And finally it was curtains for young Indian shuttler Ayush Shetty in the Orleans Masters 2025, on Saturday. The World No. 48 for now, Shetty lost in the semis of the tournament against second seed Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei in straight games 13-21, 15-21, in a battle that lasted 40 minutes.
Ayush Shetty’s Orleans Masters Run Ends in Semis
It was an epic battle of aggressive stroke-play, where the Indian couldn’t cope with pressure and just wasn’t in the match right from the start. But having said that, Ayush Shetty managed to surprise many with his sublime performances, as he scalped for former World Champ, Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew, and then Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke.
This was also his first semis in a WF Super 300 tournament, that will only raise his hopes and confidence for the upcoming bigger challenges. Coming back to the semis battle, it is not like Ayush did not have chances to make it to the summit clash, but perhaps, pressure got the better of him.
Accounted for Loh Kean Yew and Rasmus Gemke
In the first game, he had an early lead of 6-2, but from there on gave it up rather meekly. A few unforced errors and attacking stroke play from his opponent meant, he was trailing 7-15 in no time. Come the second game too, Ayush could have swung the fortunes in his favour from 9-9, but that did not happen.
From there on Lin Chun-Yi got four back-to-back points, that dented the confidence of the shuttler even further. The score did come to 13-16 too, but guess it was too late for the 2023 World Junior Championship bronze medalist. His ouster also marks an end to India’s campaign in the tournament.
