Aurélie Sacchelli, Media365, published on Saturday August 24, 2024 at 11:36 a.m.
Alex Lanier, the young 19-year-old French badminton player, achieved the feat by qualifying for the final of the Japan Open thanks to his victory over world number 1 Shi Yu Qi.
He did not qualify for the Paris Olympics and is unknown to the general public. But Alex Lanier made a name for himself this Saturday by eliminating the world number 1 badminton player, Shi Yu Qi. The 19-year-old French badminton player thus qualified for the final of the Japan Open, winning 17-21, 21-16, 21-18 for his first confrontation against the Chinese player, world number 1 since June (after winning three Super 750 tournaments and a Super 1000), but who had been eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Paris Olympics. Currently world number 29, the Caen native did not panic after losing the first set. He was never behind during the second. At 12-11 in his favor, he signed a 5-0 which proved prohibitive for the Chinese player. In the third, Qi only led 7-6 then 8-7 and held until 10-10, before seeing Lanier gradually widen the gap and take the biggest victory of his career. “I was more aggressive to control the game and impose a rhythm so that he hurt me a little less in attack. The second set gave me a lot of confidence (21-16), I knew I was doing something good. And in the third set, I put it all together (21-18),” the young Frenchman confided to The team after his feat.
First Super 750 final for Lanier
On Sunday, it is the world number 10, the Taiwanese Tien Chen Chou, who will present him in the final. A player who had beaten him in three sets during their only confrontation, in Germany last November and who, like Qi, was eliminated in the quarter-finals of Paris 2024. This will be Lanier’s first Super 750 tournament final.whose best result so far in the World Tour was a final at the Canadian Open, categorized as a Super 500, at the beginning of July. A performance that was not enough for him to secure a ticket to the Olympic Games, tickets that went to brothers Toma Junior and Christo Popov, who are this week respectively 19th and 26th in the world. But if he continues on this momentum, we will probably have to count on Lanier in Los Angeles in four years.
2024-08-24 13:36:08