By IANS,
New Delhi : Comeback girl Aditi Mutatkar, after pulling off two sensational victories in the Badminton Asia Championship here, was Friday shown the door by Chinese qualifier Xin Liu. But the Pune girl is determined to carry forward her good performance that surprised many.
The 23-year-old made her maiden quarterfinal of the event after a two-month injury absence because of a dodgy knee and says her performance has given her the much-needed boost.
“I have to be a little more fitter and stronger. It was a very fast game. I was playing a Chinese after a long time, may be 3-4 years. And you have to be at your best to beat them,” Mutatkar said after her 14-21, 11-21 loss to Liu here at the Siri Fort Sports Complex.
“Nevertheless, I am happy with my performance. This is for the first time I made it to the quarters of Badminton Asian Championships. This has given me enough confidence as I was returning from an injury, I would take it forward from here.”
Liu, though only a qualifier, like many of her compatriots was nimble-footed with powerful strokes and kept the Chinese flag fluttering even as top five world ranked players from her country chose to skip the tournament.
Mutatkar credits Liu’s performance to an organized badminton set-up in China.
“You cannot take any Chinese player lightly. There are ample evidences of Chinese qualifiers winning major tournaments like Super Series. This is because they have a strong domestic set up. Even the top players there are not allowed to skip domestic tournaments, so the juniors compete against world class players and when they get a chance they make the most of it,” Mutatkar said.
“Our domestic set up is not that structured and we don’t have all our top players participating in the domestic tournaments.”
Mutatkar admitted being outpaced by her opponent.
“I had two good victories in this tournament but this match was very high paced. I was not able to keep up with her. I also need to bring more variety in my defence. I was repeating my shots. It was not that I was not able to read her strokes but somehow failed to counter her,” she said.
“I felt I had a chance when I was trailing 10-13 in the second game but she stepped up the attack and I just went thorough the motions.”