Chetan Anand (badminton) - Badminton Career

Badminton Career

Chetan started his Badminton career in 1992 at the Mini Nationals in Mumbai. Chetan was successful in doubles in his early badminton career, pairing with A. Prithvi, winning 12 year and 15 years age groups. He reached his first open nationals singles final in Kerala at age fifteen, but failed to win the title and was runner-up though he won the doubles pairing with A. Prithvi.

Chetan Anand was encouraged by Prakash Padukone, arguably the best international player in badminton ever produced by India. Chetan's career received a boost when Prakash Padukone sent him to the World Academy camp in Kuala Lumpur, Malayasia, where he made significant improvements to his game. Chetan won the first singles title of his career at Chennai in a Junior major ranking tournament where he came directly from Kuala Lumpur, Malayasia. The same year he made his mark in the senior category as well, reaching the semifinals in all of the senior ranking tournaments, and reaching the top eight in the country. He became the Junior National Champion in 1999. In 2001 he won his first Asian Satellite tournament in Bangalore which marked his beginning in Seniors. Later he won more than 15 major ranking tournaments in India.

He became the National Badminton Champion for first time in 2004 after faltering in the finals in 2002 and 2003 to Abhinn Shyam Gupta. He also won the Toulouse Open in France in 2004, recovering from a back injury during the summer 2004. In 2005 he won Irish and Scottish open badminton tournaments in Ireland and Scotland. In 2008 he won his first Grand Prix title at the Bitburger Open. He was also the Runner-up in Dutch Grand Prix in 2008 and followed them with a couple of quarterfinal appearances. He touched his career best world ranking 10 in 2009 February. In 2009 he won the Dutch Open Grand Prix which he lost in the finals in 2008. He also won the Jaypee Syed Modi Memorial Grand Prix at Lucknow in December 2009.