Ayush Shetty was put to the sword by a dominant Shi Yu Qi in the men's singles final of the Badminton Asia Championships 2026 in Ningbo, China, as the reigning world champion won his first BAC title, 21-8, 21-10 in one of the most dominant final displays we've seen recently.
The twenty-year-old had already created history by at this stage, as the only Indian finalist in 61 years in men's singles. He now has his nation's first silver.
Ayush, who had got here with a series of upsets including beating the likes Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Jonatan Christie and Li Shi Feng en-route, would have been confident walking out on court, but was put on the backfoot immediately by Shi.
He raced to a big lead in the opener, and never let go, manipulating the tempo, maneuvering the Indian across the court at his will and combining his drops and smashes perfectly. Seemingly at 100% again after suffering a serious injury earlier this year, Shi never let go of that lead and closed the opener 21-8.
Ayush, though, started the second game in style and raced to a 7-2 lead as nervousness settled on the Ningbo crowd. Shi, however, was having none of it and clawed his way back into the game by switching into high gear, and taking the game to Ayush, forcing errors from his inexperienced opponent. He took a 11-8 lead to the break, and that was that as his drop-drop-smash combinations sucked the life out of Ayush's fight and sealed the deal for him 21-10.
He is now the first Badminton Asia men's singles champion from China, after Chen Long won it back in 2017... and he won it quite some style, not dropping a game (or being troubled much) at any stage of the tournament.
You can relive all the action right here on our live blog at ESPN:
