Hyderabad: Set to regain his place in the world top 10 after winning back-to-back titles, Kidambi Srikanth has now trained his eyes on the prestigious World Championships crown. The World Championships take place at Glasgow in Scotland, August 21-27.
The 24-year-old Indian, who won the Indonesia Super Series Premier and the Australian Super Series titles recently, said his main target is win the World Championships title also.
“It is good to be back in top 10. But, I do not play any tournament to improve my rankings. My goal is always to win the title in any event I play. So that was the case in Australia also,” Srikanth told reporters on his return to Hyderabad.
“Even the World Championships, I will definitely play to win. That is the only thing I am thinking about, not the ranking,” he added.
Srikanth, who bounced back from an ankle injury, expressed happiness over his success in the last few weeks. “The last two weeks has been fantastic. Not only for me, but for HS Prannoy and Sai (Praneeth) also. Prannoy has done really well beating Chong Wei and Chen Long in successive matches which never happened before,” pointed out another player from the Pulella Gopichand Academy. “I congratulate Prannoy on achieving such a feat. But, it was unfortunate for him to lose in the semifinals,” added the shuttler.
Immediately after the Rio Olympics, Srikanth lost the entire second half of the 2016 season because of a stress fracture in his right ankle. Srikanth said Tuesday that he did not want to risk an early return to the court.
“After the injury, I did not want to push myself so much. I only wanted to train first, get better and then start playing in tournaments. With the help of Gopi Sir (chief national coach) and our new coach, it really happened for me,” he said.
Prannoy, who beat a few top players in recent tournaments, expressed happiness that Indian players have done exceptionally well in recent tournaments.
“I am really glad that badminton is growing in popularity and glad that I am a part of that. I just hope that we can produce even better results in the coming days,” stated Prannoy.
“We need to be much more consistent. This is not the end. Let us hope there are three or four in the top 10 in the next couple of years,” he added.
Gopichand, who mentored the young players to reach the top, however, stated there is still a lot of scope for improvement. “There is still a lot to be done before making big statements,” the always-humble Gopi stated.
