The 2016 Rio Olympics will see seven Indian shuttlers take to the courts of the Riocentro Pavillions in Brazil in their quest to win an Olympic medal. 4 among them will be representing India at their debut Olympic Games and will look to make an impression in front of the world.
We analyse the chances of two of those debutants- Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu.
SRIKANTH KIDAMBI
Currently the highest ranked Men’s Singles player for India, Srikanth will be placing his stake at the Rio Olympics after an indifferent run in the months preceding it.
Born in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, the 23-year old came into the limelight after winning the silver in mixed doubles in the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games at Isle of Man. He also won a bronze in the doubles category at that event.
His initial years were shaped under the tutelage of Pullela Gopichand, who is also the head coach of the Indian team. He trains at the Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad.
In 2014, he became the first Indian male to win the Super Series Premier, beating Lin Dan.
Claim to Fame
Beating five times World Champion and two times Olympic Champion Lin Dan in straight games, subsequently winning the 2014 China Super Series Premier.
He reached a career-best ranking of 3 in July 2014, the year he beat Dan.
Starting in 2013, he beat the home favourite, Boonsak Ponsana, in straight sets to win the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold. The same year, he beat Olympian and reigning champion Parupalli Kashyap, who will incidentally miss Rio due to injury.
Recent Form
This will be Srikanth’s maiden Olympics, having started playing senior-level Badminton in 2013. The year 2016 started with him reaching the semi-finals of the Malaysia Masters, where he was defeated by Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainnudin.
He followed it up with a gold in the Syed Modi International Championships and clinching two golds in the 2016 South Asian Games.
Coping with a strenuous schedule, he decided to give the Thomas Cup a miss in a bid to start afresh before his Rio journey.
Srikanth suffered a disappointing loss to Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in the semi-finals of the Australian Open last month.
Kidambi’s recent form isn’t as inspiring, with first-round exits in five major tournaments in the last three months. However, fans will hope that Kidambi peaks at the right time.
Head to Head analysis
When Kidambi’s form against the top seeded players is analysed, it doesn’t make for a good read.
Against the highest ranked Lee Chong Wei and Chen Long, Kidambi has a 0-4 and 0-3 win-loss ratio respectively. He comprehensively lost the first two fixtures that he played against Lin Dan early in his career, yet he came back to beat the two-time Olympic champion in the finals of the 2014 Super Series Premier.
Against Viktor Axelsen, however, he has 2-1 win-loss ratio, beating him in the finals to clinch the Swiss Open in 2015, becoming the first Indian male to win a gold at the event.
Summary
Although he can upset the best of players on his day, Srikanth’s draws will have a big say in deciding how he fares at Rio.
PV SINDHU
The 21-year old Sindhu is currently ranked tenth in the world, the second Indian shuttler in the top-10 after the fifth-ranked Saina Nehwal. This is the first time that India has two women in the singles category at the Olympics.
Born in Hyderabad, she also trains at the Gopichand Badminton Academy. She was conferred the Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award, in March last year.
Sindhu’s advantage lies in her height, and she has been adjusting her footwork to maximise the advantage, more so after suffering a navicular bone injury in her right foot last year.
Claim to fame
Being a 16-year-old when Saina Nehwal won the bronze at the London Olympics in 2012, Sindhu breached the top-20 rankings in September the same year.
In 2013, Sindhu became the first Indian women’s singles player to win a medal at the World Championships. She reached the semifinals of the Glasgow Commonwealth games in 2014, thus becoming the first Indian to win back-to-back medals at the Championships.
Last year, she reached the finals of the Denmark Super Series event, beating three seeded players in the process. She also won three consecutive Macau Open Grand Prix Gold titles.
Recent form
Sindhu was ousted in the first round of the Australian Open last year, losing 15-21, 19-21 to Kim Hyo Min.
Before that, she reached the semifinals of the Uber Cup, subsequently losing to Wang Shixian. In the doubles, she combined with N. Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponappa, winning the bronze.
She also reached the quarters of the German Open, the Swiss Open, the Indian Open and the China Masters.
Head-to-head against top opponents
Sindhu’s performance against the top-ranked Carolina Marin stands at 3-4 in win-loss ratio. Their most recent encounter was at the Hong Kong Open, where Sindhu lost 17-21, 9-21 to the Spaniard.
Against Wang Yihan, currently ranked second, Sindhu stands at 2-4 in win versus loss, losing thrice in a row across 2014 and 2015, before pegging one back with a victory at the Denmark Open last year.
Third-ranked Li Xuerui also boasts of a 2-4 advantage over Sindhu, winning their last encounter at the Denmark Open in 2015.
Apart from this, Sindhu and Saina have met once, in the finals of the Indian Grand Prix Open in 2014, where Saina claimed the bragging rights.
Summary
Sindhu’s major concern is her inconsistency, with first-round exits interspersed with bright spots of excellence. She also has a tendency of losing to lesser-ranked players after defeating the higher ranked ones.
