New Delhi, Aug 20 (IANS) Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila’s BWF World Championships campaign ended in disappointment on Thursday as the Indian mixed doubles pair bowed out in the pre-quarterfinals at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi, with Kapila taking responsibility for a second-game collapse that allowed their opponents to pull away.
The Indians had remained competitive for much of the opening game, but a succession of inexpensive errors changed the complexion of the contest. Once they fell behind, the deficit grew too large to erase, leaving the pair to reflect on a performance they felt had fallen short of their own standards on home soil.
Crasto admitted the result was particularly difficult to accept given the occasion and the way the contest had begun.
“We are equally disappointed that we couldn’t put up the best show, especially here on home ground. It was a good fight in the first set, but somehow we didn’t have any control in the second, and they took advantage of that and played really well.
But we take full responsibility for the fact that we didn’t play up to the mark today, and we hope that we could have done a better performance today,” Crasto said.
The turning point, according to Crasto, was not one isolated exchange but a succession of errors that steadily handed momentum to their opponents.
“Like I mentioned earlier, we started giving really easy points from our hand, very simple errors, and that kept building up. We couldn’t break the rhythm, and it kept building up, and eventually the lead went off quite big. We did try to cover up, but we weren’t able to do that,” she added.
Kapila was even more direct in assessing his own contribution to the downturn. He felt the tactical instructions from the coaching staff could only go so far once unforced errors began to accumulate.
“The plan was pretty simple, but in the second game, I think it’s my mistake. I should have done better there, but eventually I started making a lot of errors, which took us a lot of time; they took a lead, and then we were under pressure. Especially me, because it was me who was just, you know, making very easy mistakes, and then there’s no plan if you keep making easy mistakes, and even the coach, whatever he says, it won’t work. So yeah, I should have done a bit better,” Kapila said.
The defeat brings their World Championships campaign to a close, but Kapila already has the next opportunity in sight. Rather than dwell on the loss, he said the immediate task would be to identify what went wrong and address it before returning to competition.
“Of course, I have to work on it. Whatever happened on the court today, I have to learn from it, and the next tournament is the China Open,” he concluded.
–IANS
vi/bsk/