BWF World Championships 2026: Unnati Hooda wins opener as Ruthvika Gadde, Rohan Kapoor suffer defeat

New Delhi: Indian shuttler Unnati Hooda opened her BWF World Championships campaign with a straight-games victory in the first round here on Tuesday.

Unnati overcame Thet Htar Thuzar 22-20, 21-16 in a swift opening encounter, according to ESPN.

Addressing journalists after the match regarding her judgment of shuttle calls, Unnati 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."

She noted that she spent the opening game adjusting to court conditions while her opponent matched her point for point, before an aggressive approach in the second game secured the win.

"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," she said.

"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 added.

Earlier in the day, India's mixed doubles pairing of Ruthvika Gadde and Rohan Kapoor suffered a hard-fought defeat in their opening tie, falling 22-20, 19-21, 17-21 to Canadian duo Crystal Lai and Jonathan Lai.

PTI