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Playing an international tournament after almost a year, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist RMV Gurusaidutt clinched the men's singles title at the Bulgarian International Future Series tournament on Sunday.
Gurusaidutt, who was out of action since the US Open in July 2016 due to an injury, defeated Muhammed Ali Kurt 21-17, 21-16 in 35 minutes.
The triumph was a boost his confidence ahead of next month's Senior Nationals Championship.
"I am feeling good, though it is a small tournament, but coming back after a year was not so easy," said Guru, after winning the title.
"I wasn't getting entry anywhere. My rank was 900-above and this is the only place where I could get entry."
Talking about the tournament, he said: "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 three 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."
It was an ankle injury and subsequent surgery which put Gurusaidutt out of action for longer than he expected as a ligament strain was detected during the surgery.
"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."
Asked which tournament he is playing next, Guru said: "I'm playing nationals next. I thought I need two good weeks of training."