Why court drift can put Anmol Kharb 11-2 up against Chen Yufei and then drag her down when sides change
5 min readMay 24, 2026 08:36 AM IST Not a betraying of vulnerability or a prick to pride, but admitting that a loss happened in badminton because of the drift (AC draught) in the arena, wasn’t considered cool a decade back. The likes of Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, when they were defeating all and sundry, never hinted at the windy conditions that gave the shuttle a mind and wings of its own, as the cause of their losses. But tournaments in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, more than anyplace else, tend to ruffle feathers – quite literally. It wasn’t that the big names of Indian badminton were not bothered by drift, or were so proficient in shuttle control that they could ace any conditions, especially in the drifty summer-time halls of Asia. But someone like Sindhu or Satwik-Chirag could simply hit through with their power. Saina had a mix of strength to smother the shuttle when she got under it, and determination to tame it, by simply learning …
