Badminton Asia Championships 2026: Ayush Shetty made a big upset by defeating Jonathan Christie, reached the semi-finals

Ningbo (China): Indian badminton player Ayush Shetty pulled off a big upset on Friday by defeating world number four Jonathan and made it to the semi-finals of the Badminton Asia Championship 2026. Today, along with making it to the top-4 here, Ayush Shetty is the first graduate of H.S. in 2018. After Prannoy, he has become the first Indian men’s singles badminton player to win a medal in this continental tournament. This will also be India’s first medal at the Badminton Asia Championships after Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy’s men’s doubles gold medal in 2023.

Ayush Shetty, ranked 25th in the men’s singles badminton rankings, defeated Olympian and third seed Jonathan Christie of Indonesia 23-21, 21-17 in the quarter-finals. The first game was extremely tight, with no player able to take a decisive lead. Former Asian champion Jonathan Christie went into the mid-game break with a slight lead of 11–10. Jonathan Christie looked to be in control of the match by leading 18-15 and even got a game point, but Ayush Shetty made a strong comeback and took the match to a tie-break to win the first game. The second game was equally tough.

Ayush Shetty went into the break with a slight lead of 11-9, after which he tightened his grip on the match and secured his place in the semi-finals with the win. This was the first encounter between the two players, in which Ayush Shetty registered his first win against Jonathan Christie. Earlier in the tournament, Ayush Shetty had stunned world number seven and reigning Asian Games champion Li Shi Feng in the first round.

After this, he defeated Chi Yu Jen of Chinese Taipei and made it to the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals, Ayush Shetty will face the winner of the match between Thailand’s Paris 2024 silver medalist Kunlavut Vitidsarn and China’s Asian Games gold medal-winning men’s team member Weng Hongyang.