Top 5 men’s badminton players in 2017

#2 Srikanth Kidambi

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.