French Open Superseries: Why Kidambi Srikanth doesn't feel that he will be World No 1

Kidambi Srikanth
Kidambi Srikanth

Ace Indian men’s singles shuttler Kidambi Srikanth created history by becoming the first ever badminton player from the country to win four Superseries titles in a calendar year. He achieved this feat after clinching the French Open Superseries final against Kenta Nishimoto in straight games.

Srikanth has been in tremendous form this season, and has bagged the Indonesia Open, Australian Open, Denmark Open and now the French Open.

Not only this, but Srikanth has also had one of of his most fruitful years, in terms of BWF rankings. While he had climbed four places from eighth to the fourth spot after his Denmark Open victory, he is set to climb higher to a career-best ranking of World No. 2 when the BWF men’s singles rankings are updated next week.

With just three tournaments – China Open, Hong Kong Open, and Dubai World Series final – left to go in this calendar year, Srikanth is very close to clinching the number one spot in the BWF rankings from World Champion Viktor Axelsen.

However, when asked about this prospect, Srikanth showed his humble side, saying that he still has some way to go in order to match Axelsen. He even went on to say that he will not reach the numero uno spot.

“Viktor Axelsen’s court coverage is a bit better than mine. Hence, I feet that is something I need to improve on. I don’t think I will be World No. 1 in the coming weeks,” said Srikanth to Sportskeeda, speaking from France.

The 24-year-old also went on to state that due to this terrific run of form, he is enjoying his game at the moment, and that is all he wants to keep doing.

"I am not really thinking of it now. I don't really have any tournaments to defend so I don't want to push myself. I just want to enjoy playing," Srikanth said separately to TOI.

Whenther he ends up as the World No. 1 in the BWF rankings or not, Srikanth will most certainly go into the season-ending Dubai World Superseries Premier as the favourite, due to the fabulous results that he has notched up over the last few months.

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Edited by Soumo Ghosh