Let’s talk about Shi Yuqi’s World Tour Finals. Part 1 – Group Stage – Steve’s Badminton Blog and Website

The World Tour Finals had many talking points for each discipline. In women’s singles we saw a changing of guard as Wang Zhi Yi and Han Yue is now looking to dominate the scenes. In the women’s doubles we saw the Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee finding a way to break Tan Ning and Liu Sheng Shu’s fine run in 2024, while Shida and Matsuyama looks set to continue their place on top in Japan. In the mixed doubles it was the new upstarts Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei challenging the retiring and reigning champions Zhang Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiong. This also signalled the emergence of another new pair from China, Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin. The men’s doubles had a similar story, with the emergent but not new pair of Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzudin challenging the veterans, Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen. It also signals a changing of guard in Malaysia as we finally have a new top pair in men’s doubles. Men’s singles saw the top 2 players of 2024 in the final, and the arguably better man won on the day. Let’s talk about Shi Yuqi’s route to the final.

In the tournament before the World Tour Final, the China Masters, the highlight match to me was the match between Shi Yuqi and Vitidsarn. When the rematch happened between Vitidsarn and Shi Yuqi in the group stages of the World Tour Final happened, I was excited and was anticipating another good match, and hopeful that it would be a classic match. The match did not reach the technical highs of the previous encounter, but the tactical aspects of this match was outstanding. More about this match later.

Shi Yuqi opened the campaign with a very tight match against Jonathan Christie. And it seems Shi Yuqi learnt from his mistake in the China Masters where he lost to Jonathan Christie 17-21, 16-21. In the China Masters, Shi Yuqi was using too many delayed shots which have no effect on Christie. Christie is strong enough to be able to run for the delayed shots without any impact on his game. This time, Shi Yuqi stuck to a more normal game, with less delayed shots and relied more on tactics instead. And despite it being a long grind, he managed to wear Christie down and won in 3 games, 21-16, 17-21, 21-8.

In the rematch against Vitidsarn, Vitidsarn did not lose any time in getting to work. He played with an intensity which was higher than the previous time, not overly reliant on his usual bag of tricks. He opt for a faster game, coupled with the occasional trick or deception to put Shi Yuqi off. It worked. Vitidsarn took the first game 21-13. Vitidsarn having the better side also contributed to his win. Shi Yuqi was visibly distressed during the half time talk with Sun Jun, his coach.

In the second game, Shi Yuqi was on the better side. He too opted for a fast game. Gone were the delayed shots which cost him the game against Jonathan Christie in the China Masters. He just went for speed and placement. It was a tough tempo to maintain, and I could clearly see Shi Yuqi getting fatigued. The only positive was that he was also tiring out Vitidsarn with the fast paced attacking game. I have to admire Vitidsarn improving on his fitness in such a short amount of time. He did not show any signs of the fatigue which cost him the match against Shi Yuqi the last time. Vitidsarn stayed close to Shi Yuqi throughout the entire game before finally losing 19-21.

In the final game, Vitidsarn took full advantage of good side and raced to a 15-8 lead. I’ll be honest here, when I saw how Vitidsarn was dominating Shi Yuqi, I thought it was all over for Shi Yuqi. Even after changing sides, he has an answer to everything which Shi Yuqi was throwing at him. Shi Yuqi looked like he lost it, until he took a chance and changed everything in his game plan.

Shi Yuqi resorted to something which I have never ever seen him do. He went for long slow rallies, something which Bao Chunlai did plenty of. He started playing a basic game of lobs and drops. Even when he could attack, he did not. He opted to just do lobs and drops. Not even attacking lobs. Just slow lopping lobs and standard drop shots. But there was a method to this madness. Shi Yuqi kept lobbing to Vitidsarn’s backhand side. Every lift he made, he sent it to Vitidsarn’s backhand side. This was forcing Vitidsarn back, and it was making Vitidsarn take the high shots was at the back of the court. This was rendering Vitidsarn’s attacks ineffective. When Vitidsarn did attack, Shi Yuqi could defend it easily because of the distance Vitidsarn had to cover with his attack. Most net shots which Shi Yuqi returned would be on Vitidsarn’s forehand side, and that forced Vitidsarn to run the full diagonal of the court to get it. This tactic forced Vitidsarn into countless errors as he tried without success to get out of the corner Shi Yuqi was pushing him into. Shi Yuqi managed to level the game at 15-15 before reverted back to more conventional tactics.

I could see why Shi Yuqi reverted to his usual way of playing, but nevertheless, I nearly ripped my hair out seeing it. Vitidsarn was very tired after running the full diagonal of the court countless times, but why did Shi Yuqi abandon the tactic which was working so well?? Perhaps of his ego and the want to win in a more exciting way in front of his home crowd, but I suppose it is something which only Shi Yuqi would know. It nearly cost him the game too. Vitidsarn recovered and matched Shi Yuqi until the game went into duece at 20-20. It went on a tit for tat mode until Shi Yuqi finally won it 25-23. Nail biting stuff.

This match against Vitidsarn showcases how Shi Yuqi is mentally. He definitely has the mindset of a champion now. When the chips are down, he had what it took to change everything to get back into the game, and win it. Momota would have continued the same approach as long as it worked, but Shi Yuqi definitely wanted to impress the home crowd. He got lucky this time. I reckon Sun Jun is going to give him a good talking to for abandoning tactics which were clearly working.

The final match in the group stage where Shi Yuqi played against Kodai Naraoka, it was clear that Shi Yuqi was conserving energy for the semi-final match. Shi Yuqi already qualified, and he just did not push himself against Naraoka. And due to that, I won’t be discussing about that match.

Next week, I would be continuing with this discussion. There are too many games to talk about in this week alone, hence the reason to break it into 2 parts.

That’s all for this entry.

Until the next update, eat well, get plenty of rest, and keep the badminton going!