Kidambi Srikanth needs to build on the historic World Championships silver, feels Aparna Popat
The Olympian analysed India's top male shuttler's performance at the World Championships final.
India's top male shuttler Kidambi Srikanth claimed a historic World Championships silver on Sunday after going down 15-21, 20-22 to Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in 43 minutes. In the process, he became the first Indian male shuttler to win a silver at the marquee event, bettering the record of legend Prakash Padukone (bronze, 1983) and compatriot B Sai Praneeth (bronze, 2019).
The achievement also turned out to be significant for the Guntur-shuttler as it is his first title since incurring a knee injury at the French Open final in 2017. He incidentally won four titles -- China Open, Indonesia Open, Denmark Open, French Open -- in 2017.
Olympian Aparna Popat feels that the hard work put in by the 28-year-old has paid off but he needs to continue building-up on the momentum with a crucial year ahead in 2022.
"It's okay to have one win in one tournament but he will have to keep working on it and build. All the players peak at a certain time," Popat told Olympics.com.
"A win is a win for him. And it will certainly gain motivation. It has been such a tough time for all the athletes (due to the Covid-19 phase). They have really worked hard and these tough times have got something to show for it. I think it will be great going forward but he will need to build up a bit on his fitness," she added.
One aspect about Srikanth's game play in the summit clash was that he failed to return multiple smashes of his Singaporean counter-part. Popat highlighted that the former World No.1 lacked power which resulted in unforced errors.
"He lacked a little bit of power. I'm not sure if he was tired because yesterday's match was also very difficult. But I think overall was missing out on power," Popat said.
"The semi-final match could have played a part in his recovery. But he still had a very good chance," she added.
The Commonwealth Games (CWG) silver medallist, meanwhile, pointed out that in marquee events it is the preparation that plays a major role in the success of a player.
"There are a lot of mental aspects to the whole thing. It again comes to the form one carries to the tournament and if you can deliver or not. Leave aside your draws, the form of the opponent. All that will come and go but I think training and preparation is the primary thing," Popat concluded.