Only on day one, the BWF World Championships saw the biggest upset of the tournament, when India’s rising badminton star Ayush Shetty stunned defending champion and current World No. 1 Shi Yu Qi.Ayush, who was making his debut at the Worlds, outplayed the Chinese 21-14, 13-21, 21-19 to end his three-match losing streak against Shi. The final of the Badminton Asia Championships was the last time the duo had faced each other. The result was a one-sided 21-8, 21-10 victory for the Chinese No. 1.On Monday, though, the current World No. 22, Ayush, looked in control for most of the match. He did look nervous towards the end, when he let a huge 17-6 lead in the third game slip, but then closed out the match 21-19 to announce to the world that he was here to stay.The 73-minute match was a mixed bag for the 21-year-old. While he was supremely in control in the opening game, hitting his jump smashes and using clever net play to create openings against the Chinese, that control was far less evident in the second.Ayush raced to a big lead in the opening game as Shi struggled to control the drift and committed many more unforced errors. The tall Indian led 11-5 at the mid-game interval and then relied on his jump smashes to win 21-14 with ease.In the second game, it was Ayush’s turn to struggle with the drift. Suddenly, the error column began to stack up. Shi, who led 11-9 at the mid-game break, raced to an unassailable 19-13 lead as a combination of errors and indecision in his third-court judgement caught Ayush off guard. With the match tied at 1-1, it was looking troublesome for the young Indian star.Instead of folding, Ayush went on the attack and quickly overwhelmed the Chinese with his clever drops and powerful smashes. From 11-5 at the break, he won seven straight points to race to a 16-5 lead.However, Shi began using his deceptive shots and net play to force Ayush into errors. The Chinese closed the gap to three points at 18-15. Then, an error from Shi’s racquet and a down-the-line smash from Ayush gave him five match points.However, much to the anxiety of the crowd, Shi saved four straight to make it a nervy finish, with the score reading 20-19.Ayush won the match with a deceptive flick to advance to the next round.“I was telling myself to calm down. I was getting a bit nervous because he was really catching up and the momentum was with him. And everything I did, he somehow managed to retrieve it. So I was trying to calm down and be aggressive,” Ayush said after his memorable win.Sindhu advancesAyush Shetty’s heroics came after PV Sindhu’s facile win over Ireland’s Sophia Noble. Sindhu, who is looking to win her first World Championships medal since 2019, packed off Noble 21-7, 21-11 in just 29 minutes.Sindhu went for the kill from the first minute and raced to an 8-0 lead before conceding a first point to Noble. Her placement, court coverage and net play had Noble in all sorts of trouble, and the first game was won in 12 minutes.In the second, Noble stayed a little closer to Sindhu, but the Indian’s attacking game was too much for her. The 31-year-old won nine straight points to close out the match from 12-10 to 21-10.“I think overall, playing for the first time, it was important for me to get used to the court conditions and see how it is. Today, I think that was the first thing that came into my mind. But I think I managed it well and the court conditions are pretty good,” Sindhu said.In other matches, the men’s doubles pair of MR Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan beat Ireland’s Scott Guildea and Paul Reynolds 21-16, 6-4 (retd) to open the winning streak for the Indians. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand were barely troubled by Spanish pair Paula Lopez and Lucia Rodriguez, winning 21-9, 21-13 in the women’s doubles opening round.Also winning were Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi, who beat Nikol Carulla and Carmen Maria Jimenez 22-20, 21-14.