Confident about how I'm playing against top players, says Kidambi Srikanth
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Kidambi Srikanth has expressed that he is confident on how he is playing against all the top players and is now aiming to do well in the upcoming tournaments in 2019 ahead of the Tokyo Olympics next year. Srikanth also talked about the domination of the left-handers in world badminton.
After reaching the number one spot in the world in April last year, Kidambi Srikanth faltered in most of the tournaments after that. The Andhra Pradesh shuttler is now off the court for the last couple of months, but will soon return with an aim of making it into the upcoming Olympics to be held in Japan’s Tokyo next year. Srikanth will be playing the Indonesia Open in Jakarta next and he will try to do well in the 15 tournaments those are scheduled before the sporting extravaganza.
“It has been a great season, I think. Haven't been playing for the last two months, but it's been a great 2019. There are many more tournaments coming up. So, I'm really looking forward to doing well in those. I think I've been doing well. I'm really confident about how I'm playing against all the top players. So, it's about time, I started pulling off things," Srikanth was quoted as saying by Sportstar.
“If it's about Olympics, I think there's one more year left. It's about playing the tournaments before Olympics and then qualifying for the Olympics first. There are about 15 tournaments until April next year. I would like to do well. Probably win some tournaments and I'm working towards it.”
Srikanth has always got a tough challenge from the left-handers playing the sport. In 13 matches against Japan’s Kento Momota, who is the current BWF world no.1, the Indian has won only three. He agreed to the fact that left-handed shuttlers have dominated the game on the international circuit.
“For us, in India we don't really have too many left-handers to practice with. So, that advantage he'll definitely have. And that is what it is. That is how it is for many countries,” he said.
"The left-handers have really dominated the sport. In the past, Lin Dan, and now Momota... I think left-handers really have an advantage, but it's really important to put your head down and train," the 26-year-old opined.
