India, April 14 -- For many, Ayush Shetty likely had the best week of his life. The 20-year-old beat the world No. 1, No. 4 and No. 7 players en route to the final of the Badminton Asia Championships. Viktor Axelsen and PV Sindhu praised him for his superb run. Fans called it the rise of a new star. But the player himself cut a starkly different figure: rather than celebrating, he spent most of his Sunday lamenting his straight-games loss to China's world No. 2 Shi Yu Qi in the summit clash.

"I had a tough loss and was disappointed," Shetty told HT in an interview from Ningbo (China).

It only dawned on him later that he was the third Indian player/pair in the 64-year history of the continental championships to reach the final day of com...