Five months after playing his last tournament, former World No. 30 Anand Pawar has made it to the final of the $10,000 Victor Dutch International 2017 at Wateringen, the Netherlands on Saturday. Pawar, seeded seventh, put up an impeccable performance to thrash the eighth seed Iikka Heino of Finland, 21-11, 21-7 in the semi-finals in 26 minutes.
The 30-year-old sustained a serious injury to the spine while playing his Round of 64 match at the Scottish Open against Englishman Sam Parsons in November. Pawar had to retire mid-way through the match while trailing 12-21, 14-15. His ranking too has suffered because of the hiatus and he is currently languishing at 108th.
Pawar did not drop a game all week
The 2017 Dutch International is his first competitive tournament since that match. Now well recovered from that injury, the Indian has been playing with confidence all week and has not even dropped a game.
The former Scottish Open winner started his campaign against Sweden’s Jacob Nilsson whom he convincingly beat 21-16, 21-18. Pawar looked better and better with each match and in the second round, he blew away Felix Burestedt of Sweden, 21-8 in the first game before completing a 21-8, 21-13 victory.
In the quarter-finals, Pawar notched up a 21-15, 21-18 win over Denmark’s Rasmus Messerschmidt.
Also read: Sai Praneeth and Srikanth Kidambi each rise eight spots in latest BWF Rankings
In the title showdown, the Indian will meet the winner of the second semi-final between the second seed Kalle Koljonen and the fifth seed Sam Parsons.
World No. 199 Lakhanee Sarang was the only other Indian playing at this tournament but he was bundled out 20-22, 10-21 by the 220th ranked German David Peng in the first round.
This is the second week in a row that an Indian will be in the final weekend of an international badminton tournament. Last Sunday, B Sai Praneeth and Srikanth Kidambi contested the historic all-India final at the Singapore Open Superseries in which Sai edged his higher accomplished compatriot for his maiden Superseries crown.
In this week’s other BWF event – the China Masters Grand Prix Gold, both Parupalli Kashyap and Harsheel Dani crashed out in the pre-quarter-finals. Much like Pawar, Kashyap too made his comeback after being on the sidelines for three months due to a shoulder injury.
The top Indian shuttlers took this week off to prepare for the Badminton Asia Championships scheduled to be held in Wuhan, China from April 25-30.
Also read: Parupalli Kashyap makes a winning comeback
