New Delhi/Guntur: Young Kidambi Srikanth continued his meteoric rise in world badminton as he ended the year by becoming only the third Indian male shuttler to break into the top-five, reaching a career-high fourth after hovering in the 40s in the beginning of the year. The 21-year-old Indian, who clinched the China Superseries Premier before reaching the semifinals of back-to-back tournaments in Hong Kong and the World Superseries Finals in Dubai, jumped two places to join the elite club which comprises Prakash Padukone and national chief coach Pullela Gopichand, who were World No.1 and No.4 respectively in the past.
“When I started the year, I was in the 40s. Probably somewhere around 45. So I didn’t expect that I will reach World No.4. But I am really happy with my performance this season, it has been a great year,” Srikanth said.“I’ll look to continue this form next season.
It will be a qualification year for 2016 Rio Olympics and I will have to work hard to make the cut,” he said.Srikanth is currently in his hometown of Guntur, where he is spending time with this family. Srikanth, along with his brother Nanda Gopal, has been a pupil of Gopichand since 2009, and said playing there has helped him immensely.
He is eyeing more success at the Malaysia Open Superseries, which will kickstart the 2015 calendar.Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap is the only other Indian who came close to breaking into the top five when he reached a career-high ranking of sixth in April last year.
“Kashyap had reached as high as number six. I was four, that was my best and now Srikanth is also four and it is a good achievement. Prakash sir was world No.1 but I don’t know if there was an official ranking (back then),” Gopichand said.
“I didn’t think he would reach the top five by the end of the year. For all my wards, I take one step at a time, so Srikanth actually pleasantly surprised all of us. It is fantastic.”
Saina Nehwal, who also reached the semifinals in Dubai, retained her No.4 ranking.
