All the most beautiful things come to an end. Qualified for the first time in his career in the final four of a Super 1000 tournament – the most prestigious on the world badminton circuit – Christo Popov saw his magnificent run come to an end on Saturday against the Indonesian Anthony Ginting. A defeat in three sets for the French number 1 (19-21, 21-5, 21-11) who, with this performance in Birmingham, gets a little closer to his dream of competing in the Olympic Games in Paris next summer.
Very solid during the first round, Christo Popov also took advantage of the delicate start of the Indonesian, 5th in the world and author of a superb performance the day before by eliminating the world number 1, the Dane Axel Axelsen. But perhaps physically blunted by his epic, the Frenchman, who should join or get closer to the world Top 15, completely missed the second set (5-21), before showing himself helpless in the face of a Grinting taking him to the four corners of the court.
Which takes nothing away from his very good English week, which allows him to widen the gap on his brother and opponent in the Olympic race, who had achieved the feat of eliminating the 3rd in the world, the Chinese Shi Feng Li (21 -17, 21-13), before taking the door in the next round against the Japanese Koki Watanabe (21-18, 23-21).