The decisive game beat the European runner-up 21-9! Shi Yuqi 2-1 Popov, facing Hong Kong team star in the next round

The best player in the men's singles field in 2025 is Shi Yuqi. He not only helped the national badminton team win the Sudirman Cup championship, but also personally stood on the men's singles championship podium in the Malaysia Open and the All-English Badminton Open. The two high-level events were held on the men's singles championship podium. This week's Super 750 Japan Open opened, and Shi Yuqi led the game and launched an attack on the men's singles championship.

On the second day of the main competition, Shi Yuqi made his men's singles debut, against French star Da Popov. The two players won one in the first two games in this game. Shi Yuqi played very reasonably in the decisive game. He suppressed his opponent in the offensive battle and finally ended with a 2-1 laugh. In the next round, Shi Yuqi will compete with Hong Kong star Wu Jialang!

[Match Highlights]

Born in 1998, Da Popov, takes into account both men's singles and men's doubles. With his own efforts, he has grown into one of the most comprehensive badminton players in Europe. This season, he not only won the men's doubles championship in the European Badminton Championship, but also won the runner-up in the men's singles arena, which shows that his strength is not weak.

However, judging from the overall strength of singles, Dapopov and Shi Yuqi still have a big gap. The two players have had two direct conversations in the past world competitions, and all of them were Shi Yuqi who laughed to the end. The most recent head-on encounter was at the Indonesia Open last season. At that time, Shi Yuqi fought for 65 minutes and laughed to the end with a big score of 2-1, which also gave him a certain advantage in his mentality.

[This game data]

[Match Review]

Dabopov, who had never defeated Shi Yuqi before, played very aggressively as soon as he received the serve, and his retreat and killing was very determined. In addition, Shi Yuqi started slowly and his movements under his feet did not keep up with the opponent, which allowed Dabopov to quickly establish a 4-2 lead. However, as the game deepened, Shi Yuqi used his high-quality pulling, which made the opponent fall into an unfavorable situation of running and saving the ball in the front and back courts. Not only did he quickly level the score difference, but he also made a wave of flow after 6 tied, ending the first half of the game with 11-8.

After returning to the arena, Shi Yuqi continued his hot touch and scored 4 points in a row to expand his leading advantage to 15-8. Although Da Popov did not give up, he once relied on his strong midfield and backcourt kills with good quality to catch the score to 14-18, but Shi Yuqi did not give his opponent a chance to reverse and got a good start with 21-15.

Da Popov continued his strategy of grabbing the start in the second game and scored 5 points in a row. Although the top Chinese badminton team tried to use the front and back mobilization to limit Da Popov's offense, the quality of returning the ball was not high, which gave Da Popov too many opportunities to launch the attack directly, and as he wished, he entered the midfield interval with 11-5. After the game started again, Shi Yuqi passed the realistic and fake moves in front of the net, and the fake push and real play caused Dabobov to start twice, causing the quality of the return ball to decline. The top player of the Chinese badminton team also seized the opportunity and chased the score to 17-20, but failed to stage a big reversal, allowing Dabobov to win a game 21-17. In the decisive game, Shi Yuqi played very calmly. Without a good opportunity, he did not give his all. Instead, he limited Big Popov through changes in landing points and rhythm. Once an opportunity arises, he will take action decisively. Zhang Chi's moderate style of playing allowed the top Chinese badminton team to score 4 points in the start and continuously expand his advantage. He exchanged the field with an 11-4 score. After the change of sides, Shi Yuqi withstood the opponent's desperate attempt and secured the victory 21-9.