The defending champion, when tied at 14-all in the second game, didn't go for smashes or do anything fancy. She just tired out her opponent to win the game and the match 21-10 21-18 in 27 minutes.
There's something special about 18-year-old Ruthvika Gadde. One may confuse it with fearlessness or casualness, but Gadde rubbishes it, saying she's simply confident.
And, that was visible when she was playing the second game against Singaporean Ren-Ne Ong in a Round 2 women's singles match of the Tata Open India International Challenge here on Thursday.
The defending champion, when tied at 14-all in the second game, didn't go for smashes or do anything fancy. She just tired out her opponent to win the game and the match 21-10 21-18 in 27 minutes.
But, a tougher test awaits Gadde, the current senior national champion, on Friday. She faces top seed Jing Yi Tee of Malaysia in the quarterfinal.
"I've played her (Yi Tee) two years ago and lost in straight sets. But I'm not thinking about that loss. It'll be entirely different this time," the eighth seed told dna after her match.
Does she analyse her opponent before a match or watch their games? Gadde replies in the negative, saying there's an interesting story to that.
"In this year's Syed Modi tournament, I was up against current World No. 1 Carolina Marin. So I watched videos of her previous games to find out her weak points. I made a game plan according to that. But during the game, I just couldn't keep to the plan and I was totally lost. She beat me 21-9 21-10, but I learnt a very important lesson — don't spend too much time analysing your opponent," she said with a smile.
Gadde, who has been training at the P Gopichand Academy since 2012, said she took up the sport by chance.
"When I was seven, I used to tag along with my dad when he would go to play badminton with his friends. I took a liking to the sport and played it just for fun. It was only when I won the U-13 national championships that I decided to take up the sport seriously."
It has been quite a whirlwind journey for her this year. In June, she was diagnosed with viral hepatitis and took three months to fully recover. But then she came back in style, winning the Dhaka Open last week.
"I was so weak that I couldn't walk. The only good part about the illness was that I got to spend time with my family that badminton players don't normally get to do. Winning the Dhaka Open was a real boost for me. I'm trying to play as many tournaments as possible to improve my rankings," she said.
And being in the top-10 of world rankings is she wants to achieve in the next five years.
"Saina (Nehwal) and (PV) Sindhu are on top, but there's a lot of gap between them and us. They've given women's badminton in India the push, but now it's up to us to maintain it. And that's what I'm working towards," she said.
Gadde may well be one of the answers to legendary shuttler Prakash Padukone's concerns when he said two days ago that the future of women's singles in India after Nehwal and Sindhu does not look good.
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