He has an outside chance of making it to the Olympics — if he can displace Anup Sridhar as India’s No 1 — but Bhat admits it will be difficult. “The qualification race started last May when I was still recovering from the ankle injury — when I was thinking I’d never return to the game. I’d almost given up, but then things suddenly fell into place. It’ll be a dream come true if I can make it to Beijing, but I won’t put myself under undue pressure,” he says.

The player who trains under Prakash Padukone believes he plays his best when not gunning for the end-result — especially against the top names. “I want to get a few wins, and I think this venue should change my luck,” he says. He won’t tell, but Bhat might just have figured out the trigger-words to rev him up against the much higher-ranked opponents.