At 23, Christo Popov won the badminton World Tour Finals on Sunday December 21 in Hangzhou. In the final, the Frenchman won in two sets against the Chinese Shi Yu Qi, world number one. A historic victory: never before has a French player won this tournament bringing together the eight best players of the season.
Crazy. The French Christo Popov won, Sunday December 21 in Hangzhou (China), the World Tour Finals – the equivalent of the ATP Finals in tennis – winning in the final against the Chinese Shi Yu Qiworld number one, in two sets (21-19, 21-9). Aged 23 and ranked 8th in the world before the tournament, Christo Popov became the first Frenchman in history to win the World Tour Finals, a competition which brings together the eight best players of the season.
During the group stage, the player from Fos-sur-Mer successively beat the Dane Anders Antonsen (world No. 3), the Thai Kunlavut Vitidsarn (No. 2) and the Indonesian Jonatan Christie (No. 5), each time in three sets. In the semi-final, he won against the Japanese Kodai Naraoka (n°9) in two sets (21-19, 21-8). In the final, Christo Popov won the first set 21-19 before continuing the second with a severe score: 21-9.
Before this edition, no French player had won or even played in the final of the World Tour Finals. This success constitutes the greatest individual title of Christo Popov’s career and one of the major results of French badminton in men’s singles.
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