PV Sindhu, in her prime, did a good job of adjusting to the court drift conditions. The sheer discipline and patience needed to master conditions by big names like Kidambi Srikanth, Saina Nehwal or HS Prannoy and Satwik-Chirag are hugely underrated.
It is something the new generation, beginning to play elite events, will need to decipher. Unnati Hooda came up against World No 2 Wang Zhi Yi on Wednesday at the Singapore Open Super 750. She was promptly schooled in how the changing winds can completely determine your destiny if you don’t know how to demystify the drift.
“It was a big lesson for Unnati in how to play in big arenas because the drift helped her a lot at first, and then went against her later. Hopefully she learns with experience by playing repeatedly with the big names,” coach and father Upkar Hooda explained after the 21-13, 9-21, 15-21 loss in the 56-minute defeat to the current top Chinese.
Zhi Yi is an All England finalist, won the Malaysian Masters last week and at 25, is far more experienced than the 17-year-old Indian. It was quite a headrush, hence, when Unnati went from 8-13 down in the opening set to hitting a proper purple patch where her attack literally slapped across the court, and she picked 13 points on the spin.
“We decided to increase the pace, and the attack was going so well with the drift. After changing the side, Unnati just couldn’t control the shuttle,” Upkar said of the shuttle flying out of bounds.
Massive arenas in Asia always extract a price on flamboyance, and Unnati, still new to the Super 750 levels, was still gauging her best counter to the A/C draughts – the invisible puppeteer of destinies.
“Unnati tried many things, sometimes tossing, sometimes playing down strokes. But she was playing a World No. 2 for the first time, she needed a new strategy every five points to outfox her because opponents read her patterns. She will need to learn to have patience and needs to be able to change gears every 5-6 points,” he added.
Unnati was also guilty of not being consistent on her midcourt returns, and there were two early in the second set that she couldn’t kill, sending them into the net. The score could have read 10-8, instead, she fell back 8-11.
Zhi Yi, considered China’s heir apparent, has the routine ability of an ace top player to inject pace and rush to a victory, blowing away opponents. Unnati, who was buzzing after nicking a set off Zhi Yi, and then faltering in the next, witnessed how international outings can be over in a matter of moments, when big players turn on their beast mode. Zhi Yi was 20-10 up in the decider within minutes, changing the complexion of the game, playing from the helpful side.
Unnati’s inability to manage the drift led to some amateurish errors, though she did well to pick five points in a row, suddenly just as they had vanished. “From the beginning of her badminton career, Unnati has been in the habit of winning points in a streak. When she was patient and attacked from midcourt, she could get points, and she fought till the last point, but the worst thing about her game is she loses points in a bunch, too,” Upkar said. It’s something Lakshya Sen suffers from too.
“The endurance is not a problem. But she needs to control the number of errors,” he added. “In drifty conditions, you have to increase the quality of the shots after changing sides.”
The 20-10 lead was ultimately too much to make a match of it, and had it been 2-3 points, Unnati might have struck back, he reckons. But Zhi Yi was quite unstoppable by then. “She’s usually aggressive, but if she trails, the confidence drops,” he explained of body language that, too, can get better.
The Hoodas have given themselves a 45-day training window where the Strength & Conditioning coach will design a program before she resurfaces at the Japan Open. “She’s played 4 tournaments continuously. Lots of lessons,” he ends. Including how to tame the drift, which took her on a rollercoaster against the World No. 2.