The upcoming phase of the badminton season is certainly a critical one for several Indian players who will be looking to play to their potential in order to seal an Olympic berth for Rio. One among them is India’s highest ranked Men’s Singles player and winner of the 2016 Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold, Kidambi Srikanth.
The 23-year-old, who will be next seen in action at the German Open, starting on the 1st of March, has said that his ultimate aim in 2016 is to win an Olympic medal but admitted he had to put in a lot of hard work to be able to do that.
“The Olympic medal, that’s the ultimate goal for me this year. I don’t think much about the expectations. I would like to win. To win, I need to work hard. That’s obvious. So, I am just working hard,” The Guntur-born player said.
Srikanth is presently ranked 9th in the world, and the highest that he has reached during the course of his career has been 3rd. However, he revealed that he was in no hurry to become World No.1 and feels he will scale that height if he performs consistently.
“As early as possible, but I am not in a hurry to do that (achieve number one rank in world rankings). It’s just that I need to perform consistently. Then, I will automatically get that. I don’t want to become number one (immediately). I want to perform really very well. That’s when I can be there (at the top),” he signed off.
In the opening round of the German Open, Srikanth will face off against Takuma Ueda of Japan, an opponent against whom he has 3-1 head-to-head record. This competition will certainly be important for him from the point of the view of the All England Championships, that start exactly a week later in Birmingham.
