Guru Sai Dutt notched up Bulgarian International after a yearlong gap

It is the moment of fiesta for Guru Sai Dutt, as he won Bulgarian International, the Future Series after a yearlong gap filled with series of surgeries.

In the finals at Bulgarian International, Guru Sai Dutt defeated Muhammed Ali Kurt of Turkey with 21-17, 21-16 in 35 minutes in men’s singles. In the semi-finals match, Guru easily lost in first game with 9-21, and back in his track with his smooth flow of play and thrashed AhmetCan Oruc of Turkey in another two games with 21-8, 21-8 to storm into finals.

Spectators viewed another Indian win of men’s doubles in the final match. Sanyam Shukla paired with Arun George unsettled third seed Miha Ivanic and Andraz Krapez of Slovenia with 21-18, 21-13 in 28 minutes, while, Shukla lost to Dominik Stipsits and Antonia Meinke of Austria with Ahilya Harjani with 21-16, 21-5 in mixed doubles category.

Guru, attained by his win, said, “I am feeling good, though it is a small tournament but coming back after a year was not so easy.”

In 2013 the shuttler was 19th ranked and now he is lost somewhere in 900s of BWF World Rankings. He was ready in April to give a comeback at Thailand Open and Hellas Open this year, but couldn’t progress to further rounds.

Talking about the ranks and the tournaments, he said, “I wasn't getting entry anywhere. My rank was 900 above and this is the only place where I could get entry. The level of the tournament was decent. I feel this was a good tournament for me to start my season. I was in the qualifying and had to play 3 rounds in qualifying.”

“I was doing well in training and I felt I was in a good shape for this tournament. Semis and the finals were good matches,” he added.

He took time for Bulgarian International, after he got green signal from the physios and doctor. He said, “I was totally out of badminton or any kind of training from August 2016 until April 2017. Before I underwent surgery, the doctor and physios tried a lot to avoid the surgery but then in the end surgery was the only option.

"I got back well in April-May before Thailand Open but just before leaving for Thailand; I had a jerk in my ankle that was because of over loading. Again that took me about 5-6 weeks to get back. But this time it was very well planned by physios Chris Pedra, Kiran and Sumansh with the guidance of Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala,” he explained.

Guru said, “This year almost everyone is playing the Nationals and it would be good to test my training and preparation,

The player is aware that he would now have to play many tournaments to get back into top 200. The player next will train for National Senior Championship.