Difficult to keep Lee & Lin Dan down for long, they know how to get back: Kidambi Srikanth
LEE CHONG WEI of Malaysia and China's Lin Dan are known as the power houses of badminton in the men's singles category and will be the dominant figures at the upcoming Rio Games and India's Olympic hopeful Kidambi Srikanth is aware of that.
Both of them have three Olympic titles under their belts. Talking about them being strong competitors to PTI, Sirkanth said,
"Lee Chong Wei has been there as the World No 1 for so many years. He has been consistent. He knows how to get back. Praneeth played well and defeated Lee Chong Wei but you can't really keep them down. Even Lin Dan lost in a few events but he came back to win the All England."
"Olympics is such a nervous event since it comes every years, you know if you miss once then you don't know if you will be there after four year.
"Badminton is a sport where you can get injured frequently and you can't play all events. They are someone who have played three Olympics and their experience teaches them how to manage things and make a comeback. So anything can happen at the Olympics," he explained.
Srikanth has qualified for the Olympics but the Indian medal-prospect shuttler said that it won't be an easy outing for him,.
"Points does matter and raking up ranking points does cross my mind. If you notice, there are many players who are playing so many tournaments after the 2012 Olympics. Not often you find so many players who are playing five tournaments in a month but there is competition and no one wants to give away an inch because everybody has given their best to come here and worked really hard," he said.
"We want to definitely try and look to play consistently. That's how you get into Olympics. I will be playing Malaysia and Singapore but I am not sure about China Open. Because I have to play at the ABC being a team event and its ranking will also count for Olympics.
When asked how he deals with a loss, the shuttler said:
"There is nothing much that happens after we lose. We just analyse the match with the one that we won and compare them and get ready for the next match. Everybody keeps improving. When I play someone again after I have played him this week, he will also upgrade his game, he will have some better ideas. So it is different every time and we have to be prepared."
Srikanth will now take part in the India Super Series that is already underway today in New Delhi with the qualifiers. The World No. 10 will take on Tian Houwei in the first round.
