Injury forces Kidambi Srikanth to pull out of China Open

Injury forces Kidambi Srikanth to pull out of China Open

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Kidambi Srikanth has sustained a leg injury during the Senior National Badminton Championships, which forced him to pull out of the China Open Super Series Premier, begins on November 14 in Fuzhou. Now, the Indian ace needs to wait a bit longer to reach the number one spot in the BWF World Rankings.

After the French Open victory, Srikanth became the first Indian badminton player to grab four Superseries titles in a single calendar year. This win also helped him reach a career-best second place in the BWF World Rankings and he was just one Superseries behind to become the top badminton player in the world. Srikanth, who is trailing world number one Viktor Axelsen by 4527 points, was considered as one of the favorites to win the upcoming prestigious China Open title and to surpass Axelsen in the rankings. But as luck would have it, the World No.2 sustained an injury during the recently concluded Senior National Badminton Championships in Nagpur where he finished as the runners-up after losing to academy-mate HS Prannoy in the men’s final. 

“I am pulling out of China Open (November 14-19). It is a muscle strain and doctor advised me to take rest for one week," Srikanth confirmed the news to PTI.

"Poor planning by Badminton Association of India will affect the performance of our players. How can you squeeze in the Nationals between major international tournaments. Now our best player got injured because he has been playing continuously. He lost a great chance of becoming No.1," an official said as quoted by TOI.

The official also added that he doesn't expect the others to do well because they don't have enough time to practice.

"The players need to practice for at least four to six weeks to get into proper shape before a major tournament. By forcing them to play the Nationals we have denied them the opportunity to train properly. The idea of having top stars for nationals is good but you should have scheduled it in the off-season i.e in January or February," he added.

The BAI had made it compulsory for all the top-ranked Indian shuttlers to take part in the prestigious domestic tournament, which was held in Nagpur between November 2 and 8.

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