“Winning the Thailand Open was truly a special moment for me,” said an ecstatic Kidambi Srikanth, who returned from Bangkok on Tuesday.
The 20-year-old shuttler from Guntur made his coach Pullela Gopichand proud by becoming the first Indian man in the last 12 years to win a major title outside India. The last one to achieve this feat was none other than Gopichand himself, when he won the All England Championship in 2001. Parupalli Kashyap also won a title last year but he did so in a home tournament at the India Open Gold Grand Prix in Lucknow last year.
Srikanth, whose career graph is on the rise, said he was confident of winning a big title after having reached the knock-out stages in quite a few big events this year. But he admitted that he never expected to go all the way.
He is aware that he has to satisfy greater expectations and therefore has to be consistent. “I only hope that I will sustain the desired consistency at the highest level,” he added. Srikanth will train here for a couple of days before taking part in the Singapore Open starting next week.
The youngster started training at the Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad in 2009 after shifting base from Vishakhapatnam. Under the aegis of Gopichand and practising with top quality players like Saina Nehwal, Kashyap and others, he improved his game and evolved as a better player. “Gopi sir has been of great help and his inputs have been crucial to my game,” he remarked.
Recalling his matches at the Thailand Open, Srikanth said that he took it match by match and didn’t think too much about the outcome.
The victory in the final was all the more special as it was against top seed and local favourite, Thailand’s Boonsak Ponsana, and in straight games (21-16, 21-12). “Boonsak is a vastly experienced player. Honestly, I did not think too much before the game. In fact, in every match, my first objective was always to play to the best of my ability and not bother about anything else,” he said, after winning the biggest match of his career, against the World No 8. And to add to it, he did not drop a single game in the tournament.
Srikanth hopes to continue working on his game. “Gopi sir taught me that learning is an endless process. I have to focus on my defence more since I am comfortable in attack,” he signed off.
