New Delhi: Indian players performed well at the Bitburger Open Grand Prix in Germany with fourth seed Chetan Anand winning the men's singles beating compatriot Arvind Bhat in the finals.
Anand won the match 23-25, 24-22, 23-21 in almost an hour.
But India's best performance came at the mixed doubles event where unseeded V Diju and Jwala Gutta picked up the title beating eighth seeds Joachim Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen 8-21, 21-17, 22-20 in the final.
The win is India's first mixed doubles title at the Grand Prix.
Following the title triumph, Anand is now eyeing a top-20 slot by November end.
Chetan won the Czech international title too and the current world No. 30 is expected to be just outside the top-20 when the new rankings are released this Thursday.
"Although I am not thinking much about the rankings at the moment but initially I had set my eyes to break into the top 25 but at the rate that I am going at the moment, I hope to break into the top 20 by November end," Chetan was quoted as saying by PTI.
The national champion is the first Indian male to win a Grand Prix tournament after he clinched the Bitburger Open.
Chetan said without a doubt, the Bitburger triumph is the biggest of his career.
"It is the biggest win of my career, it is a Grand Prix, a four start event, I could not have hoped for better than this. I think this win will shut all my critics who had written me off," the 28-year-old said.
"I was confident of beating Arvind but somehow I didn't play my best in the finals, may be pressure got on my nerves and I messed it up in the first game but then I decided to make him play as much as possible for each point and he started to become impatient and I eventually pulled it off," he added.
In the form of his life, Chetan said he now has the confidence to beat any player in the world.
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