Srikanth Kidambi is an Indian badminton player, who currently attends the Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad. In 2021, Kidambi emerged as the first-ever Indian to win a silver medal and enter the World Championships final in the men's singles.
In April 2018, he was ranked as world number 1 at the BWF ranking. In the same year, Kidambi was conferred with the Arjuna award in 2015 and the Padma Shri award, India's fourth-highest civilian honour.
Early life
Srikanth Kidambi was born on February 7, 1993, in Andhra Pradesh in an agricultural Telgu family where his mother Radha is a housewife and his father KVS Krishna is a landlord. Kidambi's elder brother K Nandagopal is also a badminton player.
Srikanth started playing badminton along with his brother in 2000 when they joined the Pullela Gopichand Academy where Srikanth began to play singles after participating in the junior’s categories of singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
In 2001, the ace Indian shuttler moved to Visakhapatnam to train at the Sports Academy of Andhra Pradesh.
Career
2011
At the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games, Kidambi bagged a silver medal in the mixed doubles category and a bronze medal in the doubles. He also won in the singles and doubles category at the All India Junior International Badminton Championship in Pune.
2012
Srikanth Kidambi defeated the Junior World Champion Zulfadli Zulkiffli of Malaysia in the Maldives International Challenge in 2012 to claim the men's singles title.
2013
Kidambi overcame then world number eight and local favourite Boonsak Ponsana in straight sets at the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold event in 2013 and won the men's singles title. In the same year, Kidambi claimed his first senior national title after defeating the Olympian Parupalli Kashyap at the All India Senior National Championships in Delhi.
2014
Kidambi was a runner up at the 2014 India Open Grand Prix Gold event in Lucknow and a quarter-finalist at the 2014 Malaysian Open. He was also a part of the Indian badminton contingent that reached the semi-finals of the Mixed-team event at the Commonwealth Games 2014 in Glasgow. Kidambi reached the quarter-finals of the men's singles event in the same tournament.
2015
Kidambi was the first Indian man to clinch a gold at the 2015 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold by defeating Viktor Axelsen. In the same year, he also won the India Open Super Series title by winning against Viktor Axelsen in the finals.
2016
Kidambi won the Syed Modi International Badminton Championships Grand Prix Gold title. He won two gold medals at the 2016 South Asian Games defeating Prannoy Kumar in the singles final.
2017
Kidambi had set a benchmark after entering three consecutive Super Series Finals in 2017. He won the both Indonesia Super Series, French Super Series and Australian Super Series. Kidambi and Sai Praneeth became the first-ever Indian pair to enter the finals of a ranking event in Badminton.
2018
Kidambi bagged gold in the mixed team event at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast and a silver in the singles event. He also achieved the world number 1 ranking for a week during that period.
2019
Kidambi represented India at the South Asian Games in Nepal and won gold medal in the team event.
2021
Kidambi won a silver medal at the 2021 BWF World Championships becoming the first-ever Indian men's singles badminton player to reach the finals. He defeated Lakshya Sen in the semi-finals but lost to Singapore's Loh Kean Yew in the finals.
