It is quite a curious case for Kidambi Srikanth. The man who was destined to rule men’s badminton given how he emerged as a world beater in 2017 and 2018, the former world No.1 never realised his potential after multiple ups and downs in the years that followed.
Year 2017 saw the 30-year-old reach five Superseries finals, winning four. Next year, Srikanth became only the second Indian male to be crowned world No.1 after the great Prakash Padukone.
Thereafter, he delivered some impressive performances but could never reach the zenith again. Last couple of years have been worse with Srikanth suffering early exits in most tournaments in 2023, not even reaching a semi-final even once. In fact, the last time he reached the last four stage was way back in November 2022 at the Hylo Open.
The poor run of form has continued in the first two tournaments of 2024 too with a second round exit at last week’s Malaysia Open. On Wednesday, the Pullela Gopichand protege suffered yet another first-round exit, this time at the $850,000 India Open here, a tournament he had won in 2015.
Despite being in a position of advantage while leading 14-7, Srikanth went down 22-24, 13-21 in 47 minutes to Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu on Wednesday.
“I had my chances. It’s just about getting those two points. That’s it. I don’t think any strategy really works after just two points. I know I have been making unforced errors for some time and I am working on it. I don’t play safe, that’s my game. I try to earn points. Hopefully, things will be better in the next few tournaments,” said Srikanth, who lost his third match in four outings against Lee.
“I feel I’m doing OK. I don’t think I’m doing badly because last week, elsewhere I have played good matches. I had my chances in every match. It’s just about that click. I’ve lost quite a few matches so probably it’s just not happening. But once it happens, I think I’m doing OK to win tournaments. I know I can do it. It’s just about one match. If I can pull that one match, I definitely have the chance.”
The former world No.1 has now dropped to No.25 in the rankings and is already behind HS Prannoy (No.9) and Lakshya Sen (No.19) in the rankings with Priyanshu Rajawat (No.30) looming behind. But Srikanth is not worried about qualifying for Paris 2024.
“If I win a few tournaments, I will qualify for the Olympics. I am not thinking about it as I just don’t want to qualify only, I want to be a medal contender too. For me, it’s more about consistency. I just don’t want to play for the sake of playing,” added Srikanth.
“Frankly, I’ve been at the Olympics in 2016 while I missed out by a very small margin last time. So I’ve seen that, I’ve seen this. So it doesn’t really matter to me anymore. If I win tournaments, I’ll be there. If I don’t, I’ll not be there. It doesn’t bother me much. For me, it is about just winning.”
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