Modest Champion Seeks to Keep Learning

Modest Champion Seeks to Keep Learning

With a dazzling spell in the second quarter of the season, Kunlavut Vitidsarn pitched himself as frontrunner for gold at the TotalEnergies BWF World Championships 2025.

To be sure, it wasn’t as if he was ever out of the reckoning. Yet, after his silver medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games a year ago, Vitidsarn blew hot and cold. While he could look back at title successes at the Korea Masters in November and the Indonesia Masters in January, the Thai hadn’t quite stamped his dominance over a prolonged period in keeping with his status as reigning world champion.

That was to change with an extraordinary sequence beginning with the Badminton Asia Championships in April, followed by back to back titles in Thailand and Singapore, and a semifinal at the KAPAL API Indonesia Open. That run saw him leap to No.1, the first Thai men’s singles player to hold that position.

Ever since he won the world title two years back, Vitidsarn has talked about evolving his style, not just to add more weapons to his arsenal, but to avoid becoming predictable. He emphasises the direction of this evolution, seeking a more proactive, attacking style. Is it all coming together now?

“This is an amazing season for me,” Vitidsarn agrees. “I feel like trying everything. I must change my style and if it doesn’t work, it’s OK. If it works, just do it again.

“Now every player knows my style and I must change it a bit. This year it’s worked in every match. I just need to keep getting better.”

What distinguishes Vitidsarn from everyone else is that, despite all his accomplishments, he still casts himself in the role of learner, rather than someone seeking to defend his status as world champion or world No.1. If he hurts after a loss, he doesn’t show it; he presents it as another opportunity to learn.

“I must keep learning,” he said, after beating Alex Lanier in the quarterfinals in Indonesia. “I’m world No.1 but my performance is not No.1 yet. I have to try every shot; if it doesn’t work I have to change.”

Then, after losing to Chou Tien Chen the next day, Vitidsarn never let his disappointment get in the way of giving credit where it was due.

“Today everything he did was very nice,” he said of Chou. “It was very tough and hard for me. But you have to play even when you’re tired, you have to have more focus.

“He’s a top player and I have to learn. He has a lot of experience. If I lose it’s OK, I was not good enough. He surprised me. Earlier he used to play a lot of long rallies first, today he changed his style and put pressure and it was difficult for me.”

This approach, in looking at matches as a way to learn and evolve rather than prove top-dog status, has helped him become a likeable and admired opponent.

But this likeability and easygoing nature does mask how far he has come, and how much further he is set to go.

Lanier, who is setting up a great rivalry with Vitidsarn, thinks he is becoming a more all-round player. “He’s just more solid, making lesser mistakes, and that’s the difference. His physicality is not dropping that much. He’s definitely solid at the moment.”

As Chou Tien Chen, who beat Vitidsarn in the semifinals in Indonesia, said: “It’s crazy. He’s the new world No.1 and he just won the Thailand Open and Singapore Open. Maybe he was a bit tired (in Indonesia). He’s a good all-round player, so you need to push him on every shot, otherwise he will push you.”

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