I only want to focus on my performance not the rankings: Srikanth Kidambi

Srikanth, who has been away from the China Open and the Hong Kong Open owing to the injury during Senior Nationals, is finally fit to step on the court with Dubai Superseries Finals.

The world no 4 is recently conferred with an honorary membership of the Cricket Club of India. He said, “I am feeling good. My body has recovered fully and I am looking forward to a great week. I started practicing about two weeks ago after sitting out with the injury for about 10 days.”

Srikanth prevailed the Indonesia Open, Denmark Open, Australian Open, and the French Open this year, and he is looking forward to conquer Superseries Finals, where top eight shuttlers around the world will be fighting for ascendancy. Former world no. 2 has good chance of grabbing the world no.1 spot with the season ending-finale. He said, “I am not thinking about the World No. 1 ranking. It's more important for me to win the Superseries Finals. I only want to focus on my performance and not the rankings.”

Talking about the rise of men shuttlers in the country, he said, “The field has become more open now. Many players won Super Series events this year, something that was not the case earlier. So, it's good to have such healthy competition. Earlier, it was the Asians who were doing well. Now you have players from Europe, too, who are excelling. Having said that, it's going to become much more challenging in the coming future.”

Srikanth feels that the calendar tournaments by BWF for 2018 is going to be hectic, yet he is guarded by his opinion. He said, “The tournaments have definitely increased, but, I don't really want to comment on it because it's a BWF decision and I don't want to get into any controversy.”

He added, “Apart from the Commonwealth Games and the Asiad, the number of tournaments have also increased, so I really want to keep myself fit for the big events. That's my priority and that's what I am thinking about. Being at 100% fitness is my main aim for next year. That's how I was able to perform this year. I want to take a break before the CWG and the Asian Games and train hard and be fit for them.”