Constrasting fortunes: Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn lost in the early rounds in six of his seven tournaments after winning the world title. — LOW BOON TAT/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: The heavy burden of being the reigning world champion has seen Kunlavut Vitidsarn’s performance taking a nosedive in the last four months.
The Thai shuttler now wants to start from the scratch as he wants to regain his confidence and revive his career again.
Kunlavut, 22, had shown his immense potential by winning a hattrick of world junior titles (2017-2019) and signalled his intent by finishing runner-up to Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the World Championships in Tokyo in 2022.
His meteoric rise continued last year where he downed Japan’s Kodai Naraoka in Copenhagen in August last year to become Thailand’s first winners at the worlds.
The sudden fame coupled with injury issues saw Kunlavut’s performance dropping to worrying proportions.
Kunlavut failed to get past the preliminary rounds in six of his last seven tournaments since the world championships with a quarter-final spot in the Japan Open being his best effort.
“There was some burden as the world champion and injury also made it difficult for me to perform in tournaments. I have been losing in the first and second rounds and that further affected my confidence,” said Kunlavut.
“I don’t want to think of myself as the world champion but to start from zero again this year.
“My coach Patapol (Ngernsrisuk) has also been offering a lot of advice and told me to forget about the early round defeats.
“He had stated that I must go through tough times like this but has been motivating me to bounce back from this run.
“Everyone want to beat the world champion and they have studied my playing style. So, I need to change and also further improve.
Kunlavut also had a brilliant run in the Malaysian Open last year before losing in a marathon three games to Naraoka in the semi-finals.
However, he is not expecting such a start in the first tournament of the year at the Axiata Arena and just want to play convincingly against Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto in the first round tomorrow.
