Former world number one player and Olympian Kidambi Srikanth is of course one of India’s best badminton players. Along with reaching the number 1 position in the world rankings, he has become the first Indian person to win a silver medal in the World Championship. He is also the only Indian player to win the men’s title at the men’s singles final of the 2021 badminton World Championship and win the men’s title at the Super Series Premier event in the BWF Tour. Kidambi was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian award in 2018 and was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2015.
Srikanth’s early life and background
Srikanth Namalwar Kidambi was born on 7 February 1993 in a Telugu family in Ravulapalem, Andhra Pradesh. His father KVS Krishna is a landlord and his mother Radha is a housewife. Kidambi Srikanth’s elder brother K.K. Nandagopal is also a badminton player and is a junior national champion with his brother. He lived in the same house till 2008 and then Srikanth went to Gopichand Academy to continue his practice. Inspired by his elder brother, he started playing badminton in Guntur in 2001. The following year, he and his brother moved to the Sports Academy in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh for two years of training. Where the coach encouraged him to play singles instead of doubles.
Kidambi Srikanth’s initial journey
He got the first major achievement in 2011 when he won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games, after which he won 2 gold medals at the All India Junior International Badminton Championships. His success continued in 2016 with Syed Modi International Badminton Championship Grand Prix Gold title as well as two golds in the men’s team and the men’s singles win in the 2016 South Asian Games. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Kidambi Srikanth performed brilliantly and played a great match with veteran Lynn Dan.
Many big titles won
The following year Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth created and created history by becoming the first Indian pair to enter the final of a ranking event in badminton. Even though he lost the final, Kidambi Srikanth started writing history books in 2017 after winning the Indonesia Super Series and Australian Super Series and became the first Indian badminton player to come to the three consecutive super series finals. She also won the Denmark Super Series and French Super Series that year. Kidambi made many records that year.
History created by becoming world number 1
His spectacular performance also continued at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, where he reached the number one place after capturing the gold in the mixed team event and a silver medal in the single event. But from there, Kidambi’s form continued to fall. Obstruction of an entire series due to frequent injuries, the Indian player struggled a lot to return to the game, due to these reasons he missed the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. However, Kidambi returned to the end of 2021 with excellent results.
Kidambi Srikanth, with a spectacular form, ended the year with a historic men’s singles silver at the 2021 BWF World Championships and returned to the top 10 of the world rankings. Kidambi then led a young Indian team to win his first Thomas Cup win in May 2022. He won a bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games 2022 solo competition held in August. Whereas, he won the silver medal in the mixed team event.
