Kunlavut Vitidsarn will battle it out against top seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark for the world men’s singles badminton title in Japan today.
The Thai rising star, who is seeded 16th this week, defeated Zhao Junpeng of China 22-20, 21-6 in 43 minutes in the semi-finals of the BWF World Championships on Saturday at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
Kunlavut had knocked out Singaporean defending champion Loh Kean Yew in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Axelsen has lost only one singles match this season and he has not dropped a single game at this week’s world championships in Tokyo.
Kunlavut acknowledged that he is facing a “really difficult” task in Sunday’s final but he is looking to soak up as much as he can from sharing a court with the world’s best player.
“I want to learn about the top players — I want to learn about their performance, their control, everything,” said the three-time world junior champion.
“I don’t have pressure. I just want to play.”
Kunlavut is the last Thai standing in the tournament, after the elimination of Puttita Supajirakul and Sapsiree Taerattanachai in the women’s doubles semi-finals earlier Saturday.
The Thai 14th seeds were beaten by fourth seeds Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong of South Korea 21-16, 19-21, 25-23 in an hour and 31 minutes.
The Korean duo will play top seeds Chen Qing-chen and Jia Yifan of China in Sunday’s final.
In the women’s singles event, fourth seed Chen Yufei of China rallied to defeat second seed Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan 15-21, 21-14, 21-18 in the first semi-final.
Chen, the Tokyo Olympic champion, will face top seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, who knocked out Carolina Marin in the quarter-finals and An Se-young of South Korea in the semi-finals.