Happy headache

By beating Kento Momota and winning the Indonesian Masters title, Anders Antonsen has begun living up to the reputation of the next big shuttler from Denmark.

Anders Antonsen

One of the first things Anders Antonsen learnt about growing up was to pick after himself – plates, unwashed laundry, shoes, the towel he used to once casually fling aside. The A of adulthood came before the B of badminton and the C of championships.

Back home in Aarhus in Denmark where he started at six, Antonsen’s parents ran an academy – father, mother and older brother immersed in badminton. As the baby of the family, he was used to his father and brother gathering the towel after him. Then he moved to Copenhagen – the country’s ace badminton centre – into a small apartment alone at 20, and learnt that you didn’t throw things around unless you were prepared to pick them yourselves.

On Sunday, Antonsen flung a fresh towel upwards into the bleachers soon after beating World No. 1 Kento Momota at the Indonesia Masters Super500, signalling the emergence of a new contender in men’s singles.

The Istora crowd was going berserk rooting for the underdog – changing their chant from Kento Kento to Anto Anto, and Anders would pick a particularly vocal section to toss the souvenir to, though it would fall back to the ground for the maiden champion on the tour. Out of a mix of routine and revelry, he would return, pick up the keepsake carefully, and throw it higher this time.

The 21-16, 14-21, 21-16 win over title favourite and badminton’s man-in-red-hot-form Momota, is what ‘the next Great Dane’ had moved out of his home and into Copenhagen for. This while battling migraine-related discomfort that left him in great pain and grief for the last few years. Speaking while in India a fortnight ago where he turned out for the Mumbai Rockets in the Premier Badminton League, Antonsen had said,

“It’s been tough dealing with the migraine. There are certain things I am aware of nowadays. Getting sleep and not getting stressed. At that time, when it happened a lot, I’d moved into my old apartment in Copenhagen as a 20-year-old. It was more work than I had expected. Laundry, grocery, own food. I had no idea. I had to fix things on my own. Now I have to pick stuff myself. As an adult, it was quite stressful. It was a lot of things. How not to get too stressed. When to take a step back. I have learnt a lot of things about myself in the past one year,” he had said.

His parents, who stayed three hours away from him, would chip in whenver they could, but he was virtually fending for himself.

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The migraine had been debilitating. “I was struggling a lot with migraine after tough practice sessions. It was way too often that I got the migraine attacks for six to seven hours, throwing up and puking. If I got it on Monday, then I couldn’t practise on Tuesday and Wednesday. I’d start playing a little on Thursday. It just took me out many times when I had the chance to build my game and physique,” he recalls. “My mother struggled with migraine, probably got it from her. She helped guide me, but experience of an elite athlete – I needed to figure for myself,” he says of the first half of 2018, a blur lost to injury and illness.

Slowly getting on track

Antonsen would settle in slowly, showing signs of getting on track last October, making the semis at the Denmark Open. In Australia last year, it would strike mid-match against Plee Hyun Il. “Two weeks leading to the World Championship was the last time I had migraine. I haven’t had it since then,” he says.

Coming from Denmark has its own share of pressures in badminton as he’s seen as the next hope. “I followed all great players, but I’m a fan of Peter Gade and Lee Chong Wei. When I won the Scottish Open, I said it myself when asked if I will be the next big name in men’s singles: I grabbed the mic and said I am the next one,” he said.

He’s negotiated the feelings of pressure. “It doesn’t bother me at all. The biggest pressure comes from myself. I know it’s just a sport, though it is my life. I think I am good at not making it more than it is on court. I’m good at enjoying the moment actually. I am standing on the court and there are a lot of people watching me, this is so much fun. This is what I practise for. I am really good at letting those thoughts take over more than negative things,” says the maverick who’s learnt how to win.

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It’s a maturity that’s come after shrugging off ignorant remarks. “I hear people saying, ‘you just have to practise two hours and the whole day just lay on the couch and do nothing’. But it’s not just two hours. Your brain never stops. You think about the next stop and where to go from there. It’s really tough for the body of course, but mentally tough as well,” he says.