Christo Popov brought down the very best, one by one, until he achieved the greatest feat in the history of French badminton. The world number 1, the Chinese Shi Yuqi, did not escape this blue-white-red wave on Sunday December 21. In the final of the World Tour Finals, an end-of-year tournament which brings together the eight best players of the season and took place this year in Hangzhou, in the province of Zhejiang, the 23-year-old Frenchman won in two sets (21-19, 21-9), in front of a stunned Chinese audience.
Measuring the feat of Christo Popov, whose big brother Toma Junior Popov is also a professional badminton player, is not demanding: no Frenchman had, until then, even reached the semi-finals of the World Tour Finals in singles. Surrounded during this tournament by his eldest and his father, Toma Popov, who trains him daily in Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône), Christo Popov has had a series of matches and successes, not without some difficulties.
Since the first day of competition and a bad slip during his victory against the Dane Anders Antonsen (21-13, 12-21, 21-19), world number 3, the left-hander had been taking painkillers to treat an Achilles tendon injury. This did not slow him down, even less preventing him from going the distance in his two other group matches, won against the Thai Kunlavut Vitidsarn (21-11, 18-21, 21-10), world number 2, and the Indonesian Jonatan Christie (18-21, 21-16, 21-13).
A tournament that he did not plan to play at the start of the season
Undefeated, carried by this accumulated confidence and qualified for the final after his success in the semi against the Japanese Kodai Naraoka (21-19, 21-8), Christo Popov, 8th player in the world ranking, could well attack Shi Yuqi, double winner of the World Tour Finals (2018, 2024) and reigning world champion, a title won in Paris in 2024. He still had to be able to handle the pressure of such an event, he who had not yet won a title in a major tournament.
At the start of the season, the Fosséen did not even imagine participating in these World Tour Finals. “It was not a goal because I was not at all in the upward trajectory that would follow”he confided to The Team before the start of the tournament. And the left-hander sees “this competition as a preparation for next season, to be ready to go for something more, a title in a big tournament”.
It is now done, earlier than expected and against all expectations, for the three-time French champion. Announced as a great hope in French badminton for several years, like Alex Lanier who is also present in the world top 10, Christo Popov takes on a new dimension in the French history of the discipline and, at the same time, on the international circuit.
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