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#2 Kidambi Srikanth
The gutsy shuttler has had a rather mixed year, where he won a few Superseries, but sank without a trace in tournaments like the BWF World Superseries or the World Championships.
Who would believe that a shuttler, who has gone on to defeat the likes of Chinese sensation Lin Dan, ex-World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei, and current world champion Viktor Axelsen? However, Srikanth could not even cross the quarterfinals in the World Championships, or even cross the first stage of the BWF World Supersereies Finals, held in Dubai this very month. To his credit though, Srikanth was making a comeback from an injury lay-off at the tournament, and was not fully back up to speed.
However, a promising, though tightly packed 2018 lies ahead in store for him. Since it's been almost 3 and a half decades when India last climbed a podium in the male category of the World Championships, a lot is expected from this shuttler, currently ranked No. 4 in the world.
