It has been a glorious run for 28-year-old Chetan Anand in the European circuit. The national badminton champion, who was beaten in tough three games by fourth seed Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark in the quarter-finals of the Denmark Super Series tournament, has raised hopes of resurrecting his international career.
 
Chetan, the bronze medallist at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006, had in recent years more off-court battles than on court. He, along with wife Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien, had a running battle with Badminton Association of India (BAI) after the latter denied them the permission to take part in international tournaments. The BAI, instead, asked the players to attend camp.
 
The BAI’s dikat was not liked by the three rebels. It led to a long acrimonious war of words between BAI and the rebels before a compromise was reached which allowed the players to participate in international tournaments. But the protracted battle damaged Chetan’s international career to a great extent. His wife Jwala, the doubles specialist, was very upset with BAI.
 
“Chetan became a nervous wreck,” fumed Jwala, who herself has given impressive performances in the European circuit, winning the mixed doubles (with V Diju) and women’s doubles titles (with Shruti) to rise in doubles ranking.
 
According to Jwala, it did enough damage to Chetan’s hopes of playing the singles in the Beijing Olympics. His rankings slipped to over 50. However, the presence of former chief national coach Syed Mohammad Arif came in as a blessing in disguise and helped rebuild Chetan’s career. The affable Arif did not mince words. “The BAI harmed and played with the players’ career. He had a good chance of qualifying to Beijing Olympics but the wrangling forced him to miss the bus,” said Arif.
 
Chetan, Jwala and Shruti began their comeback with long hours of training sessions at the Lal Bahadur Indoor Stadium.
 
“We virtually began from a scratch. It was brick by brick comeback programme before Chetan regained his form and fitness in time for the nationals,” said Arif. Chetan successfully defended his national men’s singles at Goa and then began his return to international tournament.
 
In front of his home crowd, Chetan reached dizzy heights by reaching the Indian Open Grand Prix finals before losing to Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand. After that he won the Spanish Open in Madrid, the Nepal Open in June, the Czech International and then the biggest title of his career —the Bitburger Open Grand Prix in Germany.
 
“It is the most satisfying moment for me after the Commonwealth bronze medal. It was a great win. I was ready to play long matches and kept my patience and pulled it off at the end," Chetan said after the match.
 
Chetan is sure to climb the rankings. By yearend, he expects to crack the top 20 in the world.
 
“He has the class to beat any top player of the world. He has made a important decision to play in the highly competitive German league which will help to improve his game and fitness,” said Arif. “He is an attacking stroke play. I’m sure with a more positive game, he can do wonders in world badminton.”