Interview with India's top-ranked male shuttler K Srikanth: "Keen to break into top-10 by end of 2014"

K Srikanth

K Srikanth has been one of the most improved Indian men shuttlers in 2014. The Guntur-born shuttler surpassed Parupalli Kashyap as the country’s top ranked men’s singles player this year after having starting the year with a ranking of 47. Srikanth, who trains at the Hyderabad-based Gopichand Badminton Academy, has now set his sights on breaking into the top-10 by the year-end. The shuttler spoke to Sportskeeda in an exclusive interview.

Excerpts:

How does it feel to be the country’s top-ranked men’s singles player?There's nothing like country's top-ranked player; there will always be ups and downs in ranking, but what actually matters is how you are performing at the international level.

You started the year with a ranking of 47 and soon broke into the top-20 and now you are now perched at 16. What were your plans at the start of the year?When I started the year being at 47, I wanted to be in the top-20 by the end of the year but since I have already attained a ranking of 16, I now want to break into the top-10. I came close to achieving that in April when I was ranked 13 but couldn't, so now I want to break into the top-10.

Parupalli Kashyap has been the country’s top-ranked men’s singles player for a long time. You must be pleased to have surpassed him.He's been playing in the international circuit for a very long time and he was consistently maintaining his rank in top-25 for many years. Being a junior to him, I saw many of his matches on television and now being the top-ranked player after surpassing him I feel really good for that, but as I told you my earlier performance matters every time than rankings, so I want to continue performing well on the international circuit.

How would you assess your performance graph this year?This year I've played few very good matches, but then I lost a few matches where I should have won, that's little depressing but then overall I’m happy with the way I played.

You have played against the likes of Lee Chong Wei, Chen Long, Tommy Sugiarto among others this year. What have you learned by playing against these top-notch shuttlers?There's always a lot to learn from the top players and playing against them helps me understand my game. It tells me the areas where I’m strong and the areas where I’m weak.

Tactically, which are the areas you need to work on if you are to regularly beat the top guys?For me, I've lost quite a few close games even with few top players so I want to improve accuracy in my strokes and consistency.

As many as five Indian shuttlers are ranked among the top-50 – do you feel that Indian shuttlers can really dominate World badminton in the years to come?Yup, there is definitely a chance with the way Indian shuttlers are performing at the international level.

Which win will you rate as your best in 2014?The quarter final match at the Singapore Open after which I played my first Super Series semifinal.

Do you believe that enough talent is coming through in Indian badminton?Yes definitely. The Badminton Association of India (BAI) is also doing really well conducting enough national ranking tournaments , national camps and the IBl last year was really a very good initiative and after which the sport really grabbed the public attention like never before.

What goals have you lined up for the future?I’m currently playing in two Super Series tournaments this month and I’m keen to perform well in both these events.