A new tomorrow for Fu Mingtian

Story by Jan Lin/Red Sports. Photos by Vanessa Lim/Red Sports.

fu ming tian vs judith meulendijks

The windy conditions on the court kept an overly-cautious Fu Mingtian to stay on the defence. (Photo 1 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Thursday, June 11, 2009 – Singapore women’s singles shuttler Fu Mingtian may have been knocked out in the second round of the 2009 Singapore Badminton Open by Judith Meulendijks of Netherlands, but the 18-year-old believes a new dawn has arrived for her.

Dubbed the local heroine at the 2009 Singapore Badminton Open after creating the first major upset in the first round of the championship, Fu Mingtian was in fact going through a dark period of her young badminton career before snapping up the massive victory over China’s former world number 2, Lu Lan, on Wednesday.

Though disappointment was scribbled all over Fu’s face after the defeat by Netherland’s current world number 23 shuttler, she was able to give a mature analysis of her match.

Fu reflected on her match saying: “Its a pity I wasn’t able to execute as well as I did against Lu Lan in my match against Judith, I wasn’t able to be as relaxed. My coach also felt that I wasn’t able to relax myself and stay composed during the match, but was instead overly conscious with every shot executed.”

“I thought Fu Mingtian looked a little bit tired and so I just kept the rally going,” said Judith Meulendijks, who was elated to have reached her first Singapore Badminton Open quarter-final with this result.

Judith continued: “Our game is similar and it went down to who made lesser mistakes. So I was actually expecting a hard fight from her, I guess perhaps she was tired from her match against Lu Lan, who is a top player.”

Not putting the blame on the energy-sapping 49-minute first round tiebreaker against the 7th seed, Fu said, “Though the match against Lu Lan was quite tiring and would have more or less drained me out physically, but the loss (against Judith) has nothing to do with that.”

“I just couldn’t control my shots well and I made many unforced errors with shots that I could have killed it easily, which was a huge pity,” Fu reiterated on her disappointment.

Expounding on the factors affecting her performance in the second round, Fu revealed, “Part of the reason was because the draft was terrible on the court I was playing on, which occupied my mind throughout the match. I was constantly wary about coping with the draft.”

“I didn’t dare to push Judith to the back court with lobs or just to be hitting any shot over her head because I was very worried that the shuttle would fly out of the back line (due to the draft),” explained Fu.

“And my coach reprimanded me for that,” Fu said, “he said I shouldn’t keep my mind on those issues that were beyond my control but instead to have taken a positive approach to try different coping strategies to deal with the draft.”

Looking ahead, the teenager from Hubei province in China shared: “I will need to work on many areas to order to improve. I think I lack sorely in experience, which is why I struggle to develop on-court strategies to cope with unforeseen difficult situations, where I will also need to learn how to stay compose and adjust my emotions.”

“I don’t have a particular goal for myself this year,” Fu declared when asked about her career goals in 2009. “I just want to do well in every outing. The SEA Games will be the last major outing of the year and winning the team event will be particularly important to us.”

Since winning the 2008 World Junior doubles title with Yao Lei in India, Fu has found herself struggling to make her mark on the senior stage.

“I’ve had a poor showing for the first half of this year and during this period, I feel that I’ve slumped to a low point of my career,” Fu revealed earnestly. “So I guess I’m pleased with my performance in this tournament because at least I can feel that I’m now slowly making headway in recovering my confidence.”

N.B. The event is also known as the Aviva Open Singapore