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Indian mixed doubles pair Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto crashed out of the BWF World Championships 2026 after suffering a straight-game defeat to China's Guo Xinwa and Chen Fanghui in the pre-quarterfinals at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium here on Thursday.
The Indian duo went down 16-21, 5-21 against the Chinese pair in the Round of 16, ending their campaign at the home World Championships. Kapila and Crasto were competitive in the opening game but struggled to maintain their momentum in the second. A series of simple errors allowed the Chinese pair to build a commanding lead, with the Indians managing just five points in the second game. Reflecting on the defeat, Tanisha admitted that the pair were disappointed with their performance on home soil. "We're very, equally disappointed that we couldn't put up the best show, especially here on the home ground. It was a good fight in the first set, but somehow we didn't have any control in the second set, and I think they took advantage of that and they played really well in the second set. But we take full responsibility for that; we didn't play up to the mark today, and we hope that we could have done a better performance today," she said. Tanisha felt that a string of easy errors prevented the pair from breaking the Chinese duo's rhythm. "We started giving really easy points from our hand, very simple errors, and that kept building up. I think we couldn't break the rhythm and it kept building up, and eventually the lead went off quite big. I mean, we did try to cover up, but we weren't able to do that," said Tanisha. Dhruv, meanwhile, took responsibility for his performance in the second game and admitted that his errors made it difficult for the pair to execute their plans. "I think 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, and they took a lead, and then when you're under pressure, especially me, because I think it was me who was just making very easy mistakes, and then there's no plan if you keep making easy mistakes. Then even the coach, whatever he says, it won't work. So yeah, I should have done a bit better," said Dhruv. Kapila and Crasto had entered the pre-quarterfinals after a convincing straight-set win over Macao's Leong Iok Chong and Ng Weng Chi. The Indian pair registered a 21-11, 21-11 victory in that match. However, they could not replicate that performance against the Chinese pair and were eventually knocked out of the prestigious tournament on home soil. (ANI)
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