Revenge off the menu for Anthony Ginting at badminton world championships in Paris

PARIS – Indonesia’s former world No. 2 Anthony Ginting told AFP he had come to terms with the shoulder injury which cost him a medal chance at the Paris Olympics as he returns to the French capital for the badminton world championships.

Ill fortune struck for the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist ahead of the 2024 Games when he began to suffer discomfort in his playing shoulder in the build-up to the event.

Although he fought through the pain to compete at the Olympics, the injury required surgery which then forced Ginting to miss the majority of the 2025 season.

“The problem started just before the Olympics last year, but I still played on,” Ginting, 28, said on Aug 23 after a training session in Paris ahead of the Aug 25-31 world championships.

“But at the start of the year, I needed to have surgery to fix it, so I ended up missing out for six months.”

Ginting revealed he continued to train and socialise every day with his teammates while he recovered.

However, being unable to participate fully in sessions while he focused on individual rehabilitation elsewhere in the training centre was a big challenge.

“It was hard because I was there with them while they prepared for competitions, but I had to stay apart and work a lot on my own,” he said.

However, while Ginting was using this period to rehabilitate, he also took time to work on himself as a person.

“I had a lot of time to think and look at my mind and spirit, and I decided that moving forward I want to be more positive,” Ginting said.

“I want to focus on the positives and not on what happened. I’m at peace with that now. So one of my aims moving forward is to adopt this mindset.”

This new philosophy will be put to the test when Ginting kicks off his world championships campaign against home hope Toma Junior Popov this week.

Defeat by the 15th-seeded Frenchman in the same venue last summer eliminated Ginting from the group stage of the Olympics.

If the Indonesian did allow himself a coy smile when the word “revenge” was put to him, he insisted positivity would be the key for his preparations for the round-of-64 encounter.

“In my mind, I want to stay positive above all,” he said.

“Obviously, I’m aware of what happened last time here in this arena, but it’s in the past and I don’t want to let that (desire for revenge) come into my thinking.”

Since returning from injury, Ginting has played in two tournaments – the China Open and Japan Open in July – but suffered early exits in both.

Now No. 73 in the world, his protected ranking ensured his place in the world championships, however, re-climbing that ladder as quickly as possible is not foremost on Ginting’s list of priorities as he looks to the future.

“Obviously, while out, my ranking dropped very much.

“But the most important thing for me is re-finding my (playing) level,” he said.

“In China and Japan, I lost but I didn’t play at my level. Those were my only competitions so far, and in training you just can’t recreate the atmosphere and intensity of a real match.

“Here in Paris and the next tournaments, I want to get to having that level I have in training in real matches.”

And if Ginting can find that level, the ranking points will take care of themselves. AFP