Alwi Farhan Follows in the Footsteps of Kunlavut Vitidsarn

CHANGZHOU, TUESDAY – When senior badminton players struggle to compete with athletes from other countries at the world level, Indonesia can place its hopes on future athletes like Alwi Farhan and Putri Kusuma Wardani. The journey to becoming top world athletes is still long, but they have shown potential in that direction.

One of that potential was demonstrated by Alwi when facing the world’s top-ranked men’s singles player for the first time, Kunlavut Vitidsarn, in the first round of the China Open. At the Changzhou Olympics Sports Centre, on Tuesday (22/7/2025), Alwi forced Vitidsarn to play three games over a duration of one hour and five minutes, although he ultimately lost with a score of 21-10, 15-21, 18-21.

The matches on the first day of the BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament featured a meeting between two players who had previously been junior world champions. Vitidsarn is a three-time junior world champion from 2017 to 2019, while Alwi became the champion among athletes aged 18 and under in 2023.

The abilities of Vitidsarn, an athlete who is now 24 years old, continue to develop as he enters a higher level of competition, namely in the BWF World Tour. In addition to his technical skills, his physique has become more muscular.

In the series of the BWF World Tour tournaments, Vitidsarn has seven championship titles from the Super 300, 500, and 750 levels. Although he has not yet won a Super 1000 title, he has achieved success at higher levels, being the finalist of the 2022 World Championship, the 2023 world champion, and winning a silver medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Four championship titles in the first six months of 2025 have propelled the athlete from Thailand to the top of the world rankings for the first time since June.

Alwi, who is four years younger, is currently pursuing that path. After participating in eight BWF World Tour tournaments, including from the qualifying phase, in 2024, Alwi has the opportunity to compete in more tournaments in 2025.

That opportunity was achieved thanks to his ranking, which rose from the 60s in 2024 to the top 40 since the beginning of 2025. This week, Alwi is in the highest position he has ever held, which is 25th in the world.

However, to follow in the same footsteps as Vitidsarn, Alwi still needs to enhance all aspects of his abilities, both technical and non-technical. Not only in training, but his skills must also be honed in tournaments.

In 2025, Alwi gained more experience competing against top world players, such as Viktor Axelsen and Anders Antonsen. He even defeated Antonsen in the Sudirman Cup team championship, before Antonsen avenged this loss in the second round of the Indonesia Open.

In addition to the two Danish players, Alwi gained additional lessons from matches against Kenta Nishimoto, Weng Hong Yang, Prannoy H.S., and Alex Lanier. Lanier, who defeated him in the second round of the Japan Open last week, is a French player of the same age as Alwi, competing since the junior era. Currently, Lanier is ranked ninth in the world.

At the China Open, the second Super 1000 tournament for Alwi after the Indonesia Open, the number one men's singles player in the national training center finally faced Vitidsarn.

"Competing against the world number one player is a great opportunity to assess my abilities as a basis for future evaluation. I am grateful for this result, but my performance was not stable. In the third game, for instance, although I was able to catch up, I was still rushed in the final execution. Meanwhile, Kunlavut was able to control the game better," said Alwi.

In the third game, Alwi trailed by a maximum of six points, at 7-13. He then leveled the score at 14-14 and 16-16. However, Alwi couldn't maintain his performance at critical moments, making errors. Vitidsarn's final point, for example, came from a mistake when Alwi failed to reach the shuttlecock with a backhand near the net.

From his journey this year, including his match against Vitidsarn, Alwi has positive aspects that can be maintained. "Against anyone, I do not feel nervous and my level is not that far from theirs. However, I still have much to learn about strategies on the field. This is part of the process and the development of my confidence," he said.

In the women's singles sector, Putri Kusuma Wardani has shown improvement in her abilities throughout 2025. She is able to play with increasing calmness and patience when facing top players in the world.

However, Putri still has the same homework in every defeat, which is to maintain consistency in her game throughout the match. When facing Sim Yu-jin in the first round of the China Open, Putri repeatedly made shots that instead became opportunities for Sim to score points.

"I find it difficult to read the opponent's movements, which gives them the opportunity to design their attacks. My homework from the last two tournaments remains the same, which is the factors of focus and consistency in playing. At crucial points, my focus still fluctuates," said Putri, who lost 14-21, 21-14, 19-21 to Sim.

A similar moment was experienced by the player ranked tenth in the world at the Japan Open. The 23-year-old athlete had the opportunity to defeat the world number two player, Wang Zhi Yi, in the quarterfinals, but lost 22-20, 17-21, 16-21 due to frequent mistakes at crucial moments.

These shortcomings ultimately led Putri to only create "almost winning" moments when competing against top players in the world. She still has homework to do in order to win and become part of the elite competition in women's singles.

From the initial matches on the first day of the China Open, the Indonesian representatives who managed to win in the first round were Rehan Naufal Kusharjanto/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja. They defeated Ashith Surya/Amrutha Pramuthesh with a score of 21-12, 21-17 to face the eighth seeds, Hiroki Midorikawa/Natsu Saito, in the second round.

Other players who appeared on the opening day include Gregoria Mariska Tunjung and two men's doubles pairs, Sabar Karyaman Gutama/Mohammad Reza Pahlevi Isfahani and Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Shohibul Fikri.

From the Junior Team Championship in Solo, Central Java, China emerged as the best team after defeating Thailand 110-90 in the final. With this result, China retained the championship title that was won the previous year in Yogyakarta.

This championship uses a relay point format. The system used at the 2024 World Junior Team Championships in China consists of five events held over two rounds. Therefore, a meeting between two teams consists of ten matches.

Each match concludes when one of the players scores a multiple of 11 points, namely 11, 22, 33, and so on, until one team reaches 110 points. The formation of athletes in the first five matches may differ from the following five matches.

In the ten matches, China excelled in eight. The Thai players were able to turn the situation around in the fourth and fifth matches through the women's doubles and women's singles events.

After the women's singles, Yataweemin Ketklieng, defeated Yi Qing Yin in the fifth match, China was even trailing by ten points, 45-55. However, the men's singles player Liu Yu Yang Ming delivered an outstanding performance against Patcharakit Apiratchataset, winning with a score of 21-10. China then regained the lead at 66-65 and maintained that advantage until the final match.