{"id":17898,"date":"2025-08-31T09:05:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T09:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=17898"},"modified":"2025-08-31T09:05:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T09:05:19","slug":"shi-sets-up-badminton-world-final-with-kunlavut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=17898","title":{"rendered":"Shi sets up badminton world final with Kunlavut"},"content":{"rendered":"
World number one Shi Yuqi survived two match points on Saturday to book a world championship final meeting with Thai titleholder Kunlavut Vitidsarn, as top seed An Se-young was upset on the women’s side of the draw.<\/p>\n

Chinese star Shi battled back from 18-20 down in the second game to beat Canadian youngster Victor Lai 13-21, 22-20, 21-16 and keep his bid for a first world title alive.<\/p>\n

“I felt an emotional release when this one ended,” a breathless Shi said after 80 gruelling minutes on court.<\/p>\n

“(Lai) played exceptionally well indeed. Although I trailed and faced sustained pressure throughout, I remained in a remarkably composed state.”<\/p>\n

Lai, a 20-year-old student at York University in Toronto, told reporters his “unbelievable” run to a bronze medal in Paris might just convince him his future lies away from kinesiology.<\/p>\n

“The past couple of years has been school but I think after now and this year I will focus more on badminton and put school to the side,” he said.<\/p>\n

Shi will face third seed Kunlavut in Sunday’s final after the 2023 winner overcame Danish second seed Anders Antonsen 21-17, 21-15.<\/p>\n

“Shi is the world number one and I have a lot to learn from him,” said Kunlavut, who will be seeking gold after losing last year’s Olympic Games final in the same venue.<\/p>\n

“(It’s a) very good arena and very nice place. Tomorrow (Sunday) I go to the final again and I hope to try my best.<\/p>\n

“For me, I think I (have to) step up because my performance is not good enough. Sometimes it’s very high and very low.”<\/p>\n

South Korean An, the defending women’s champion and world number one, suffered a “bitter” upset against Chinese fourth seed Chen Yufei 21-15, 21-17.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t manage to get used to the conditions of the hall today, so it was a bit of a bitter match for me,” An told reporters through an interpreter.<\/p>\n

Chen will face Japanese fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi in the final.<\/p>\n

Yamaguchi saw off Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani 21-17, 14-21, 21-6.<\/p>\n

Former world silver medallist Chen capitalised on a rare sluggish start by An to take the opening game — the first dropped all week by the Paris 2024 Olympic gold medallist.<\/p>\n

Chen suffered a nasty-looking ankle twist early in the second game, but the 27-year-old shook off the pain to clinch a straight-games victory.<\/p>\n

“(Chen twisting her ankle) didn’t mean that the match actually ended, so I was busy taking care of my match, and I guess I lost my way at the same time,” the 23-year-old An added.<\/p>\n

Her opponent skipped speaking to the press to receive treatment immediately after the match.<\/p>\n

Two-time champion Yamaguchi produced a scintillating third game to storm into the third world championship title match of her career.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a while since I’ve played in a final,” said the 28-year-old, who came into the match having been eliminated from her last five consecutive tournaments at the semi-final stage.<\/p>\n

“I reckon I’ll just go for it… I’m hoping to keep challenging myself and enjoy the experience.<\/p>\n

“I still don’t think (my chances of winning are) that high, but since it’s the final now, I’d like to go in feeling like I’ve got a 50-50 chance.”<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World number one Shi Yuqi survived two match points on Saturday to book a world championship final meeting with Thai titleholder Kunlavut Vitidsarn, as top seed An Se-young was upset on the women’s side of the draw. Chinese star Shi battled back from 18-20 down in the second game to beat Canadian youngster Victor Lai […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}