New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde’s BWF World Championships 2026 campaign ended in disappointment on Tuesday as the Indian mixed doubles pair surrendered a one-game lead to lose 22-20, 19-21, 17-21 to Canada’s Jonathan Lai and Crystal Lai at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Tuesday.
The Indians, who had previously beaten the Canadian pair in straight games, were in control early on but lost their grip in the second game and could not recover as the contest stretched to one hour and eight minutes.
Having been unable to close out the match after taking the opening game, Kapoor said the priority now was to draw a line under the defeat rather than dwell on what went wrong.
“I would not want to think about this match ever again. Probably that's the good way ahead. If I want to continue working hard and get better, I think I need to forget about this match and move on,” Kapoor told the reporters in the mixed zone after the loss.
Reflecting on the defeat, Kapoor identified the latter stages of the second game as the decisive moment and admitted that a loss of concentration allowed the match to turn.
“We won the first game. We were in control of the first game. We were on what we thought was the fastest side. But we were actually in the control of the entire match. But I think we lost a bit of focus in the second set. We just lost the second game there and then obviously the pressure built up in the third. We were trailing the entire third game and as a result of it, we lost the match,” he added.
Kapoor felt the Indians had been in a strong position before the momentum shifted. With the scoreline going in their favour, the pair were unable to maintain the same level of discipline through the second half of the second game.
“Probably in the second set, in the second half, we were comfortably cruising through eventually. But yeah, that's how badminton is. You lose focus or you lose a bit of strategy and then the match slips out of your hands,” he mentioned.
The Indians also found themselves needing to tighten up their execution, particularly in the service and return exchanges. Kapoor said the message from the bench, including coach Pullela Gopichand, was to return to the fundamentals when the Canadian pair began putting pressure on them.
“Yeah, I think it was just that we need to stick to basics. We need to focus a lot on service receivings. Because that was the area where we were lacking in the second set in the second half,” he stated.
The defeat was particularly frustrating for Kapoor and Gadde because they entered the contest with confidence. They had already faced the Lai pair last year and emerged victorious without dropping a game, raising expectations of another positive result on home soil.
“We were quite confident for the match as we have already played this pair before last year and we won in straight sets. So we were quite confident that we would pull out this match. But obviously, sometimes the conditions, even when you are comfortable with the conditions, things are not in your favour,” Kapoor said.
Kapoor did not attribute the defeat to anything unfamiliar about the playing environment. Asked about the court conditions and drift, he said the pair had encountered similar conditions during their careers.
“The court conditions were fine. I mean, nothing that we have never experienced in our career before. But yeah, that's about it,” he added.
--IANS
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