HYDERABAD: When players pass the eye test, you know they are in a good space, irrespective of past results and performances. Using the eye test as a metric, Kidambi Srikanth passed it with flying colours at the Worlds in Huelva. His game revolves around bossing the exchanges at the net, bringing the opponent forward with cute drop shots apart from his main weapon: the jump smash.
He used all of them to reach the final last week, becoming the first Indian man to do so in the process. Yet, during a press conference after landing in India, he revealed that there were still many ‘negatives’ during the week. “I will talk to Pullela Gopichand and figure out what went wrong (in the final),” he said. “Even though I went to the final (he lost to Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew), there will be a lot of negatives that I have to work on to become a much better player.”
That process, the 28-year-old, knows will have to begin soon if he is to use this result as a platform to set himself up for a big 2022 (apart from the regular World Tour 1000s and Worlds, the year has the Commonwealth and the Asian Games). While he didn’t name-check any of these tournaments, he was already thinking of the ‘big events’. “I could see improvements in my game match by match and hope to peak at the correct time as big events are lined up next year,” he said.
There was a time when Srikanth, who is No 3 in the ‘Race to Guangzhou’, couldn’t string wins on a consistent basis. To be fair, this was when he had a fitness concerns, he’s now past that stage. “The injury phase is over and right now I am happy as my fitness levels are good,” he said. As far as the tournament was concerned, he didn’t set any goals, he was happy to take every match as it came before thinking about the next round. “I know that if I can really play well, I can beat anyone. In this tournament, it was more about thinking of a particular match and giving my best to go for another round. I always focus on the particular round to win at any cost and don’t think about the remaining matches.”
In 2022, he may have to cherry pick his tournaments to peak at the right time. More importantly, tournaments originally slotted will have to go on at the right time without being affected due to Covid-19. Srikanth said it would be tough if there is another break. “The gap between the tournaments due to Covid-19 is a disadvantage for me because I have the rhythm when consistently playing the games. If there is a break suddenly for 6 or 8 months between the tournaments, it will be tough even if you train hard. I am hopeful that tournaments will continue to take place without any gap,” Srikanth pointed out.
For the time being, he will be taking a well-deserved rest before starting his season in New Delhi in January.