Malaysia Masters: Why Srikanth Kidambi’s stellar run to the final can be a beacon of hope for Indian badminton

As he saw a crosscourt half-smash from Tanaka, seven years junior to him but currently 42 places higher on the world rankings, sail wide to his forehand side, Srikanth first fell on his back with arms spread. He got up, let out a couple of huge roars reminiscent of the winning moments from India’s Thomas Cup triumph, and went for a quick embrace with coach Guru Saidutt. It might have been straight games, it might have taken just 49 minutes, but Srikanth had to fight hard and turn around deficits to overcome the speedy Japanese.

It wasn’t just a sweet win for Srikanth. Watching on in Kuala Lumpur was HS Prannoy, Srikanth’s training partner and a former winner at this very event back in 2023 for a long-awaited breakthrough in his career.

“It’s always good to see somebody play a final in these bigger events because it not just gives confidence to that player but I think it gives the entire bench a boost that we can also go and play a major finals, right? That’s very important, especially from an Indian badminton perspective because we had a very rough patch in the last few months, probably for a year,” Prannoy told The Indian Express. “I think for the coaches also who have been working tirelessly, it says to them, ‘Okay what we are doing is working, right?’ A big result for not just Srikanth, but I think for the entire Indian badminton.”

Kidambi Srikanth in action. (BWF / BadmintonPhoto)

Srikanth attributed the run to being back to a high fitness level. “Physically, I’ve been feeling well, but also the fact that I haven’t played too many tournaments this last year, playing qualifying rounds, so maybe kind of lost that touch of playing matches. And yeah, somehow everything worked out this time. I’ve been working hard last month, really hard,” the former World No 1 told the Badminton World Federation (BWF).

This week has seen Srikanth find some of the old magic back, but it has not been all flash and flair, it’s been painstakingly put together from the qualification rounds. He has gone past Junior World Champion Kuo Kuan-lin, one of the most in-form players on tour in Lu Guang Zu, higher-ranked grafters in Nhat Nguyen and Toma Junior Popov, and a tricky unknown of sorts in Tanaka.

Speaking to The Indian Express after the first-round matches – where Prannoy and Srikanth beat world No. 12 and 13 respectively – Guru Saidutt had said that the veterans have been putting in the hard yards in training, despite the lack of recent results. He went on to say that they have perhaps been even more disciplined than they have ever been, knowing that they still have the chance to turn their fortunes around.

Prannoy recalled having a chat with Srikanth recently. “To be on the tour, losing first rounds is not easy. There are times when you start to question a lot of things. Your physical fitness, your mental fitness. But the important thing is, from a senior level, we have been able to keep that aside and work on what we needed to improve, no matter what the results were. We always showed up in practice and that’s probably the toughest task to do.”

“We don’t converse much, actually. Srikanth isn’t somebody who talks a lot,” Prannoy added. “But a month and a half or so back, we had a long conversation on what we need to do collectively, just for us to improve, not for the sake of anybody else. Probably after a very long time, we had such a conversation to be honest, when we spoke for almost an hour.”

Against Tanaka, Srikanth didn’t see his name in the lead till 17-16. Every time he caught up with Tanaka, he couldn’t get past but managed to find a flurry of winners at the endgame when it mattered. In Game 2, Srikanth trailed 3-9. But a combination of errors from Tanaka and his own proactive play at the net, where he repeatedly took the initiative to rush and kill points, saw Srikanth edge ahead midway, and despite a tight late tussle, he converted his third match-point opportunity. Two of the shots of the match came late on in Game 2 as he produced gorgeous slice drops from midcourt. One of the standout features of Srikanth’s gameplay was to play high-percentage shots to stay in the rally when under pressure from Tanaka, but pounce immediately when he got the height to work with.

On Sunday, Srikanth will face the toughest test of this week against world No. 4 Li Shi Feng, a graduate from Lakshya Sen’s junior batch of 2018. “I hope I can perform better in the final, Kidambi is a very experienced and skillful player. He is an all-rounder and that’s another challenge for me,” Li told BWF. Srikanth’s legs will be weary from six wins in five days. But Li’s aware it won’t be easy for him either.