Ayush Shetty told to write '17th August is a bad day for Shi Yuqi' ahead of BWF World Championships opener

Ayush Shetty has been given a simple instruction — to write and read the sentence "17th August is a bad day for Shi Yuqi" every day — as he prepares to open his BWF World Championships campaign against Shi Yuqi at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Monday.

"That's what I told him," Vimal Kumar, co-founder of the Centre for Badminton Excellence in Bengaluru, said, adding: "Just write it there. Just look at it every day." Shi is the defending champion and world number one, and has beaten the 21-year-old Indian twice this year, a backdrop national chief coach Pullela Gopichand called a difficult draw. "It's a tough draw on the face of it. Shi Yuqi in the first round is better than him in the later round," Gopichand said. "I think Lakshya beat him at the All England in a very similar set-up. With his big smash, I think Ayush is definitely going to be quite a threat. I do believe he has a very good chance."

Lakshya Sen's All England result is the precedent Gopichand cited: Sen beat Shi 23-21, 19-21, 21-17 in the opening round of the All England Open in March, a match that lasted an hour and eighteen minutes, ended a run of four straight defeats to Shi, and included Sen closing out the decider from 11-11.

The head-to-head between Ayush and Shi stands at 0-3, but their January meeting at the Malaysia Open was tight: Ayush led 16-13 in the opener before Shi wrestled it away 18-21, Ayush levelled 21-18 in the second, and Shi closed out the decider 21-12. At the Asian Championships final in Ningbo in April, Shi beat Ayush 21-8, 21-10 in 42 minutes; Vimal said, "The last time, when he played at the Asian Championships, Shi Yuqi tactically destroyed him, never allowed him — it's not that Ayush played bad or anything, but he was never allowed to play."

Since April Ayush's training has targeted the weaknesses exposed in Ningbo: shot variation, rally construction and the discipline to build points rather than force them, with Indonesian coach Irwansyah Adi Pratama working on his day-to-day game at the Centre for Badminton Excellence. Ayush idolises Viktor Axelsen and, at 6ft 4in, possesses a powerful smash; Vimal emphasised the need for restraint, wanting the smash used at the right moments rather than every moment.

Vimal also outlined a recent physical concern and recovery: "He had a little bit of an issue with his forearm, a couple of, about 40-45 days back when he was playing in the Far Eastern tournament," he revealed. "But he has fully recovered." Shi's form since Ningbo has shown setbacks: he was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Singapore Open by Indonesia's Alwi Farhan in three games, lost in the quarter-finals of the Japan Open to France's Toma Junior Popov, and at the China Open on home soil Chou Tien Chen ended a nine-match losing streak against him; Shi also withdrew before his Thailand Open semi-final in May.

Ayush's own tour results since Ningbo have been uneven, though he reached the Round of 16 at the China Open in July, where he beat world number 11 Alwi Farhan in three games before a tight three-game loss to Ireland's Nhat Nguyen, a run that gave him two clear weeks to peak for New Delhi. Vimal noted Ayush's potential and the need for rapid growth: "He's beaten all the best players in the world," and added, "He's beaten all the best players, but again, you have to play, you have to mature quickly."

The next confirmed step is the first-round meeting: Ayush opens his World Championships campaign at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Monday against Shi Yuqi, with Ayush currently ranked 22 in the world and Shi at the top of the rankings.