Hyderabad shuttler Kidambi Srikanth ousted top seed Boonsak Ponsana to claim maiden Grand Prix Gold title in Thailand. He believes in talking less and prefers to his badminton racquet to talk more.
The 20-year-old from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh trains at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad, as well as expert in thrashing higher-ranked shuttlers not only from India but also from abroad.
Srikanth not only holds the record of hammering World No. 6 Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark in the first round of India Open in New Delhi in April but also banged Thailand’s World No. 7 and top-seeded Boonsak Ponsana to clinch his maiden Grand Prix Gold title in Bangkok on Sunday.
He proved that the future of Indian badminton, especially in singles is bright. On the women’s side, PV Sindhu won her first GPG title in Malaysia a month ago.
World No. 61 Srikanth took only 33 minutes to win the title with a 21-16 21-12 victory over Ponsana in the men’s singles final of the Thailand Open GPG on Sunday. The shuttler expressed that he felt very good. He explained that the whole tournament went pretty well for him. He did not plan anything for the tournament, just took it one match at a time. To be precise, the reserved shuttler hardly displayed his emotions after winning the $9,000 winner’s cheque. It is only coach Madhumita Bisht and physio Jonathan flanked him to rejoice in his victory.
The Indian shuttler, who switched from doubles to singles not long ago, asserted that beating local star-31-year-old Ponsana, gave him the most contentment. The win has given him a lot of confidence and he hopes to continue this form. He just wanted to attack and put his rival under pressure in the final. He attacked a lot during the match, won 14 smash winners and did not give the fancied contender any freedom.
Srikanth’s subsequent tournament is the Singapore Open Super Series from 18th to 23rd June. In fact, he was originally scheduled to play in this week’s Indonesia Open but with the qualifying rounds commencing on Monday and with no flights available for Jakarta after his Thailand triumph, he is returning home.
Coach Pullela Gopichand in Hyderabad appreciated Srikanth by saying that the victory will do his confidence a world of good. To win a Grand Prix Gold is very admirable. He has been pretty consistent over the last few months which is good for Indian badminton. Apart from him, some results in men’s singles have been too good in this tournament. Simultaneously, Srikanth’s win will also boost others with confidence.
Actually, Srikanth has been making a stable progress. He won the Maldives International Challenge as well as entered the Macau GPG semifinals last year.
Gopichand declared that Srikanth has been displaying good results by beating higher ranked Indian players like Ajay Jayaram, Anup Sridhar, RMV Gurusaidutt. He has been making a rapid progress and that is proved to be good for Indian badminton.
At last but not the least, following Srikanth’s triumph in the Thailand Grand Prix Gold in Bangkok, his brother Nandagopal who is 14 months older, won the mixed doubles title at the Maldives International Challenge in Male. Nandagopal and K Maneesha thrashed the Korean pair of Dae Sung Kim and Bo Kyung Oh by 21-15 19-21 21-15 in the final.
