Kidambi Srikanth ‘Visa Tale’: Former World No.1 Kidambi Srikanth on Sunday became the first Indian male badminton player to win a silver medal at BWF World Championship. The fairy tale would never have happened if he had given up his hope of going to Huelva, Spain amid visa delay. After finishing the Indonesia Open, Srikanth was scheduled for World Championship but he didn’t get his visa on time. When everything looked disillusioned, the documents arrived at the last minute only to help him bag a silver.
“I almost lost hope. It was a big relief when I got the visa on Thursday evening (Dec 16) as late at 5 or 6 pm. I am just happy to come here and play another tournament this year. I played really well throughout the week. It could have been good had I won today,” Srikanth said after clinching the silver.
Kidambi Srikanth settles for SILVER, Loh Kean Yew wins GOLD with 21-15, 22-20 victory over Indian
BWF World Championship: Kidambi Srikanth’s fairytale, how a last-minute visa resulted in World’s silver
Kidambi Srikanth ‘Visa Tale’: Taking about the final, Srikanth said: “It’s been a great week, even today I had my chances in both the sets. I had a healthy lead in the first set and even in the second set, I led 18-16 at one stage. I think I was not able to finish of the match today. Loh played really well. There are a lot of things to learn from today. I will definitely work on them and get better for the next tournaments,” he added.
“Going into the match again, I really wanted to be very positive and not make any mistakes. But this really happens, you know, ‘One has to win and one has to lose’. I tried to stay in the match. It really worked in the second set, but I was not able to finish it off.”
Srikanth lavished praise for his on his opponent and said, “The last time I played him was four years back. Four years is a very long time. He matured as a player and his game improved a lot. He is playing exceptionally well in the last few months.”
He promised to work hard and expressed happiness for his performances this year. “Overall, I am happy. I won a few and lost few. Reaching the final of a big event, I am quite happy as I worked very hard for this. Next year is very important as we will be playing Commonwealth Games and many big tournaments are on the calendar. We also have the Asian Games. I want to prepare well for all these events.
“I definitely would like to thank everyone back home. I got so many good wishes from so many people. I would like to thank all of them,” he concluded.
BWF World Championship: Kidambi Srikanth’s fairytale, how a last-minute visa resulted in World’s silver
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