Kidambi Srikanth eyes elusive medal at Asian Games 2023

Former world number one shuttler Kidambi Srikanth is currently having a tough year and is out of form falling to 21st place in the BWF World rankings.

The 30-year-old will be a part of the Indian badminton team in the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

Kidambi wants to make full use of the opportunity at the Asian Games as he doesn't have great memories of his appearances at the event, and he wishes to convert them this year.

The shuttler couldn’t reach to semis or even quarterfinals in his past attempts, he fell out of the games in R16 and R32 in the 2014 and 2018 Asian Games editions.

"So for me, it is quite simple because I have won a medal in every other big event except for the Asian Games and Olympics, both of which happen once in four years, so this is an opportunity for me to go and make full use of it this time," Kidambi told PTI in an interview.

The shuttler has won almost every big tournament such as the World Championships and Commonwealth Games but he never got a chance to convert his performance into a medal in Asian Games and the Olympics.

Being asked about the pressure associated with high-stature events he stated that he doesn’t consider it as pressure but as an opportunity in which he wants to do his best.

He mentioned that the preparation of events such as the Commonwealth, Olympics, and Asian Games is a little different as they come once in four years and they aren’t like 10-15 super series events that happen every year.

Srikanth has been facing an inconsistency issue since after the whopping Thomas Cup win, he only managed to get four quarterfinal entries out of a total of 15 events.

With the 2024 Paris Olympics in sight, Kidambi Srikanth has hired an Indonesian coach to help him ramp up his game in the run-up to next year's showpiece.

Kidambi withdrew from Hong Kong Open 2023 earlier this week and will be seen in action in the men's team event and individual men's singles in Hangzhou, China.