Indian shuttler Unnati Hooda commenced her campaign at the BWF World Championships with a victory in the first round in New Delhi on Tuesday.
She defeated Thet Htar Thuzar 22-20, 21-16 in straight games, according to ESPN.
After the match, Unnati spoke to reporters about her ability to judge the shuttle’s landing on the court. She said, “I have been playing a lot for many years, so that is the judgment. But yeah, like sometimes in drift conditions it is difficult, but I feel like here it is not that much difficult to judge if it is going out or in.”
Reflecting on the match, she explained that in the first set she focused on understanding the drift while the opponent remained competitive. “In the first set, I was just trying to understand the drift and everything, but she was also playing, she was very good and all. It was going neck-and-neck, but yeah, I think in the last five points of the first game I controlled and stayed patient, and then she made some mistakes,” Unnati said.
She added that in the second game she adopted an attacking strategy based on her observation of the court conditions. “And then in the second game, I was able to see that from that end of the court, the attack is going faster, so I just played my game, attacking, and it helped me to stick to the plan,” she said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Indian mixed doubles team of Ruthvika Gadde and Rohan Kapoor were defeated 22-20, 19-21, 17-21 by Canada’s Crystal Lai and Jonathan Lai in a closely contested opening match.