Injury prevents Pawar from contesting Dutch International title

Anand Pawar (right) with Dutch International winner Andre Kurniawan of Indonesia. Pic courtesy: From Anand Pawar's Facebook page. Pic by Rene Lagerwaard/ renelagerwaard.nl

A lower abdominal injury prevented Anand Pawar from attempting a second straight international title on Sunday, as he conceded the final of the Dutch International against Andre Kurniawan Tedjono. Pawar had won the French International last week.

“I had some problems with my lower abdomen after the semifinal… but it was worse this (Sunday) morning and the physio said it could be a tear and could get much worse if I played,” Pawar told Sportskeeda.

The Mumbaiite is the sixth highest ranked Indian shuttler after Ajay Jayaram, P Kashyap, Sourabh Verma, Guru Sai Dutt and Chetan Anand. He is riding a rich vein of form and has had a brilliant last three weeks, even beating the second-ranked Dane, Jan O Jorgensen, in the bronze medal playoff in the Danish badminton league. Pawar, who played first singles for his team Aarhus in the Elite Division of the Danish league , beat Jorgensen to lead his team to a 4-1 win and the bronze medal.

At the Dutch International, his form was evident as he pulled through two tough three-setters in the quarterfinals and semifinals on Saturday. After a draining 18-21 21-12 21-18 victory over third seed Niluka Karunaratne, he gritted through a 22-20 15-21 21-14 win over top seed Eric Pang of Holland.

“I don’t really remember feeling it during the match but it became very sore after about two hours,” Pawar said.

Pawar conceded that the run of form he’s enjoyed recently was probably his best in his career, and credits it to the hard work he’s put in. “I had some good hard training by myself for three weeks after the German Open so I think the effort paid off,” said Pawar.

The Indian world no.63, who has climbed eight places in the rankings, will next be seen in qualifying round action at the India Open.

Pawar’s recent run of form:Dutch International:

Final: walkover to Andre Kurniawan TedjonoSemifinal: beat 1-Eric Pang (Ned) 22-20 15-21 21-14Quarterfinal: beat 3- Niluka Karunaratne (SL) 18-21 21-12 21-18Second round: beat Dennis Van Daalen De Jel (Ned) 21-12 21-18First round: 6-Christian Lind Thomsen (Den) 21-17 21-13

French InternationalFinal: beat 4-Misbun Ramadan Misbun 21-16 21-10Semifinal: beat 5-Lukas Schmidt (Ger) 9-21 21-10 21-16Quarterfinal: beat 8-Soon Huat Goh 15-21 21-18 21-12Second round: beat Toby Penty (Eng) 21-5 21-18First round: beat Sylvain Ternon (Fra) 21-13 21-12