Kunlavut Vitidsarn

Kunlavut Vitidsarn (; born 11 May 2001), simply known as View is a Thai badminton player who became the first Thai player to achieve a BWF ranking of No.1 and win the World Championships in the men's singles category. He won Asia men's singles champions at the 2025 Asian Championships, as well a silver medalist in the 2024 Olympic Games. He was also three-times World Junior champion, winning in 2017, 2018 and 2019. He is nicknamed the "Three-Game God" because his defensive style generally requires him to play three games long and likely to win in the end due to opponent's stamina loss.

Kunlavut became the first men's singles player to win three World Junior Championships titles, joining Ratchanok Intanon and Chen Qingchen as a three-time winner of the World Junior title in the same discipline. He claimed the gold medal at the Asian Junior Championships in 2019, where he previously won a silver in 2018 and bronze in 2017. Kunlavut participated at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics, and was part of the team Omega took the silver medal in the mixed team event. He was named the 2020/2021 Eddy Choong Most Promising Player.

In the senior category, Kunlavut won the silver medal at the 2022 World Championships and, in the following year, the gold medal at the 2023 World Championships. He became the first Thai player to win the World Championships title in the men's singles category. He reached a career high of world number 1 in May 2025.

Personal life Kunlavut was born in Chonburi. He has a younger sister, Sarunrak, who is also a badminton player and won the bronze medal at the 2024 BWF World Junior Championships.

On 26 September 2025, Kunlavut promoted to the rank of police sub-lieutenant.

Career 2016–2019: Asian Junior champion and thrice World Junior champions

Kunlavut exhibited promising performances throughout his junior-level tournament. He won junior tournaments including the boys' singles title in the Banthongyord Junior International and Singapore Youth International, and also the Junior Grand Prix title in Jaya Raya (Indonesia) and India in 2017. In the same year, he won the bronze medal at the Asian Junior Championships. He followed up his impressive showing in the World Junior Championships with a gold medal win. He managed to defend his title in the Banthongyord Junior International and double the title by winning the mixed doubles with Phittayaporn Chaiwan. He then upgraded his medal in the Asian Junior Championships to silver, losing the finals to Lakshya Sen. However, he managed to defend his World Junior titles.

In his final year in the junior circuit in 2019, Kunlavut managed to win double title and defend his boys' singles and mixed doubles title in the Banthongyord Junior International. He finally won a gold medal at the Asian Junior Championships, becoming the first ever Thai to win the boys' singles title, and addition a gold in the team event. Kunlavut successfully defended his World Junior Champions title for the third time, Polish Open, Finnish Open, and Spanish International.

2020–2022: World Championship silver medalist Kunlavut began the 2020 season as semi-finalist in the Thailand Masters. He then entered the finals of the Spain Masters losing to Viktor Axelsen. In his debut at the All England Open, he was stopped in the first round to Lin Dan in rubber games. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous tournaments on the 2020 BWF World Tour were either cancelled or rescheduled for later in the year. He played at the Super 1000 Yonex and Toyota Thailand Open but was eliminated in the second round in both tournaments. His best result in 2021 was being one of the finalists in the Swiss Open and in the Indonesia badminton festival the World Tour Finals, where he was defeated by Axelsen.

In 2022, Kunlavut won his first title of the year in the German Open. At the 2021 SEA Games, he won two gold medals in both the singles and team events. Competed as the seed 16, Kunlavut claimed the silver medal in the World Championships, where in the finals he lost to Axelesen in straight game. He then beat the current world number 1 Viktor Axelsen to claim his first title of the year in the India Open. He then became the fourth Thai men's singles player to win the home soil title, the Thailand Open in early June. In the following week, he suffered an injury during the semi-finals in the Singapore Open against Anthony Sinisuka Ginting. In July, he finished runner-up in the U.S. Open. Kunlavut's finest hour in his career came at the 2023 World Championships. In the final, he prevailed as he defeated Naraoka in a rubber game to win the gold medal, and achieved his highest BWF world ranking of third in the men's singles category. His victory at the World Championships, making him Thailand's third gold medal winner during the World Championships since it was first held in 1977. He qualified to compete at the World Tour Finals as the World Champions, but was eliminated in the group stage. He closed the year as world number 7.

2024: Olympic silver Kunlavut achieved a significant milestone by winning a silver medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, after advancing to the final by defeating world number one Shi Yuqi of China. He was ultimately bested by Denmark's Viktor Axelsen in the gold medal match. His silver medal made him the first Thai athlete to earn an olympic medal in badminton.

2025: Asian Championships title and world number 1 A good start shown by Kunlavut in the beginning of the 2025 BWF World Tour, when he reached the quarter-finals at the Malaysia Open. Despite an early loss at the India Open, he went on to win the Indonesia Masters. In April, Kunlavut beat Lu Guangzu in the Asian Championships and become the first ever men's singles title winner from Thailand. Kunlavut solidify his form by winning his home tournament, Thailand Open in his favoured three games match against Anders Antonsen. In June, Kunlavut won the Singapore Open in dominating fashion against Lu Guangzu. His excellent performance in Singapore Open shot himself up into the number one in men's singles ranking, thus becoming the first Thais ever to achieve such honour in the history. Later in the year, Kunlavut lost in the final of Arctic Open to Chou Tien-chen.

2026 Kunlavut started the season by winning the Malaysia Open in straight games against Shi Yuqi who had to retired due to the right shoulder injury. He became the first Thai player to win the Malaysia Open in 68 years. In April, Kunlavut was on a mission to defend his Asian Championship but lost out to Ayush Shetty in three games.

Achievements

Olympic Games Men's singles

Asian Championships Men's singles Year Venue Opponent Score Result Ref

is a series of elite badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Tour is divided into levels of World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300, and the BWF Tour Super 100.

Men's singles Year Tournament Level Opponent Score Result Ref 2020 Spain Masters Super 300 Viktor Axelsen 16–21, 13–21 Runner-up 2025 Indonesia Masters Super 500 Jonatan Christie 18–21, 21–17, 21–18 Winner

BWF International Challenge/Series (5 titles, 2 runners-up) Men's singles Year Tournament Opponent Score Result Ref 2018 India International Lakshya Sen 15–21, 10–21 Runner-up BWF International Challenge tournament BWF International Series tournament BWF Future Series tournament

BWF Junior International (11 titles, 2 runners-up) Boys' singles Year Tournament Opponent Score Result Ref

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Player Matches Won Lost Lin Dan 2 0 2 –2 Shi Yuqi 11 4 7 –3 Zhao Junpeng 2 2 0 +2 Chou Tien-chen 7 2 5 –3 Anders Antonsen 11 4 7 –3 Viktor Axelsen 9 1 8 –7 Hans-Kristian Vittinghus 1 1 0 +1 Christo Popov 8 4 4 0 B. Sai Praneeth 1 1 0 +1 Srikanth Kidambi 5 4 1 +3 Parupalli Kashyap 2 2 0 +2 Prannoy H. S. 3 3 0 +3

Player Matches Won Lost Lakshya Sen 11 7 4 +3 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 8 5 3 +2 Sony Dwi Kuncoro 2 1 1 0 Tommy Sugiarto 1 1 0 +1 Kento Momota 3 1 2 –1 Kodai Naraoka 14 9 5 +4 Lee Zii Jia 9 5 4 +1 Loh Kean Yew 10 8 2 +6 Heo Kwang-hee 2 1 1 0 Kantaphon Wangcharoen 4 2 2 0 Nguyễn Tiến Minh 1 0 1 –1

Royal decoration 2021 – Commander (Third Class) of The Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn.