Men's Singles: Srikanth bright spot, but unable to remain consistent
At London 2012, India had just one Men’s Singles shuttler participating. Parupalli Kashyap led India’s charge and reached the quarterfinal stage of the competition. It was the best finish for an Indian Men’s shuttler at the competition and provided a new height to aim for the upcoming group.
Among them emerged a player from Guntur by the name of Kidambi Srikanth. After winning the Silver at the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games and the Junior National Championships in both the Singles as well as the Doubles category, Srikanth’s first big break on the international circuit came in the Thailand Grand Prix Gold, when he beat eighth seed Boonsak Ponsana and then got the better of his senior, Kashyap in the Nationals to give a proper impression of his potential.
It was a year later,however, that the Indian produced the biggest win of his career, winning the China Open Superseries defeating Lin Dan in the final to win the biggest crown of his career and jumping into the Top 5 of the World Rankings.
However, like was the case with Sindhu, consistency has eluded the Indian and he has suffered early round exits at several competitions. However, he has managed to stay afloat in the rankings and as a result, will compete in his maiden Olympics at Rio.
Towards the end of 2015, there was a further bright spot for Indian badminton in the Men’s Singles, when Siril Verma entered the finals of the World Junior Championships and then climbed to the top of World Rankings.
The badminton fraternity should certainly be satisfied with the progress made in the Singles and would hope that until the time the next Olympics in Tokyo comes around,
Same story in Doubles
Jwala Gutta, in recent times, hs been quite vocal about the poor state of doubles in India and has often urged the association to pay more attention to the doubles game in the country.
Indeed. Her concerns are one to note for and urgently at that. One look at the doubles scene and it is, worrying to say the least. Like London2012, it is again Jwala and Ashwini who will carry the hopes and although a surprise entry in the Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy will also accompany them it would certainly be too harsh to expect a medal from them.
