P Kashyap says a title after three years has provided him a much needed confidence boost

Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap insisted that his first international title in three years at the Austrian Open International Challenge badminton tournament was a major confidence booster for him as it gave him the confidence that he was getting closer to his best after struggling with injuries for the past two years.

The 31-year-old had suffered a calf muscle tear, went under the knife for a knee injury, suffered a dislocation of his right shoulder, a hamstring pull and an abdominal strain all within the last few years and despite reaching the final of the US Open Grand Prix Gold event last year was struggling to consistently challenge the top stars.

But in Vienna, the world number 44 did not drop a single game before seeing off Malaysia’s June Wei Cheam 23-21, 21-14 in the final.

“It has been a tough week. I haven’t won so many matches in a single tournament for quite sometime and then playing two rounds in a day was tough. I have been struggling against almost same set of players in the last three Superseries and I knew I have to cross them here,” Kashyap was quoted as saying by PTI.

“My fitness was at the top level this week and I was able to push them and they cracked. I have been lacking in confidence of late, so this tournament gave me that confidence to pull off those tight matches where you are down by a couple of points,” said Kashyap, whose last won a tournament back in 2015 at the Syed Modi open.

“I was down in the semifinals, quarterfinals and also in the finals but I didn’t panic and could pull off the matches. In final, I was leading 18-15 then he pushed the pace and changed his strategy.
“But I could recover and stop him. I didn’t rush in end stages. I was in my comfort zone. So it was a new approach to the tournament,” he added.

Having missed out on making the Commonwealth Games team, Kashyap now plans to play a few tournaments to get his ranking up before playing the bigger tournaments.

“I plan to train for four weeks and then play at Orleans Masters later next month. The plan is to be inside top 30 by May end and make the main draws of super series events. I have time to train after Orlean before going to Australia and New Zealand in May,” he added.