I play to win, not for rankings: Kidambi Srikanth

Set to regain his place in the world top 10 after winning back-to-back titles, Kidambi Srikanth has now trained his eyes on the prestigious World Championship crown.

“It is good to be back in top 10. But, I did not play this tournament to be back in top 10. I played to win it,” Srikanth, who won the Indonesia Super Series Premier and the Australian Super Series titles, said. “Even the World Championship, I will definitely play to win. That’s the only thing I’m thinking about, not the ranking,” he added.

Srikanth, who bounced back from an ankle injury, expressed happiness over his success in the last few weeks.

“The last two weeks have been fantastic. Not only for me, but for H S Prannoy and Sai ( Praneeth) also. Prannoy has done really well beating Chong Wei and Chen Long in successive matches which never happened before. I congratulate Prannoy on doing it. But, it was an unfortunate semi-final loss.” Srikanth said he will need to keep working hard to be more consistent. “In the last couple of months, I am playing very well, up to my potential. I really want to continue training hard in the coming months. That is the only way to be consistent. You have to train hard,” he said.

Srikanth doesn’t want to compare his wins in the last two tournaments but said winning against Olympic champion Chen Long was one of the biggest victories for sure.