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Journalism of Courage
Call it the natural aura of a former World No 1. Or just the way Kidambi Srikanth’s brain is wired at exalted levels, to enjoy badminton, without letting losses lacerate his spirit. But while repeated defeats over the last few years have injected humility into his training, they have not humbled his regal court-bearing.
Last week at Thailand, Srikanth lost in the qualifying round against young compatriot Tharun Mannepalli on Day 1. In Malaysia this week by Day 3, he has already won 4 matches after coming through the qualifying draw, and is now surprisingly India’s sole singles quarterfinalist.
When he wins you can’t pinpoint why he loses so much, and the way he loses, you can’t figure how he ever managed to win. Coach Pullela Gopichand has admitted Srikanth’s losses and unforced errors drive him “crazy”. Through it all, coach Guru Saidutt informs, Srikanth himself is rarely frazzled. “He’s gifted in never slumping in belief, and bounces back from the worst losses, faster than anyone I know. It’s this aura he carries,” Guru concludes.
At the Malaysian Masters, Srikanth twice trailed Irish Nhat Nguyen, the Vietnamese-heritage energizer bunny, ranked No 33, aged 24 including a horror start where the tricky court conditions had him scratching his head, when down (4-11 and) 5-13. The 32-year-old Indian who is ranked a lowly No 65 now, suddenly hit the zone around the 12th point, and waltzed to claim the first set 23-21. He promptly slumped to 1-8 in the second. Then over 7 uninterrupted points he went from 8-11 to 14-11, and sauntered to a win, all on the back of his two confidence shots – overhead straight half smash and the cross hit, moving fluidly like a jungle cat.
He was in his first quarterfinal of a Super 500 since 2023 with the 23-21, 21-19 win in 59 minutes, after having coolly dumped out the compulsively rabbiting Chinese Lu Guang Zu in Round 1. It’s been 10 summers since he was World No 1, and though he had 4 titles in 2017, and a World Championship silver in 2021, Srikanth’s legendary losses have thickened blood vessels and thinned hairlines of numerous Indian badminton fans by many years. “He comes out of losses quickly, he’s very normal and calm,” Guru adds of the non-hysterics.
When he lost to Ayush Shetty post a horrendous line-call at Taiwan two weeks back, he was laughing it off as something no one could control and rationalizing the unfortunate blunder as mere human inexperience to his cheesed off coaches, right after exiting from a tournament he was playing very well in.
“Acceptance of reality of this current situation – his ranking, his body, his training limitations with age, and the past, took time,” Guru explains. “You feel like you are still the best, you keep fighting, but don’t find the correct stroke, you lose. Doubts about whether you will be able to train like before, all these things affect him. His confidence took a big hit. But today because of all those defeats, he knows whether to play a shot or back off (play safe),” he adds. Srikanth once lost from 19-12 up to Kento Momota, a bruising defeat, that haunts many who watched. He is propping up his fitness over the last 2-3 months, to match elite standards.
Coach Parupalli Kashyap had endless patience to back Srikanth, but also a blunt tongue to spell out what was lacking. Srikanth kept going for the lines, and spraying smashes – and Kashyap straight up told him it was because he didn’t trust himself to play two extra shots because of poor endurance.
“He had natural ability to take training loads, but now recovery isn’t as quick as at 25-26. He lost many third sets narrowly because if you aren’t confident of your fitness, you go for the lines. He needed to not get desperate, play those extra shots,” Kashyap says, adding even 5-10 minutes of high-intensity training could tire him.
The last 3 months have seen Srikanth capable of taking the training loads, reporting higher fitness levels. “There’s a new resolve, clarity and conviction in training methods, and he’s entirely designed his own fitness program to bring endurance up. He’s very sincere,” Kashyap says.
At the Hyderabad academy, bespoke drills, and couple of workouts have been designed for Srikanth and HS Prannoy – it’s court sprints, skips and shadows that have injected pace into the games helping them match much younger shuttlers. “It’s clear you have to maintain standards and speed has to go up, and stroke quality at that pace, too,” Kashyap says.
Gunning for the last push in 30s, high quality sparring is lined up for the two. “Feeding and sparring is top-most quality. There’s of course Priyanshu Rajawat, Tharun Mannepalli and other upcoming juniors. But me, Guru and Gopi sir are on the court always, and direct mirrors for his game,” Kashyap says.
Gopichand was measured in his praise. “Two good wins, and it’s all team work with Kashyap and Guru and his trainers largely. But I’m sure just a quarterfinal will not excite him. Hitting the next gear against top names is something he’s capable of. But it’s a lot more hard work,” he said.
Cutting unforced errors and not playing defensive needs another upgrade on speed and stamina. “I hope he’s not terribly happy with quarters,” Kashyap warns.
Toma Jr is up next, and the French Popov brothers managed to evict India’s twin young hopes Ayush Shetty and Sathish Karunakaran from the draw with straight set wins. He has to recalibrate his brain to accepting it’s his fifth match of the week, but still not the finals. The tightrope is to have enough humility to accept reality of having to play qualifiers, and enough stomp and pride to assert his ‘World No 1’ vintage game. His endurance reserves will be up for judgment either ways.
