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In the 2024 Paris Olympics, Kunlavut Vitidsarn made history by becoming the first Thai badminton player to reach an Olympic final and win a silver medal.
On his road to the finals, Vitidsarn took down Kenta Nishimoto from Japan, upsetted world number one Shi Yu Qi, two-setted Lee Zii Jia, and then ultimately lost to Viktor Axelsen in the finals.
In this video, we’ll be diving into Kunlavut Vitidsarn’s playstyle as well as the adjustments he made to perform extremely well at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
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Prior to the Olympics, Kunlavut Vitidsarn was known mainly for his rally style. His strategy often consists of pushing his opponents into the back and counter-attacking when he catches his opponent’s out-of-position with his elite defense.
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In the 2024 Paris Olympics, however, Vitidsarn made great adjustments to his play that helped beat both Shi Yu Qi and Lee Zii Jia.
First, he was much more aggressive at the net. Instead of taking shots low at the front and playing towards the backcourt, Vitidsarn put more emphasis on recovering quicker and using quick shuffles to take the net early.
Additionally, Vitidsarn also opted to play a lot more half-cross nets instead of blocking in the middle, playing a straight net, or lifting cross.
These cross nets are great when Vitidsarn takes the shot early because he combos the shot by anticipating and attacking the straight.
This combo works well because it’s difficult for your opponent to play a cross shot on a cross net when they’re taking the shot very low.
Doing these cross nets were also super helpful at helping Kunlavut Vitidsarn open the court. He has a very deceptive straight push that couples well with a cross net.
To add some variation, he can come up to the net showing a cross and then switch to a straight push last second. This forces his opponents to respect both shots, making each one more effective.
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Another change at the Paris Olympics that made Kunlavut Vitidsarn particularly deadly was being able to change the pace better in the backcourt.
He does this by staying pretty relaxed as he turns and then quickly turning and striking the shuttle to play a fast shot and rapidly coming up to attack the net.
This pace change often catches his opponents off-guard because they’re used to Vitidsarn playing a clear or drop from the relaxed position. Thus, they often end up blocking to the net as that’s the easiest shot to play.
And if Vitidsarn’s opponents do begin to anticipate the around the head pace change, Vitidsarn can still play the drop and clears to keep them guessing.
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Ultimately, these adjustments were not enough to beat Viktor Axelsen, though, because Vitidsarn does not have a particularly strong drive game to punish Axelsen and Axelsen did a fantastic job of neutralizing and not playing into Vitidsarn’s combos.
Overall, however, Vitidsarn had a fantastic tournament this Olympics and we’re super excited to see what he’ll be able to do in the future.
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