Top 5 men’s badminton players in 2017

#2 Srikanth Kidambi

Australia Badminton Open — Srikanth Kidambi

Srikanth Kidambi ran a close second in the race for the best men’s singles shuttler of the year. Viktor Axelsen beat him only because of the sheer weight of the titles that the Dane won in 2017.

But even then, his No. 2 position does not take away anything from the fact that the Guntur-born ace simply stamped his class on the Tour and established himself as the best Indian sportsman across all sports.

What a year he had!

With wins in Indonesia, Australia, Denmark, and France, he became the first Indian to amass four Superseries titles in one season and joined the pantheon of greats such as Lee Chong Wei, Lin Dan and Chen Long as the fourth player to achieve this feat. The irrepressible Srikanth made winning look like a child’s play when he grabbed Superseries titles in back-to-back weeks not just once, but twice! And he downed the best of the best on his way -- Viktor Axelsen, Chen Long, Son Wan Ho all bowed down to the Indian in his career-best season.

His phenomenal performances pushed him up to a career-high World No. 2 ranking in 2017.

About the author

Sudeshna is a veteran Indian Sports and International Tennis journalist as well as editor at Sportskeeda. She has an overall experience of over 10 years with top publications like The Bridge, Fox Sports Asia, and gained a keen interest in Indian sports since the 2002 Commonwealth and Asian Games when she was in school.

Sudeshna holds a Master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She attends tournaments regularly and being a highly experienced journalist, she ensures she only contacts the correct people from her network for the most authentic information to be put in her articles.

Sudeshna’s favorite Indian athlete is PV Sindhu owing to her big-tournament performances. She also admires Tennis legend Rafael Nadal for his resilience and has witnessed the Spaniard in action at the French Open, due to which, Roland Garros is her all-time favorite Grand Slam tournament.

Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics made a lasting impact on Sudeshna. She has also interviewed him along with Badminton star Chirag Shetty and several other sports personalities. She has done on-ground reporting on multiple ITF tournaments along with the Premier Badminton League, Asian Boxing Championships and the Davis Cup.

When not using her skills and years of experience in crafting compelling content, Sudeshna likes to read, watch movies and travel.

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Edited by Sudeshna Banerjee