The good guy in the baddy world

And Sridhar’s another all-time favourite book is ‘Where Eagles Dare’ by Alistair McLean. No wonder then that the right-hander was soaring high in spirits when he was named captain for the Sudirman Cup — the official world championship — to be held later this year.

Sridhar and Trupti Murgunde, the women’s singles champion, have emerged through the ranks and it has been a steady rise for both the wards of Prakash Padukone’s Badminton Academy over the last seven years.

The trainee sports officer with Bharat Petroleum is full of patience. It was his calm approach that saw him through a frustrating period when he fractured his hand and was out for the 1998-99 season. But he came back with a vengeance, winning three major ranking titles in 2001 at Bhopal, Calicut and Thane followed by a finalist position at the 2002 Guwahati Nationals.

He also claimed this season the Syed Modi Memorial championship and a Grand Prix title at Gandhidham. ‘‘The two wins gave me lot of confidence for the Nationals. Earlier I used to apply too much pressure on myself,’’ says Sridhar.

Coached by Padukone and Vimal Kumar, he has finally learnt to take every match point by point. And that put him in good stead as he got past one of the most defensive players in the country, Abhinn Shyam Gupta in the final. And the foreign exposure over the last two years have also helped him immensely. With good shows at the Toulose and Scottish Open last year, Sridhar is all set to spearhead the challenge in the upcoming German Open and the All-England championship in the next fortnight.

Next Pullela Gopichand in the making?