It's barely a day since Kidambi Srikanth's title win at the Denmark Open. Yet he's already traveled 760-plus miles, clocked in a couple of hours of practice and is ready for the next tournament, the French Open in Paris, starting Tuesday. On Sunday, he became the first Indian man to win three Superseries titles in a calendar year, equaling Saina Nehwal's record. He's also the first Indian to reach four Superseries finals in a year.
In the melee, history didn't quite occur to him "Really?", Srikanth asks, his voice reaching us a tad delayed with a hint of an echo over a Whatsapp call, "I had no idea. It feels great. We've had no time at all to celebrate though."
The largely one-sided final, in which opponent Lee Hyun Il seemed pitiably absent, even took the Indian by surprise. The 37 year-old Korean, who beat world no. 2 Won Han Son in the semi-finals, played more like a qualifier in the 25-minute match against Srikanth. "I wasn't expecting it to be so easy. During the break after the first game, I was thinking to myself that Lee might come back in the second. Thankfully, it didn't happen."
Srikanth, who's already won the Indonesia and Australian Superseries this year, became the first Indian male player after Prakash Padukone to win the Denmark Open title in three decades.
With both Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy losing their respective quarterfinal matches, Srikanth kept the flicker of hope alive against marauding world champion and crowd-favourite Viktor Axelsen.
He also had an interesting factoid in his favor: Whenever a match between the two has gone to three games, the Indian has always won. Confessing that he was unaware of the stat, Srikanth says, "That again is something I didn't know until now," going on to add that at no point in the first two games against the Dane did he feel that a win was beyond him. By the third, Axelsen seemed jaded, impassive and had fallen behind 4-9, which then widened to a massive gap at 4-17. "I was just telling myself to keep the shuttle in and avoid errors. It worked."
What has also added greater heft to Srikanth's already lethal game is his much-improved defence. His retrievals, controlled net play and smooth switch from defence to attack saw him through crunch situations in the tournament. The only time coach Pullela Gopichand's forehead had a hint of a crease during a Srikanth match in the last week, was when he was playing Axelsen. Once he got that match out of the way, the title was his to lose.
Srikanth has four more Superseries events remaining this year and he agrees that achieving consistency is tough when he's playing back-to-back events. It's probably what has prompted him to make up his mind about streamlining the number of tournaments he plays from next year instead of chasing rankings and putting his body through the rigours of incessant travel. "It's not easy to cope with constant travel and tournaments every week. So it's time I pick and choose events, so I don't end up playing everything through the year."
Even before he's been able to revel in his win or reward himself a good night's rest, another week and another tournament have already presented itself. He isn't thinking about a title next weekend just yet. For now, it's just sleep and the first-round match. In that exact order.