Thai player in pain after narrow loss to Chinese athlete at Badminton World Championships

Kunlavut Vitidsarn (Thailand) lost narrowly to Chinese player Shi Yuqi in the men's singles final of the 2025 Badminton World Championships.

Kunlavut Vitidsarn lost narrowly in the final - Photo: AFP

In the early morning of September 1, Chinese world number 1 tennis player Shi Yuqi made a spectacular comeback to defeat Kunlavut Vitidsarn to win the men's singles championship for the first time.

In a dramatic 1 hour and 17 minute match, Shi narrowly defeated Kunlavut 19-21, 21-10, 21-18. It was another bitter defeat for Kunlavut in the French capital, as he once again had to settle for silver, repeating the result of the Paris 2024 Olympic final at the same venue 12 months ago.

Despite being behind for most of the first set, Kunlavut rallied strongly in the final stages to win 21-19.

However, Shi Yuqi quickly responded by overwhelmingly winning the second set with a score of 21-10, forcing the match into a deciding game.

In the final set, the two players gave a thrilling score chase. Shi took the lead at 17-10 at one point, but Kunlavut persistently narrowed the gap to 19-18.

Chinese tennis player Shi Yuqi won the men's singles - Photo: AFP

Finally, when Kunlavut hit the shuttle out on the deciding point, Shi sealed the win 21-18 and collapsed to the court in tears. He explained that it was "pure relief to win this match".

"I played six matches in this tournament, and each match was extremely difficult. Many matches I almost lost but I turned the situation around. So winning the final match feels extremely worthy," Shi shared.

In the women's singles, Japanese fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi easily defeated China's Chen Yufei 21-9, 21-13 in just 37 minutes to win her third world title, following titles in 2021 and 2022.

Results of other finals:

Mixed doubles: Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei (Malaysia) beat Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin (China) 21-15, 21-14.

Women's doubles: Tan Ning and Liu Shengshu (China) beat Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan (Malaysia) 21-14, 20-22, 21-17.

Men's doubles: Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae (Korea) beat Chen Boyang and Liu Yi (China) 21-17, 21-12.

THANH DINH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tay-vot-thai-lan-dau-don-khi-thua-sat-nut-vdv-trung-quoc-o-giai-vo-dich-cau-badminton-the-gioi-20250901084752791.htm