Pichamon Opanipus (world number 36), considered the future of Thai badminton women’s singles, lost to China’s Chen Yufei in the final of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Indonesia Masters (Super 500) on the afternoon of the 25th.
In this match, which attracted attention as a match between a seasoned veteran and a sensational rookie, Pichamon left an even deeper impression on the audience by showing that he did not give up even when facing the world’s 4th ranked player.
In the women’s singles final of the 2026 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Indonesia Masters (Super 500) held at Istora Senayan, Jakarta, Indonesia this afternoon, Pichamon, ranked 36th in the world, lost to Chen Yufei with a game score of 0-2.
In this tournament, where world No. 1 Ahn Se-young, Wang Ziyi, and Yamaguchi Akane (Japan, world No. 3) were absent, Chen Yu-Fei achieved a perfect win without giving up a single game.
Previously, Pichamon drew attention by defeating Malaysia’s Letshana Karupateban (world number 42) in the semifinals of this tournament with a game score of 2-0 (21-15 21-17) and advancing to the finals. Opanipus, born in 2007, is the women’s singles champion at the 2023 World Junior Championships.
In particular, Pichamon, who is 170cm tall and has a cute appearance, is so popular in Thailand that she is nicknamed ‘Pink’. At this competition as well, whenever the local broadcast camera showed him, the audience erupted in exclamation.
His popularity increased further not only because of his handsome appearance, but also because he showed off his qualities as a ‘badminton genius’.
In this tournament, Pichamon consistently dominated the match against Tomoka Miyazaki (9th in the world), who is considered the next-generation ace in the Japanese badminton world, and won 2-0 in 36 minutes. In the quarterfinals, he had a close match with Vietnam’s powerhouse Nguyen Tuy Linh (21st) and succeeded in turning the tables.
In the final match on this day, Pichamon competed evenly against Chen Yufei, going to a deuce in the first game. Chen Yufei took advantage of Pichamon’s attack mistake in a deuce situation and barely won the first game, 23-21.
However, in game 2, Chen Yufei showed superiority in net play and attack development, widening the score gap and ending the game at 21-13.
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