Peter Gade, the former world No. 1 who recently considered — but rejected — retirement, believes he can continue to turn last year’s ill-luck into momentum that will help him challenge for the All-England Open title again this week.
The 32-year-old has been written off because of age more often than he cares to remember, but he defied both time and the critics by capturing Super Series titles in France and Denmark toward the end of last year and by beginning this year with another, in South Korea.
Those triumphs underline that the durable Dane is still the European most likely to trouble Asian players, who have won the All-England men’s singles title every year since Gade last won it back in 1999. This week Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia is seeded to become champion, with Asians occupying top seeding places in four of the five events.
Gade’s resurgence is partly his reaction to several disastrously timed setbacks, which included respiratory problems and two broken ribs, that damaged his chances of an Olympic medal.
“I had been looking forward for a long time to Beijing, but the first half of last year was destroyed,” he said, skirting over the memory quickly. “So I decided to start all over. And used a lot of energy to get back to form.”
This progress also coincided with his wife Camilla Hoeg giving birth to their second child, which meant he had more time at home — not only for parental duties, as it happened, but also for practice.
“It gave me a good basic form, which I have been building on,” Gade said. “And I couldn’t have done it better.”
So although Lin Dan was the star of last year’s Olympics in Beijing, where the Dane lost to the brilliantly versatile Chinese player in straight games, Gade was left with a feeling of what might have been.
“I still had this feeling that it was possible to win,” Gade said. “If I had had one more month to prepare, I would have had a chance. It gave me confidence to play on.”
So instead of drifting into retirement, Gade carried determinedly on, beating Taufik Hidayat, the Indonesia-raised former Olympic champion from Singapore, in the final in Paris and then the bright new Danish hope Joachim Persson in the final in Odense. Then he beat Lee, the world No. 1, in the final in Seoul two months ago.
If Gade were to win the All-England again, there is no doubt that for him the venerable 110-year-old title would provide some Olympic consolation.
“For me, this tournament is still something special,” he said. “I rate it higher than the others. Maybe it’s the history. It has a special place for me. All the players are there. I really want to win it.”
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