: Ayush Shetty`s quarterfinals summary
Relying on his height, Shetty kept producing steep smashes and took control of the game. The opening game was closely fought early on, with the scores level at 4-4 before Chi moved ahead 10-6.
Later, the Indian fought his way back after the break, drawing level at 12-12 and then taking control as Chi struggled with his length, committing a series of unforced errors. He then moved to 18-14 and closed the first game.
In the second game, Shetty took a lead of 4-0 before the opponent tried to make a comeback. Riding on his dominating smashes, the 20-year-old shuttler surged to 11-7 till the interval. Using aggressive returns and sharp net play to move to 16-9, he soon wrapped up the match, sealing it with a sharp backhand at the net.
(With PTI Inputs)
