Originated in India, initiated in England and now being ruled by China nearly sums ups the story of badminton. However, there are some moments, though few and far between, which seem to signal a slight change in the tale — India earning a chance to have a say.
After the likes of Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand won the All England Badminton Championships in 1980 and 2001 respectively, it took the country 13 years to see another male shuttler lift a trophy in foreign land. All of 20 years, Kidambi Srikanth stunned the top seed Boonsak Ponsana in front of his home crowd to lift Thailand Open to join the elite list last Sunday. Though P Kashyap had won an international tournament, the Syed Modi International India Grand Prix Gold last year, but the triumph came in front of a favourable crowd, in lucknow, to keep him off the list.
“It was very tough,” Srikanth says of the seemingly huge task of beating the home favourite and top seed to make history. “But I just didn’t want to take that kind of pressure. I just played my natural game and didn’t think too much about his seeding and support.”
His mental attitude, which has been drawing praise from national coach Pullela Gopichand for some time now, indeed kept him calm and in control. “That attitude comes to me naturally. I don’t like taking any kind of pressure,” says Srikanth, who took all of 33 minutes to pack off then world No 7 and much experienced at 31 years of age, Ponsana, to win the final in Bangkok 21-16, 21-12. The win saw him jump up from 61 in the world rankings to 44.
“I am basically an attacking player. I started off with my kind of game. That had been helping me throughout the tournament and I didn’t want to change it,” Srikanth admits when asked whether he had gone with a set strategy to overpower the Thai opponent. “From the start I had a lead of 2-3 points in the first game. So I never thought the match was away from me. Then I got a huge lead in the second game and that helped me,” adds the boy from Guntur.
“Also, this was my first year in international circuit. So no one knows my game that well, how would I play my strokes and my style. That is something that has been helping me.”
That was something that worked in favour of HS Prannoy too when he stunned Taufik Hidayat at Indian Open Super Series in the Capital this April.
But Srikanth is well aware of the fact that the advantage would not help the young, unknown bunch for long. “After having spent 2-3 years in the circuit, you meet a guy at least 4-5 times and you know his game. You can’t change much about your game so all you need then is to be more consistent and keep working hard,” he says, agreeing to the fact that though the Indians have been springing up a few surprises off and on, but have not won enough titles.
“That is the thing. You just have to be consistent throughout the tournament. Winning one match alone doesn’t mean anything,” adds Srikanth, whose consistent display in Thailand saw him not dropping even a single game.
But what added more to his joy was his brother Nandagopal’s victory in Maldives. The elder Kidambi paired up with Kiran Maneesha to beat Korean combine of Kim Dae Sung and Oh Bo Kyung 21-16, 23-21 to win the mixed double title at Maldives International.
“I won in the morning, around 12’o clock. He won at 7 in the evening. It was really nice. We both won the same day and that too an international tournament each. Not everyone gets that chance,” says Srikanth, who owes his life as a shuttler to his two years elder brother, an enthusiastic father and an ever-supportive family, which never had any problem with the boys finding a career in sports rather than joining their father in agriculture.
“My father likes badminton. I would go with my brother to the stadium and see him play. And after 5-6 months even I started playing. I would just play for fun after school,” Srikanth says of the beginning of his journey on badminton courts.
“I was nine-and-half or 10 when I started playing but was not really that much into badminton,” the sleepy-voiced boy admits quite frankly. “It was only in 2009, I was 17 then, when I shifted to the academy (Gopichand’s academy in Hyderabad) that I actually decided to take up badminton for good.
“You can survive in sub-junior, junior levels being in a place like Guntur, with very less facilities. But when you graduate to higher level, you need to be at a place that has good facilities.”
And, the shift to Hyderabad has indeed proved fruitful. From giving the then world No 1 lin Dan of China a fight in the 2012 Thailand Open first round before going down 11-21, 13-21, taking matches off some high-seeded players to becoming only the third male shuttler to win abroad, Srikanth has come a long way in very short span.
“For last one year, it has been very good (the journey), nothing to complain about,” he says. He, however, is thankfully far from being content. “I am in 40s in the rankings and I want to be right there in top 20. I want to win more tournaments to achieve that,” says Srikanth, who would be in action in Singapore this week and is eager to “do well there too”.
Equally eager would be many enthusiasts back home to get similarly inspiring news from his side of the court.