Brian Yang of Toronto, Ontario accomplished one of the biggest feats of his badminton career on Sunday. He reached the final of the 2024 Indonesian Masters before losing to Anders Antonsen of Denmark, 18-21, 21-13, 21-18. For Yang, it was his first ever medal in the history of the Badminton World Federation World Tour.
Yang reached the final as an unseeded player. Ranked 32nd in the world prior to the Indonesian Masters, Yang shocked the badminton world with a massive upset in the first round. He knocked off Li Shifeng of China, 21-18, 14-21, 23-21. Li was the second ranked player in Indonesia, has won three BWF World Tour events, and is a gold medalist from the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. One of the BWF events Li won was the 2019 Canadian Open in Calgary, Alberta, where Li defeated Parupali Kashyap of India in the final, 20-22, 21-14, 21-17.
After Yang’s win over Li, Yang beat Priyanshu Rajawat of India 21-18, 21-14 in the second round, Zil Jia Lee of Malaysia in the quarterfinals (Lee pulled out after losing the first set 21-14 due to food poisoning according to Malaysia’s The Star), and then stunned the third seed, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia, 13-21, 21-17, 21-19 in the semifinals. Ginting won the bronze medal for Indonesia in men’s singles the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. The silver medal at the Indonesian Masters, will gibe Yang confidence as he prepares for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
