Man of the moment

For the better part of the last decade, Indian badminton fans turned to the women’s singles draw for exciting results. Saina Nehwal and, later, PV Sindhu gave supporters ample reasons to sustain their interest till the business end of a competition.

Happily, in the last couple of years, some male players — Commonwealth Games champion P Kashyap, K Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth, HS Prannoy and Ajay Jayaram — have produced results that have kept Indian interest in the men’s singles draw as well.

Between Prakash Padukone’s triumph in the 1980 All England championship and P Gopi Chand’s unexpected victory in the coveted event in 2001, the badminton arena did not offer much to excite Indians.

The turnaround happened in the decade from 2006 to 2016, with Nehwal holding all the attention. Sindhu, despite having two world championship bronze medals in her kitty, was still looking for that big stage to prove that she was finally out of Nehwal’s shadow. This happened at the Rio Olympics, after Nehwal carried an injury to the Games and exited in the second round, and when Sindhu returned home with a silver.

All this while, any discussion on the quality of Indian male badminton players drifted towards Srikanth’s victory over Lin Dan in the final of the 2014 China Masters. However, not many remember that a few months before that historic triumph over one of the sport’s truly legendary players, Srikanth was found unconscious in his bathroom. He was declared free of a suspected viral infection he contracted while playing in the Japan Open and Indonesia Open, only after two days in the intensive care unit.

Srikanth later won the 2015 Indian Open (by beating current world champion and top-ranked Viktor Axelsen) and subsequently reached his career-high world ranking of three in August that year.

But, thereafter, things did not quite go his way. Lack of consistency, and an ankle injury following the Rio Olympics meant he went without a Superseries title in 2016.

To his credit, Srikanth has bounced back with a vengeance in the last six months. He appears determined to make up for the lost time. Take a look at how fabulously this year has panned out for the man from Guntur: So far, he has won three Superseries titles, and in doing so he has swept the top-three prize-money events of the year — $1,000,000 Indonesia Open, $750,000 Australia Open and $750,000 Denmark Open. Here, it is pertinent to note that the All England Open, considered the ‘unofficial’ world championship in the absence of an official one till the late 1970s, this year offered a prize-money of $600,000 to be jointly ranked fifth — with Malaysia Open and Korea Open — among the 12 Superseries events.

Srikanth also reached two other finals this year — the Syed Modi Grand Prix and the Singapore Open Superseries — and lost both to compatriot Praneeth.

Not many are aware that at venues where Indonesia Open, Singapore Open and Denmark Open are played, the ‘drift’ in the playing hall truly tests a player’s ability to judge the flight of the shuttle. Unlike Axelsen, who hates it when the ‘drift’ comes into play, Srikanth has shown tremendous adaptability in such testing conditions. No wonder, his results in these events are better than that of any other player this season.

Srikanth’s latest title — the Denmark Open last Sunday — took his ranking, leading to the year-ending eight-player $1,000,000 Dubai World Superseries Finals, to the first place, replacing the former World No. 1 Son Won Ho. In fact, the defeat of the Korean in the first round of the ongoing French Open, where Srikanth advanced to the second round, led to the Indian holding the top position for the first time in his career. In terms of the world ranking, Srikanth climbed four rungs to be in the fourth spot.

Interestingly, Srikanth shares a 3-3 head-to-head record against Axelsen and trails 4-5 against the recently displaced World No. 1 Son Won Ho, now ranked second.

The work put into sharpening his defensive skills has made Srikanth more effective this year. He has shown willingness to send back more shuttles from the forecourt and displayed the patience to seize the opportunity and turn aggressive. Though Srikanth’s preference to attack is well known, what has put the doubt in the minds of his rivals is the way he retrieves shuttles with amazing consistency.

At 24, Srikanth’s reflexes and lateral movement on the court are naturally good. His recovery from long matches is also sound. What is more, he is hungry. He needs no reminding that form is temporary. At present, he is quietly confident of turning 2017 as his best season in a career that promises a lot more.

COMMENT NOW