Hyderabad: Ayush Shetty stunned world No. 6 Chou Tien Chen and Tanvi Sharma became the youngest Indian girl to reach the final of the BWF World Tour tournament. On a Saturday evening in Iowa, 20-year-old Ayush fought back to beat Chou 21-23, 21-15, 21-14 to reach the final of the US Open BWF Super-300 tournament. Chou was once world No. 2. Earlier, Tanvi ousted Polina Buhrova of Ukraine in straight games 21-14, 21-16. The sixteen-year-old took just 34 minutes to beat Polina and set up a final showdown at US veteran and top seed Beiwen Zhang. The 34-year-old Zhang defeated Line Christophersen of Denmark 18-21, 21-16, 21-15.
A product of the BAI’s National Centre of Excellence (NCE) in Guwahati, Tanvi had upset several higher-ranked players on her way to the final. She beat second seed Nguyen Thuy Linh of Hong Kong in the first round and former World Junior Champion Pitchamon Opatniputh in the second round.Quiz: Who’s that IPL player? Ayush, who trains at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bengaluru, will face Brian Young of Canada. Ayush had beaten Young at the Taipei Open Malaysia Masters last month. A win here will make him the first Indian to win an international singles title this year.
