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India's ace shuttler Srikanth Kidambi, is in the best form of his career currently, he is probably one of the greatest challenges for any player in men's singles discipline and has definitely become a big thing in the world of badminton.
What is the story?
The 24-year old has been performing exceptionally well, making it to four Superseries finals (Singapore open, Indonesia Open, Australia Open, Denmark Open) in a year, which is most number of superseries finals in single year for any Indian player reached, in all 5 disciplines, wining 3 of them (Indonesia Open, Australia Open and Denmark Open) joining Saina Nehwal, former world no.1, who achieved this feat twice earlier in her career, in 2010 and 2012.
The consistency shown by him this year has rewarded him the first place in the race of Destination Dubai rankings where the finale for the most prestigious tier of tournaments, the 12 Superseries takes place. Also, in the latest rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday, October 26, 2017, Srikanth has jumped up 4 places in the rankings, from being world no.8 to world no.4, which is just 1 place below his career best rank of world no.3 achieved during June 2015.
In case you didn't know..
Prior to this year, Srikanth had already shown the signs of being a great player when he won his maiden superseries title, the China Open in 2014 beating then and two-times Olympic champion Lin Dan in straight games, and beating the now world champion Victor Axelsen on home soil in India Open, back in 2015 when he also achieved his career best ranking.
Since then, he was struggling with injuries and was unable to keep up with the expectations be it at the superseries level or the Rio Olympics 2016. But now he is back with a bang and taking the badminton world by storm.
Heart of the matter
With his absolute brilliant skills and consistency so far, Srikanth has already re-written the record books. From being the highest prize money receiver in all 5 disciplines this year to beating the newly-crowned world champion Victor Axelsen, in quater-finals of Denmark Open, the 24-year old has joined some of the greatest players like Lee Chong Wei, Lin Dan, Chen Long and Victor Axelsen in the club for wining 3 or more superseries titles in a year.
Experts have already started comparing him with the greatest players of the game and so has his records.It will be interesting to see him taking Indian badminton to new heights in the coming years with such a promising career ahead.
What is up Next?
After beating Lee hyun ll of Korea in the final in just 25 minutes of play, to take the Denmark Open, the ace shuttler thanked his fans for always supporting him.He is now concentrating on the French Open this week and is looking forward to do his best and has already entered the quarter finals.
Author's take:
Out of 12 superseries to be played in a year, 9 have already been completed out of which Srikanth has won 3. Now, he's just a superseries title away from not just re-writing the history by becoming the first Indian in all 5 disciplines to win 4 superseries titles in single calendar year. There are yet to be 3 superseries and the Dubai finale to be played this year, whether Srikanth would be able to pull this magnificent feat and add another record to his name, this would be something of interest for all the people associated with the game.
