Ayush Shetty beats Alwi Farhan in battle of future stars | Badminton News
4 min readJul 22, 2026 11:20 PM Ayush Shetty secured a remarkably comfortable 21-17, 5-21, 21-17 victory over Indonesian rival Alwi Farhan to enter the second round of the Super 1000 China Open. It was an important win on a big stage — a Super 1000 — against an opponent who is the season’s best form player and widely acknowledged as Indonesia’s next big hope.
The two 21-year-olds are seen as the future of badminton, though they have done enough to be considered the present. While Alwi has two titles this season, Ayush is still searching for his big one. China Open offers a good opportunity for the World No.23. Though his draw half is stacked — including Lakshya Sen in the semis possibly — he can dream big, after securing a confidence-boosting result, getting past a 2022 World Jrs batchmate who he hadn’t beaten since 2023.
Ayush plays Nhat Nguyen, a pokey tricky Irishman next.
Sen regered a fighting win over Yushi Tanaka after an especially tricky first set, where he contrived to make a 17-14 lead needlessly adventurous. He won 22-20, 15-21, 21-14 highlighting yet another slow start to a tournament, and Round 2 looks ominous.
They are only 1-1 in head to head, but Sen and Candian Victor Lai have a propensity to play memorable matches, so Thursday would be no different. Had badminton been at the Commonwealth Games, Lai would’ve fought Sen hard for the gold. Just as Lai, who won the last Super 1000 at Indonesia entered Top 10, Sen has fallen back to World No.14. It is pretty clear Sen will prioritise the big events. But he would be keen to join Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu as the only Indians in singles to win China Open. The relentless retriever and snappy attacker Lai won’t make it easy, though Sen has a more rounded game than him.
While the All England semifinals was one of the classics, and a match Sen will take plenty of hope from, the Thomas Cup loss would’ve stung him. Sen was 21-18, 19-19 rallying from 16-19 down when he couldn’t forge ahead. Lai is very beatable with Sen’s skillset, but the Indian has allowed him to get into his head with his expansive smashes.
The draw is treacherous for Sen with Loh Kean or Jojo Chrie after Lai.
Sindhu advances
Sindhu’s attack has looked terrifying for her opponents. (BWF/Badminton Photo)
In women’s singles, Japan Open winner PV Sindhu started out avenging an upstart loss to Unnati Hooda, who had famously beaten her at China last season.Story continues below this ad
The 21-14, 9-21, 21-10 win for Sindhu saw two fairly one-sided sets with a breather set lost in between. Sindhu however immediately runs into Chinese Chen Yufei who had retired with hamstring issues after finding herself at the end of a Sindhu torrent last week.
The Chinese remains iffy in her court movements and the Indian will sniff a chance should Yufei continue being tentative. Playing at home presents a different pressure for the Chinese, though she might have rested more, given she wrapped up Saturday, and was airdropped in place of An Se-young who herself withdrew from China.
Sindhu’s attack has looked terrifying for her opponents, with Yufei telling BWF, “I wanted to play at 100%, but Sindhu played very well. Her attack was explosive and I was always defending. I wasn’t comfortable.” Acupuncture and massage had both not offered her relief last week, but playing in front of her home crowd, Yufei will pose a stronger resolve to Sindhu.
