‘Strictly said, ‘focus and play’: Unnati reveals coach’s words after win in BWF World C’ships opener

New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) Indian shuttler Unnati Hooda admitted she briefly took her foot off the pedal after building a commanding lead in the second game against Thet Htar Thuzar, prompting her coach to intervene and remind her to focus on finishing the match.

Hooda went on to beat the Myanmar shuttler 22-20, 21-16 in the opening round of the BWF World Championships at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Tuesday, recovering from a tight opening game to make a strong start to her campaign.

With the youngster comfortably ahead in the second game, the Indian began experimenting with some of her strokes. The move allowed Thet to close the gap, before her coach told her to abandon the experimentation and concentrate on securing the victory.

“Not as such, but with that such lead I was in between trying a few of my strokes also, because I had so much lead, so he also said like you can try few of your strokes, but then I made some silly errors also, then he also like strictly said no, no, just now focus and play,” Hooda told the reporters in the mixed zone after her win.

Hooda had raced to an 11-1 advantage after the change of ends, seemingly putting herself on course for a comfortable finish. Thet, however, fought back to 16-20 before Hooda finally closed out the contest.

The Indian said the opening game had been about figuring out the conditions and understanding how the two sides of the court were playing. Once she had a better read on the drift, Hooda altered her tactics and found greater success in the second game.

“I do not know in the starting I was just understanding the court conditions and everything, but yeah just because both of the sides are very much different, so from the first game that I played there was like my attack was not going so good, so I changed my plan and did like I used some tosses and all that and then her attack was going well from the first side, then like I got a few bit idea like the how the courts are going on, so I was able to adapt well in the second game,” she added.

The first game had offered little between the two players, with Hooda eventually edging it 22-20 after a 21-minute battle. She felt she managed the drift effectively, although the pressure of closing out the game led to a few mistakes.

“I feel like it was a good match and I am happy that I was able to control the drift pretty well, but in the second half during the finishing I made a few errors and just may be rushing a little bit, but then I controlled myself,” she stated.

Asked whether the drift was responsible for some of the errors she made after changing ends, Hooda instead blamed her own execution, saying, “No, I feel like that was little bit of my hand mistakes”

The victory was Hooda’s second straight over Thet and gives her an important boost ahead of a significantly tougher assignment. She will next face 13th seed Michelle Li of Canada, who defeated Chinese Taipei’s P. Chiu 22-20, 21-12.

Hooda said the win gave her an initial understanding of the court, although she was wary of assuming the conditions would remain unchanged.

“Every match will be a different match, tomorrow I will be playing against Michelle (Li), so I will prepare well for tomorrow’s match, but yeah I played today, so got an idea of the court and everything, but we cannot say because drift can change sometimes, but it really gave me confidence and I would like to thank the people, all the support I have got, like all the people who came for this match and supported me, thanks to them,” the 18-year-old said.

–IANS

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