All England Open: Ayush Shetty goes down in three-game battle against former Junior World Champion Alwi Farhan

But power was clearly going to be Ayush’s main weapon if he had to beat Farhan, and he showcased that with a booming smash for 4-5. With Farhan controlling the early exchanges, Ayush was being moved to all corners of the court on defence, diving and stretching to keep the shuttle alive. Ayush thought he had Farhan where he wanted at 8-5, pushing pace at the net, but the Indonesian played a reflex block for a winner and turned to his coach, giving a thumbs up. It was all working to plan at that stage, evidently, as he led 11-8 at the interval. All the diving around had led to Ayush needing multiple medical interventions to deal with a blood injury on his knee.

File image of Ayush Shetty in action. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)

Despite struggling to find openings consistently, Ayush tried to construct longer rallies post-interval, and one of those exchanges saw Farhan play another sensationally tight shot at the net to take a 17-12 lead. Ayush’s height not only helps him generate good attacking angles but also extends his wingspan for defensive retrieves – twice he dived full length in a superb rally for 14-17 to keep the rally alive and win a lengthy exchange, necessitating another medical break as the knee continued to take heavy damage.

The frequent breaks seemed to affect Farhan’s momentum more than Ayush’s movement as the Indian caught up at 17-17 with a good body attack at the net. And the Indonesian recognised that too, celebrating the next two points with big roars. But it was Ayush who had the first game point opportunity, as Farhan misjudged the length at the backline and then took the lead in what was a proper heist.

Ayush needed more treatment on his knee to keep the plaster in place, but this time around, Farhan reset better and found his attacking groove once more at the start of Game 2. A couple of wild misses from Ayush gave Farhan a 6-2 lead. Ayush then pulled off a couple of extraordinary defensive saves mid-rally, but he was doing all the reacting at this point and was unable to dictate tempo, as the 4-11 deficit at the second game interval suggested. Farhan, on a run of eight straight points at 14-4, had all but ensured the match was going into a decider.

At the start of Game 3, Farhan seemed intent on letting Ayush know that he was fired up for this decider and that he wasn’t about to let the momentum slip as he let out roars after each of the first three points. Then came a 39-shot rally where both men showed great patience and court coverage, before Farhan played a jaw-dropping deceptive backhand at the net – this time, there was no roar. Just a steely stare that he was in control. To his credit, Ayush wasn’t letting that affect him and had a golden chance to catch up at 6-6 at the end of a 41-shot rally and then at 7-7 after a 50-shot exchange, but let go of both those chances. And having gone through the wringer, Farhan opened up an 11-6 lead at the change of ends.

Ayush’s best bet at this stage was to hope he had more fuel in his tank than Farhan, but the Indian would quickly find out that wasn’t the case as he went down 7-13 and faced a mountain to climb from the side of the court where he had found very little joy in Game 2. Ayush changed up the tactics to take up more advanced positions at the frontcourt, but it worked only briefly as he trailed 10-16.

Ayush threatened a late fightback, but Farhan steadied himself after a couple of shaky rallies to win another brutal exchange with a shanked forehand and earned himself five match points. The nerves were still getting to Farhan as he chose to review the most obvious out call, hoping to slow things down and then picked up the pace next rally. Fittingly, in the end, Ayush was floored on the court on an evening where he had to dive around aplenty. There wouldn’t be another heist.