Watching him play and win the Australian Open, no one would have guessed that Kidambi Srikanth had been struggling with diarrhoea since he’d landed in Sydney.
The Indian shuttler clinched his fourth Super Series title with an incredible straight-game triumph over reigning Olympic and world champion Chen Long in the Australian Open final on Sunday.
The world no.11 Srikanth won 22-20 21-16 in a 45-minute clash against the world no.6 Chinese.
As a whole I played very well, but since I arrived in Sydney I have gastroenteritis and have had diarrhoea, so I have not been at my best physical condition. But since I made the final I wanted to continue to play as well as I could.Kidambi Srikanth
The victory is his second successive after clinching the Indonesia Open Super Series Premier title last week.
It’s just that I’m not thinking of winning or losing. I missed competitive badminton and wanted to enjoy the match. It’s like it happened because I missed that period of competitive badminton. It’s like I wanted to hang in and play as many matches as possible.
Entering the summit showdown, Srikanth was only the fifth player in the world to contest three successive Super Series finals (Singapore and Indonesia prior to this).
These conditions are such that you can’t really attack, it’s a bit slow, you have to be prepared for a long match. In all the breaks I had the advantage, the coach told me to keep it going, not to make simple mistakes and allow him back into the match. My attack worked really well.
He added:
I’m playing better after the Sudirman Cup. I should thank my physio for keeping me fit for these two tournaments. It was tough for me on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The triumph was a morale-boosting jinx-breaker for Srikanth, who had lost all his previous five encounters to Long.
I’m just happy to be doing well for now.Kidambi Srikanth
(With inputs from PTI.)
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