Meet Kidambi Srikanth, this wounded tiger is on a hunt these days
Meet Kidambi Srikanth, this wounded tiger is on a hunt these days
Badminton has found a glorious space in India with the emergence of this generation's star players. Coming to the ground of reality, we asked people about some of the players of this sport and the answers included the names of Prakash Padukone (Deepika Padukone's father), Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth. These are the players who took the game to greater heights with their talent and dedication.
Kidambi Srikanth is a badminton player who has achieved many milestones in his career that too in a very short span of time. Currently, the star of India is on the highest ranking of his career as he holds the second position in the Men's Single. He is just one position behind Denmark's player Viktor Axelsen.
Rio Olympics 2016
When a star like Kidambi Srikanth enters any international event, the expectations, obviously, run deep in the hearts of people. His performance in Rio Olympics 2016 was not up to mark, but there is no doubt that he is one of greatest Indian badminton players. His hunger for the medals has grown to a great extent since then.
In 2016 Rio Olympics, the Arjun Award winner entered the round of 16 Men's Singles by defeating Lino Muñoz and Henri Hurskainen. He even defeated World No. 5 player Jan Ø. Jørgensen to enter the quarterfinals, but the quarterfinals day was not good enough for the player. Kidambi got defeated by Lin Dan (6–21, 21–11, 18–21) in the quarterfinals.
Best performance in 2017
There is a saying that there is nothing more dangerous in the world than a wounded tiger. After the defeat in Rio Olympics Kidambi emerged as a player who only knows how to win. Since the year 2017 has started, this player has shown his capabilities as a Badminton player.
The year 2017 began with a bang for the star player, he entered three back-to-back finals at international events (2017 Singapore Super Series title, Indonesia Open, Australian Open) and became the first ever Indian to do so.
In the year 2017, After playing the final on Singapore Open, Kidambi defeated Japan's Kazumasa Sakai by 21–11, 21–19 and won the title of Indonesia Open Super Series.
The wounded tiger in the same year also won the Australian Open.
At the World Championship, Srikanth Kidambi entered quarter-final and got defeated by South Korea's Son Wan-Ho in straight sets.
Then in Denmark Super Series, he won the title by defeating Lee Hyun-il of Korea 21–10, 21–5 in the final. After this, Srikanth continued his winning run and he won the French Open Super Series by defeating Japan's Kenta Nishimoto 21–14, 21–13 in the final. These titles helped the player to reach the highest ranking in his career at the World Badminton rankings in Men's Single at 2nd Position.
Background
Kidambi Srikanth was born to a landlord father KVS Krishna and housewife Radha in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. His elder brother K. Nandagopal is also a badminton player. He got the best training of Badminton from the best coach of India in badminton Pullela Gopichand, who also has trained players like Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu.