Let’s talk about Shi Yuqi’s World Tour Finals – Part 2, Semi-Final and Final – Steve’s Badminton Blog and Website

Last entry I was analyzing Shi Yuqi’s games in the group stages. Shi Yuqi seemed to be warming up to the event as he was not able to maintain his intensity in a match, but as the week went on, he got better and better. And the opponents who stood in his way found out the hard way. Let’s discuss.

In the semi-final match against Chou Tien Chen, Shi Yuqi was mercurial. Chou went about his usual game of moving the opponent around and then putting in a smash. Shi Yuqi had no problems keeping up and landed more winners than Chou in his own game. The match went on where both players matches each other untill they were locked in at 10 all. Then Shi Yuqi started to make his move.

Shi Yuqi started to pressure Chou by launching more attacks and combining it with faster shots. Shi Yuqi was wearing Chou down and Chou could not keep up. Shi Yuqi went 4 points clear at 14-10 before Chou mounted a fightback. Chou gained 3 more points to reach 13-16 and then Shi Yuqi put in more speed and power and won it 21-14.

In the second game, Chou pushed it. Chou was also on the better side of the court now. Chou went on the attack from the start, and every opportunity he had to put it away he would go for it. Chou raced to a 9-6 lead. Then Shi Yuqi started to move the shuttle faster and lower. This created opportunities for him to land killshots, and Shi Yuqi took the lead 11-10. After the interval, Chou recovered from his exertions and continued his aggressive game. Shi Yuqi stayed with him and matched his pace. Chou was sweating profusely throughout this game as he was really pushing it. It was a go big or go home moment for Chou. Credit to Chou, he managed to keep it up until the scores were at 18 all. After that, Shi Yuqi stepped on the accelerator and won it 21-18.

The game ending at 21-14, 21-18 in favour to Shi Yuqi was not a surprising result. But when watching the entire match and observing the details of how the match went on revealed something surprising. Throughout this match, Shi Yuqi was not sweating as much as Chou. He did not look troubled by Chou. He looked like a player who was playing well below his means. Only in the occasional flashes of brilliance did we see the true capabilities of Shi Yuqi. He always seemed like he had another gear to step up the game and was never in any danger. And this is against another top player in Chou Tien Chen. In this match, Shi Yuqi looked to have found his fitness which was lacking in the first 2 games in the group stages. And this was an omen of what was to come next. In simpler terms, for every step Shi Yuqi takes to cover the court, Chou has to take at least 2 steps, usually more.

Next up was the final of the World Tour Finals against an in form Ander Antonsen. Antonsen dispatched on Li Shi Feng with ease in round 1 of the group stage. Against Lee Zii Jia, Antonsen got outsmarted. Lee Zii Jia seems to know Antonsen’s game well, and Lee Zii Jia’s ability to anticipate the next shot by Antonsen allowed him to land killshots. And in the 3rd match against Chou, Antonsen lost in 3 games. Antonsen got a bit lucky to qualify for the semifinals due to Lee Zii Jia’s injury and withdrawal. Otherwise, he might not have made it through.

Antonsen made amends in the semifinal by blowing Jonathan Christie away. Antonsen blitz Christie and took the first game 21-6. Christie fought back and won the second game 21-13, but ultimately Antonsen wore him down and beat him in the 3rd game 21-13. Antonsen seems to have found his form which helped him win the Denmark Open and the China Masters.

Coming into the final match with both players having rediscovered their form was going to make for an interesting encounter. But Shi Yuqi controlled the entire match and did not give Antonsen a chance. And this was not from a lack of trying from Antonsen. Antonsen increased the pace, ran faster, attacked more and harder. Nothing was penetrating Shi Yuqi’s defense today. Antonsen threw everything he had at Shi Yuqi, and Shi Yuqi was not troubled by it all. Shi Yuqi raced to a 13-7 lead. Antonsen found back to make it 15-16, but truth be told, Shi Yuqi looked in control. He was not troubled by Antonsen’s fightback. He stepped on the accelerator again to regain a 2 point lead and maintained that lead until he won the game at 21-18.

The second game saw Shi Yuqi being on the better side of the court. The match began as a tight contest until 4-4 when Shi Yuqi finally accelerated away to lead 8-4. Antonsen fought back to make it 8-7, but then Shi Yuqi stepped on his accelerator again and made it 15-8. Shi Yuqi won the game 21-14.

As with the game against Chou, how Shi Yuqi won this game is the surprise. The scores are similar to the match against Chou, and again Shi Yuqi looked to be totally in control. For every step Shi Yuqi took to cover the court, Antonsen also had to take 2 or more steps. It was this smooth footwork which allowed Shi Yuqi to cover the court so well and with speed and grace. Shi Yuqi was reaching all the shots early, and had plenty of time to play his shot. And due to that, Shi Yuqi could hit shots which are difficult to return for Antonsen. All of Shi Yuqi’s shots to the baseline were high quality shots. What this means is that when Antonsen takes the shots, it was pointing downwards and at the extremes of the court. Antonsen could not get any good angle to attack the shuttle. The downward trajectory of the shuttle meant he could not put power into the shot. And the distance makes it hard to hit a good angle. At the net, Shi Yuqi’s shots were always going right over the net, even when he had to take them low. This gave Antonsen no chance to tap.

This game really highlighted the technical ability of Shi Yuqi. When he attacked, there were so many subtle variances in his attacks. It was not just hitting it cross court or straight. He was using variations of the smash to vary the speed of the shuttle too. And with the speed variation also comes the angle variation. Jill Clark and Steen Pedersen were talking about it a lot during the first game. Shi Yuqi was varying his attacks between a smash and a slice smash, on top of hitting the different sides. This meant when the attacks came, Antonsen not only had to guess the sides, but also the angle of the attack and the power it was going to come with. This causes problems for Antonsen as he had to decide on the side of the court to jump to, and whether it was slightly to the front, straight, or to the back. And then he still has to decide on which swing to use to block the shot. If it is a slice, he has to put power into the block. If it is a smash, he could just block it without adding in power.

Antonsen really needed to work hard to get a point off Shi Yuqi. He had to move faster to intercept the shot in order to get a chance to attack. At the start of the second game Antonsen tried to force the iniative and attacked. Shi Yuqi’s defence is excellent on this day, and everything Antonsen threw at him, he sent it back. And he hung in the rallies as Antonsen attacked, and when Antonsen finally had to send a shot high, he would immediately counterattacked and won the point. That would have been really demoralizing for Antonsen.

On this day, Shi Yuqi was so good that he was unplayable. He was making everyone else look ordinary. There is a hint of truth in Shi Yuqi’s self assessment that he is a weak World Number 1 despite his impressive form. He has been known to be susceptible to injuries and illness in the past, and that usually affects his game. He is clearly enjoying his moment in the spotlight now, but he constantly reminds himself of his failings in the past so that he does not let his guard down.

There is a lot to learn from Shi Yuqi and his path to become World Number 1. He did it the hard way, and waited for his time when there were 2 other dominating World Number 1 players ahead of him: Kento Momota and Viktor Axelsen. And when the time came, he went for it, and now he looks like he is going to cement his place there for the next year, or even beyond.

That’s all for this entry.

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