Kolkata: He has been the talk of the town in the badminton world after he pocketed back to back titles and has now become a force to be reckoned with. But champions they say, always keep aside present achievements to focus more on the laurels they can get for the country in the future and Kidambi Srikanth is doing just that.
After winning the Indonesian Super Series and the Australian Open Super Series in successive weeks, Srikanth has his sights firmly set on the World Championships in August.
“It is good to be back in top Ten. But, I did not play this tournament to be back in Top Ten. But, I played to win it,” said the 24-year old from Guntur on his return to Hyderabad. Srikanth is all set to enter into the world top 10 following his stellar performances.
He also said, “Even the World Championship, I will definitely play to win. That is the only thing I am thinking about, not the ranking.”
Coming back from an ankle injury, Srikanth has been absolutely phenomenal in the recent times and not only is he happy about his success but he is also delighted at the performances of his fellow Indian shuttlers- HS Prannoy and Sai Praneeth.
“The last two weeks has been fantastic. Not only for me, but for H S Prannoy and Sai (Praneeth) also. Prannoy has done really well beating Chong Wei and Chen Long in successive matches which never happened before,” said Srikanth.
He also added, “I congratulate Prannoy on doing it. But, it was an unfortunate semi-final lose.”
But he believes that in order to remain consistent, he has to keep on working hard.
Said Srikanth, “In the last couple of months, I am playing very well, up to my potential. I really want to continue training hard in the coming months. That is the only way to be consistent. You have to train hard.”
Srikanth also maintained that he doesn’t want to compare his wins in both these tournaments, but felt that his win over Olympic champion Chen Long was indeed one of his biggest ever victories.
“I think every win was important for me. I don’t want to compare any of those wins. I definitely say this is one of my biggest wins. But, I don’t want to compare,” said Srikanth.
A stress fracture right after the Rio Olympics had kept him out of the game for the entire second half of the last season. The injury took three months to heal and he said that he didn’t want to push himself into the game immediately after the stress fracture.
He said, “After the injury, I did not want to push myself so much. I only wanted to train first, get better and then start tournaments. I think with the help of Gopi Sir (Chief National Coach P Gopichand) and our new coach, it really happened for me.”
He credited coach Gopichand for his success and also thanked the Badminton Association of India and the Indian Government for their continued support. “It was only because of Gopichand’s guidance that I could succeed as a badminton player,” he said.
Another star that has beaten some big names in the badminton circuit of late is HS Prannoy, who was glad because of the way the Indians have performed in some close and competitive tournaments.
He said, “I am really glad that badminton is growing in popularity and glad that I am a part of that. I just hope that we can produce even more better results in the coming days..We need to be much more consistent. This is not the end. Let us hope there are three or four in the top ten in the next couple of years.”
Sai Praneeth, who had won the Singapore Open earlier this year was present at the occasion and he hoped to perform well in the World Championships and Olympics.
These talents have been perfectly mentored and guided by Gopichand, who believes that their performance would improve with each passing day and that there was a lot which was needed to be done if Indian badminton needed to go ahead of the others in the world arena.
He also said that the success achieved by shuttlers like Srikanth and the others could be compared to the US Open in tennis. Said Gopichand, “There is still a lot to be done before making big statements.”