The Dragon Slayer

How a little-known shuttler from India defeated the greatest badminton player of all time

Saina Nehwal is perhaps India’s greatest badminton success story. She attained a career best ranking of No 2 just a few years into her appearance in the international circuit, became India’s first Olympic medal winner in badminton, and before entering the China Open earlier this month, had the Super Series titles under her belt. Yet, in the last few years there have been murmurs about the decline of her skills. Apart from the Australian Open this year, which she won, she has not entered the finals of a Super Series tournament since 2012. When she won the China Open last week, an explosion of euphoria around her was expected. But that didn’t happen.

The return of Nehwal was completely overshadowed that day. Something even more remarkable had occurred. A relatively little-known player from Andhra Pradesh, Srikanth Nammalwar Kidambi, had defeated someone who is widely considered the greatest singles badminton player of all time—Lin Dan. The final between Kidambi and Dan, or Super Dan as he is sometimes known, seemed to have been a foregone conclusion. Dan, who hails from Fujian in China, is a 31-year-old pro. He is a two-time Olympic champion, a five-time world champion, and a five-time All England champion. Before the start of the match, Dan had won 495 of his 559 overall matches. This year alone, Dan had won 28 of his 29 matches, the solitary loss occurring due to an injury. In comparison, Kidambi, only 21 years of age, had won 67 of his 104 total matches. His record this year wasn’t particularly stellar. He has won only 16 of his 31 matches. In the last two encounters between the two, Dan had convincingly defeated Kidambi, first at the 2012 Thailand Open, where Dan trounced him 21-11, 21-13, and later in the Badminton Asia Championships this year, where the victory margin was even more stark—21-7, 21-14. Even though Dan was recovering from an ankle injury, the China Open final was expected to be a cakewalk.

Instead, Kidambi completely stunned his opponent and the home crowd. In a carefully strategised game, where Kidambi did not allow his Chinese opponent to settle down or control the pace of the match, he took the game 21-19, 21-17. Pullela Gopichand, Kidambi’s coach, later told The Indian Express, “Anything predictable would not have worked against Lin Dan. Srikanth played a lot of tosses, pushing Lin Dan to the back of the court, and he also had some crisp net shots, which ensured that he didn’t allow Lin Dan to settle into any sort of rhythm… Anyone with a set game has no chance against Lin Dan. But Srikanth mixed it beautifully.”

Kidambi currently holds the world ranking of 13, up from the ranking of 240 which he held two years ago. He first arrived at the Gopichand Academy in 2008-09, after his brother, Nandagopal, who was then a trainee at the academy, got Srikanth enrolled there since he was apparently not doing anything worthwhile with his time. Kidambi was first noticed in 2013, when he upstaged the then national champion, Parupalli Kashyap, in the All India Senior National Championships at New Delhi. This year had so far proved a low point for the young shuttler. In the first week of July, he had to recuperate in a hospital ICU after he was found unconscious in a washroom. He was diagnosed as having a bacterial infection in the brain. Gopichand had told The Times of India, “We were worried about his survival. He went through the most dangerous phase of his life. From then on, it was a big task for us to motivate him. He struggled in a few tournaments after that. But all along, he was confident and working very hard.” But now, four months later, his life seems to have turned around. From here, it can only get better.

About The Author

Lhendup G Bhutia

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